How Do Adults Shape Student Behaviour Through SMSC in Schools?

‘I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.’ (Ginott 1972)

Our question this month and the quote by Hiam Ginott in his book ‘Teacher and Child” encompass every element of the daily life of children and young people in our schools and the attitudes and relationships needed by all the adults within them. The key element played by the behaviour of every adult in school, in the ethos and environment within it, is at the heart the question and the key to securing the necessary foundations for a wider curriculum with secure relationships in classrooms, corridors and playgrounds.

“Schools deliberately promote their core values – generally expressed as tolerance, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, sharing, cooperation, and commitment. They try, not always successfully, to put these values into practice in daily routines.” (Spiritual, Moral, Social, & Cultural Education: Exploring Values in the Curriculum, Bigger and Brown 1999). This excellent book supports adults in developing SMSC in all subjects of the National Curriculum. It allows us to see opportunities and suggests how each subject can also support and can contribute to the SMSC curriculum.

This year the DfE published ‘Behaviour in Schools.’ It highlights the need for a ‘whole school approach’ and a ‘behaviour curriculum that defines the expected behaviours in school, rather than only a list of prohibited behaviours’ which is ‘centred on what successful behaviour looks like and defines it clearly for all parties.’ The importance of adult behaviours and how these demonstrate agreed school policies and the values within them is a key element of the advice as is the role of leadership and staff training. There is no doubt that schools can use this document to develop their policies and practices and relate them to our question of the month, as two extracts below describe: –

• The school leadership team should be highly visible, with leaders routinely engaging with pupils, parents and staff on setting and maintaining the behaviour culture and an environment where everyone feels safe and supported.
• School leaders should make sure that all new staff are inducted clearly into the school’s behaviour culture to ensure they understand its rules and routines and how best to support all pupils to participate in creating the culture of the school.

I would wish those leaders and all adults reading this current advice from the DfE to also seek support for their staff training alongside the book by Paul Dix, “When the Adults Change, Everything Changes: Seismic shifts in school behaviour” (2017), in which Paul identifies the common issues around the behaviour of children and young people, both currently and historically, throughout their education. I am certain that the adults teaching every age group and ability will understand and empathise with his descriptions of the different behaviour environments to be found both within and across our schools. He offers all of us tried and tested strategies that relate to our own experiences and current situations and I can thoroughly recommend this book to all leaders and adults in school.

SMSC modelled by adults during lessons and throughout our environment are the core of Paul’s book and our question. The relationships that adults build with each other and their pupils are the essential elements that will ensure we create a context for a curriculum in which children and young people can thrive. Dylan Wiliam (Inside the Black Box) is surely right when he reminds teachers in workshops ‘that their individual effectiveness is the most significant influence on pupil success and that this can explain why variations in quality and outcome within a school are greater than those between schools.’

As a pupil three teachers I remember most are Mr Clifton at primary school, who consistently inspired confidence in myself and others in our class and Mr Hitchen at secondary school, my form tutor and English teacher, who enjoyed our thoughts and ideas, understood the wider aspects of being an adult in school and for 5 years, consistently was always thoughtful and kind, including visiting our home during difficult times. Also among several others, is Mr Hunt, who quietly and gently inspired my lifetime of love of history, with a tremendous zeal for his subject and enthusiasm for the ideas and suggestions of his pupils. Mr Clifton once said to my parents that I had ‘thrust and drive.’ Needless to say this phrase resonated with them for many years, alongside being inspiration for me. Paul Dix says in his book that ‘small stuff stays with you for a long time’ when writing about his art teacher’s negative comments. The smallest things we do and say can have a tremendous effect on the children and young people in our care and we need more adults to realise the lifelong effect of their words and actions, both positive and negative. As Rita Pierson describes it, every child needs a Champion and I have mentioned just three of mine.

“If your default response to behaviour, that is beyond the normal range is empathetic, kind and keen to understand what is being communicated, you will never go far wrong. Your knowledge of the person is more important than your knowledge of the label.” (Paul Dix 2017)

As Rita Pierson in her renowned TED talk famously says:

‘kids don’t learn from people they don’t like.’

Both quotes describe the modelling of SMSC by adults as seen in the best classrooms and schools. This is clearly not easy and requires a whole approach, where behaviour polcies are regularly reviewed and consistently applied. Whole staff training days that establish agreed and uncomplicated policies, implemented by all leaders and staff, which are supported and understood by pupils and their parents. All these elements are essential to the delivery of a successful behaviour curriculum and are the essence of high quality academic, social and emotional development by children and young people. I would also wish leaders to ensure that vulnerable pupils and groups are taught by experienced and trained adults, who understand the school philosophy and practice.

I will conclude by the following description of a teacher from his autobiography ‘Surrender’ by Bono from U2

“During our time at Mount Temple, our religious education teacher, Miss Sophie Shirley had started some unusual prayer meetings. Because this was a Nondenominational school, nobody knew if she was a Protestant or Catholic but we all knew Sophie Shirley was a special soul and the room seemed to vibrate a little differently as she took us through the Scriptures. At the age of 15, I’d found her classes an unexpected comfort, the message and the messenger disappearing into each other. Every hair on your teenage head was counted.”