Hi again from Liz at Behaviour Bible,

More headlines about younger and younger children’s bad behaviour causing major problems in school… What horrific reading it all makes…  Less than the age of 6 and kids being violent and disruptive and being kicked out of school.

So is the ‘kicking kids out of school’ tactic going to work?  NO, NO and NO again.  Not a snowball’s chance in h*ll!!

Why won’t it work?

Well, just think about it for a while…  Think about what is actually happening when a child is excluded from school…

Firstly, from the school’s view point…

The school is getting rid of the problem for a few days.  And that’s about all.  Ok, they’re probably building up a dossier of ‘evidence’ against the child in order to get money from their money holders so they can manage the kid’s behaviour.   Then the child returns to school and nothing has changed.  So off if all goes again…

Secondly, the child’s view point…

What does a child think about being kicked out of school?  Not a lot really.  Very few young children understand what’s going on and what it means.  Why should they?  They just see that they’re not at school and probably thinking, ‘Yippeee’…   The cleverer variety of child will associate being badly behaved with not having to go to school and guess what their future plans will be?  You’ve got it…  Don’t want to be at school?  Easy, just be violent and disruptive and you’ll either get loads of attention from adults or even better, you’ll get sent home… Great result!

So, if kicking kids out of school isn’t going to work then what will work?

The bottom line is that if you want behaviour to change then the adults have to change their behaviour.  If a child is excluded and the adults’ behaviour doesn’t change when the child returns to school then the same cycles of behaviour will recur.  That’s guaranteed.

The answer is that there have to be consequences for bad behaviour.  Schools will argue that kicking kids out of school is a consequence…   Well, it would be if it worked.  But the thing to understand is that any consequence has to have an impact on the wrong doer.  Their life has to be made uncomfortable and make them think that they don’t want to suffer the consequence again…  Don’t know what you need to know about fair discipline and managing behaviour?  Find out more…

‘We don’t have time for all that’, I can hear people shouting.  Sorry folks but you have to make time.   Managing kids’ behaviour in and out of school is the best investment of time you can make.  It makes everyone’s life easier and more pleasant… Everyone wins.

If you’re not sure what, when and how to implement consequences then you need a copy of Behaviour Bible.  You’ll have all the tricks and tactics that I use every day to manage kids’ behaviour.  I have very few behaviour problems to deal with and my classes are full of kids whose behaviour is considered impossible to manage…  Click the link above and you’ll be on your way.

Cheers and thanks for reading. Liz Marsden @ Behaviourbible.com

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