As a virtual school head and inclusion manager for a large local authority, I have daily discussions with headteachers, SENCOs and other senior leaders in schools about how they can support students who are struggling with behaviour or emotional wellbeing.
Some of the children we are discussing are in crisis – at risk of permanent exclusion and in many cases involved with social care, early help, youth offending, or other services.
Let me be clear: every day I see evidence of skilled, dedicated staff doing everything within their power to support their students and doing a cracking job.
But, despite this, some schools say that not all staff feel confident about identifying difficulties and knowing how to respond. Some students report that the way some school staff respond to their needs could make things worse. We know that sometimes (or often) children are excluded due to unidentified or unmet needs.
Challenging behaviour
First, what, exactly, do we mean by “challenging” or “difficult” behaviour?
According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists: “Challenging behaviour is socially constructed and is a product of an interaction between the individual and their environment.”
And according to the Wolverhampton Educational Psychology Service: “Behaviour is what we see when children and young people experience difficulties with their emotional wellbeing and social development. Behaviour that concerns us is not simply behaviour that is disruptive; it can include withdrawn behaviour, anxious behaviour, harmful behaviour and so on.”
The book Challenging Behaviour (Hewett, 1998) reassures us: “Challenging behaviour occurs – it is normal.”
And if all behaviour is communication, then Dr David Pitonyak (2004) captures this beautifully: “Difficult behaviours result from unmet needs. In a sense, difficult behaviours are messages which can tell us important things about the person and the quality of his or her life. In my experience, people with difficult behaviours are often missing:
- Meaningful relationships.
- A sense of safety and wellbeing.
- Power.
- Things to look forward to.
- A sense of value and self-worth.
- Relevant skills and knowledge.
- Supporters who are themselves supported.
He goes on to explain: “Supporting a person requires us to get to know the person as a complicated human being influenced by a complex personal history.
“Instead of developing a behaviour plan to ‘fix’ the person, help the person and the person’s supporters to develop a support plan that reflects a real and authentic life.”
Vulnerable Learners Supplement 2024: This article first appeared in SecEd's annual vulnerable learners supplement, which published in March and offers 20 pages of expert advice, insights, and case studies aimed at helping secondary schools to support their most vulnerable young people. Themes this year include persistent absence, poverty, SEND, behaviour, and exclusion. Find a free download via www.sec-ed.co.uk/content/downloads/supplement-ideas-to-support-your-vulnerable-learners
Understanding students
In a holistic, strengths-based approach, Dr Pitonyak’s model encourages us to look for ways to expand their relationships, to increase their health and wellbeing, to develop their sense of self-worth and to build their skills and knowledge, rather than simply wondering “how can I stop this behaviour from happening?” or “how can I make this child engage?”.
All good, positive stuff. But how can we better understand the particular difficulties that a student is facing? How do we decode what they are trying to tell us when they tell us to “fuck off”, or storm out of the classroom, or simply don’t turn up in the first place?
Disengagement can be due to a number of factors – from communication difficulties to sensory overload (or underload), frustration, boredom, waiting, social confusion, previous traumatic experience, difficulties with change or transition, provocation by others, or fear of failure.
Some of those stressors are ever-present – something that’s going on in their home life, for example, or a social or cultural factor. This can also include those deep-seated issues such as attachment or trauma-related difficulties.
Others, however, are situational or environmental – they are to do with the context or environment that the student finds themselves in and what’s going on around them at the time. These are often the more immediate trigger. They are also the things that we can more easily control as teachers. Behaviour usually arises from a complex blend of both types of factor, but I want to focus, in particular, on the situational elements.
ABC charts
Behaviour occurs in a particular context, not in isolation. We cannot hope to improve children’s wellbeing and engagement without thinking about the environment and conditions around them.
ABC charts are a useful way of approaching this, especially when looking at specific incidents of particularly challenging behaviour. They look at, first, the antecedents (the A) to a particular episode or example, then the behaviour or event itself (the B), and finally the consequences (the C) of that behaviour.
They encourage us to list problem behaviours and to look very closely at what went on before and after the event. It is important to be clear, specific and non-judgemental. Ask, not just what happened, but also when, where, how, and with whom or what. What should the student have been doing instead of that? What was their physical, emotional or sensory state? Were there any evident causes or triggers? Is this a repeat of previous behaviour? If so, when/how often?
