Teach to Inspire Better Behaviour

Teach to Inspire Better Behaviour will help to empower all school staff to deal more effectively with aggressive, disruptive or unpredictable behaviours across the primary and secondary age ranges. Scientific understanding and the experience of those working to help traumatised children are drawn together as the author considers:
• The classroom environment
• Positioning of staff
• Routines and changes
• Quiet times and relaxation
• Learning from mistakes
• Rewards and sanctions systems.

The author focuses on the causes and the impact of traumatic life events linked with different stages of neurological and psychological development (including separation, illness, bereavement, neglect, abuse and inadequate limit setting in early childhood) in addition to the cumulative effects of classroom disruption on the mental health of both peers and adults.

Case studies demonstrate how theory helps to:
• Piece together the jigsaw of clues provided by children’s responses and sometimes bizarre behaviours
• Provide structure and boundaries appropriate to emotional, as well as chronological, age
• Devise strategies to ‘fill in the gaps’ or re-learn behavioural responses
• Develop a whole school framework for nurturing resilience, self-esteem and
self-regulation.

Background reading and facilitator’s notes, together with a CD-Rom containing a PowerPoint file for staff training and printable handouts, provide a powerful framework for the development of a whole-school approach.