Year 8 Strategy

In the year 8 learning support group I am teaching there is one particular pupil that both their class teacher and I are having problems with. She is very young emotionally and develops attachments to certain members of staff (this was the case with her and a female member of staff last year).

In our lessons, this pupil's behavior has been mixed. She has been very good and engaging in the lessons well, wishing to contribute and get involved. However rather more recently her impact on lessons has been a lot more negative; claiming she does not have her homework when it is in her bag or book, ripping up replacement sheets given to her, arguing with other pupils and tossing her bag into the corner of the room in front of both of us teachers. In the lesson I taught on Monday she was taken out and spoken to by both myself and the class teacher. It significantly impacted the lesson and meant that the part of the lesson with the most lesson was only touched upon for a few minutes rather than fully explored. This is something both the class teacher and I are looking to address as soon as possible.

It has been decided that as soon as she does anything that draws attention to herself in a negative way she will be sent from the room to work from a text book for the rest of the lesson. There won't be any kind of argument or discussion about it, if she disappears from where she is working the on call member of senior leadership  team will be called. Each time she is sent out she will continue with to work from the same text book from where she left off on the previous occasion she was sent out. There are 15 other members of the class whose learning is being affected by her behavior and this has to stop.
The other side of the coin is that we praise her positive behavior and actions; for her to learn that she has to earn the attention she wants from positive and good aspects of lessons.

After checking with her head of year and form tutor; I told this pupil about the new plan in the morning the day before our next lesson. I did this so that it would have enough time to to sink in and for her to understand it rather than only minutes before the lesson. Especially as our next lesson was their speaking and listening assessment and we not only needed a lack of disruption but wanted her to be in the lesson as well.

The first lesson we had the strategy in place it worked as a deterrent and did not have to be used. However it is essential that we have the text book etc ready just in case for future lessons.