Then, what happened afterward? What helped to de-escalate the situation? How did the student recover? Were there points at which there was an increased danger of the behaviour recurring? If the student is sent home afterward, or to a different room or setting, what then?
The answers may help us on our way to the crucial questions – why did this happen and what might prevent it from happening again?
The table below offers a template for an ABC chart. The approach encourages discussion – discuss with colleagues, compare notes, and agree responses collaboratively, based on a shared and growing understanding of that child or young person.
As easy as... A template for an ABC chart, which is designed to encourage discussion and agree responses to behaviour
It should also help to identify some important “do’s” and “don’ts”. ABC charts are a tool to help us understand a student, and from that understanding, it should become much easier to formulate effective strategies and interventions to support them.
Crucially, however, the ABC can also help us to better know ourselves – to scrutinise our own knowledge, assumptions, practice, procedures and teaching environment. This is where we might use the ABC as a starting point and begin looking more widely at what’s going on in school.
Environmental factors
Let’s go back to those situational or environmental factors. In terms of the school context, the environment includes the physical surroundings (social environment, e.g. interactions with peers and adults) and instructional environment (teaching structure and delivery).
As stated, as educators, this multi-faceted environment is what we have the most control over.
Wolverhampton Educational Psychology Service (with which I work very closely) has developed a Behaviour and Wellbeing Environmental Checklist. This checklist focuses on several features of the school and environment which can significantly affect student behaviour and wellbeing, including:
- Classroom environment.
- Managing teaching and learning.
- Promoting wellbeing in class.
- Routines, expectations and consequences.
- Around school.
- Support for students.
- Whole-school systems and policies.
- Support for staff.
- Communication and joint working.
When the checklist is completed it should highlight those environmental factors which may need to be improved for the student or group in question. The professional completing the audit should then develop an action plan which responds to those key areas.
The more detailed, holistic and honest your assessment of the situation, the more it should help you to take the right steps. We would call this an Environment Action Plan, and it should be implemented and reviewed after about one month.
The plan should break-down each of the areas above into several individual factors. For example, under classroom environment, Wolverhampton EPS’s model looks at whether the classroom looks and feels like a good work environment; furniture and equipment; heat, ventilation and light; seating arrangements; noise levels; space and ease of movement.
Sounds basic, but if a child has experienced early abuse or other trauma, their physical position in relation to other people, for example, and to entrances and exits, can be fundamental. Loud noise can also be extremely difficult to handle for some children with additional needs, including those who have experienced trauma.
These factors can throw some children into “hyper-vigilance”, a state when the brain is on high alert and focused purely on survival. On a more universal level, tests have shown that in some classrooms where ventilation is poor, the room can become too high in carbon dioxide which hampers the brain’s ability to function and learn effectively.
Under promoting wellbeing, the assessment includes the following statements, among others:
- “I help teach students to understand their own emotions. I help students to communicate their feelings and seek help.”
- “Students are taught/supported with self-management skills.”
- “Staff can recognise signs of their own emotional need and are aware of how their emotions may affect their behaviours towards their students.”
And under routines, expectations and consequences:
- “I have established a clear routine for students entering and exiting the room.”
- “I have established effective clear routines for gaining quiet/silence, distributing and collecting materials, changing activities, clearing up.”
- “Classroom expectations are discussed with and understood by the students.”
- “Classroom expectations are positively framed, referred to and reinforced.
- “I explicitly teach the expectations and routines of positive behaviour.”
- “Rewards are small and readily achievable.”
If, after assessing all of these factors and implementing plans to address any issues or improvements that may be needed (and some might be very small, but important, adjustments), you continue to have concerns about a student, the next stage involves identifying individual targets and more targeted support.
This might include modified timetables, additional tuition, pastoral support and/or therapeutic intervention, alternative provision or a consultation by an educational psychologist or specialist teacher.
For more vulnerable students who are involved with social care or youth offending, there will be additional opportunities as well as requirements, and any strategies should be planned in a collaborative way between schools, social care/youth offending team, carers or parents where appropriate, and any other key partners.
It all starts, however, with deepening our understanding – of the student, of ourselves as educators, and of the environment in which we teach.
Darren Martindale is virtual school head at City of Wolverhampton Council. Find his previous contributions to SecEd via www.sec-ed.co.uk/authors/darren-martindale
Further information & resources
- Pitonyak: All behavior is meaning-full: Supporting a person with difficult behaviors/supporting the people who care, Imagine, 2004: http://tinyurl.com/5pr4xahy