behaviour management - Doubled Up

Today was the last day of term and the long-awaited nativity play. In the stable, along with Milly's frog, were a cat, a lizard and a rabbit. Not very traditional, but very sweet and the children all sang and spoke with great confidence. It never ceases to amaze me how much primary school teachers can get out of children who are so young. I am sure that the whole event did wonders for the self-esteem of the children taking part.

However, there was one incident that rather upset me. I may be hypersensitive about adults' use of language when they talk to children, but I do think that our choice of words can have a long-lasting effect on children. Anyway, being a total keeny, I had arrived early and managed to get pole-position at the front of the church. The children filed in and sat in the two reserved rows in front of me. Then a teaching assistant came and sat next to a boy who, as far as I was aware, was behaving as well as all the other children. I heard her (in a rather threatening tone) say; "Now, George, you make sure you sit still and behave. I will not have you spoiling this for Mum and Dad, do you hear me?"

As I say, I was sitting directly behind him and hadn't noticed him doing anything untoward. How hard would it have been for her to say something like; "Heh, George, you're sitting really nicely right now. Mum and Dad will be so proud of you when you carry on behaving so beautifully."

I suspect that this would have had the effect she desired, with the additional bonus of making George feel positive, enjoy the experience of performing and more likely to behave well in the future.

I was flicking through this week's Guardian education section and my eye was caught by an advert for 'Sing Up'. It couldn't be missed really, as the advert covered four full pages of the paper. Sing up, it appears, is a programme that has been devised to put singing into the heart of every primary school. The reason for this is that singing, they say, improves confidence levels and can be used to improve literacy, numeracy  and motor skills. 

I have to say, I used singing a lot in my secondary school language lessons – if nothing else, it created a fun environment and a great deal of laughter when the kids realised just how untuneful I am! Better than that though, I found singing to be a great way to get them to actually remember new language. It is certainly true that our brains remember more if there is a tune put to words (think of all the song lyrics you can remember from your youth, or even the number of nursery rhymes you can remember from your childhood).

The advert was enough incentive for me to look at the website,  www.singup.org, where I was told that singing can also improve behaviour, health, listening skills and can reduce agression and foster a sence of community. But of even more interest, perhaps, were the resources available.

There is a songbank with great sample songs and also a selection of complete lesson plans that involve singing, including one which encourages Year 6 children to compose their own songs (this section is separated into year groups).

One song that looked particularly amusing and fun was 'Boom, chicka boom'

You can also get information on events in your local area, how to get a singing leader, how to sign up for a free termly magazine for your primary school and how to apply for funding for your music projects. There is even a section for parents and carers. Brilliant.

Hey! Guess what! My confiscation idea has already been done. There's me thinking I'm clever and it turns out that I don't have an original bone in my body. Apparently, a head teacher in Lewisham got in there about five years ago and began confiscating televisions and computers from grumpy, tired pupils - with, of course, parental permission. His name is Duncan Harper of New Woodlands School, a school for children with special needs including behavioural and emotional problems. He felt it was very successful and that children's behaviour improved both at home and at school.

And it seems that he didn't end up with school cupboards full of pupils' gadgets. Apparently, the loss in street cred linked to having your head teacher come around to your house and take away your belongings, was sufficient threat to make the pupils turn off their Ipods at an earlier hour. Fantastic!