Secondary School Behaviour Management Tips

Throughout your time teaching, you are more than likely to experience some challenging behaviours, especially as a Casual Relief Teacher (CRT).
Here are a few of our top tips for secondary school CRTs to reduce disruptive and challenging behaviour in the classroom.

• Find out from the particular school you are teaching at what their expectations are within the classroom and what is the behavioural management policy in place. Familiarise yourself with the policy and make sure you make your students aware that you know this.
• Setting clear standards on what you expect from the class before the beginning of the lesson. For example, this might be lining up outside and walking in quietly, don’t be afraid to repeat actions if they haven’t managed to listen to clear instructions. Student’s do like structure so always remember this will work in your favour.
• Be firm, fair and consistent. Most of the time it’s easier to be strict and gauge what the class is like before allowing yourself to relax in the classroom.
• Learn as many names as possible. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes pronouncing students’ names, just try your best to get to know your students. A good way to assist with this is to allocate a student to help you mark the register.
• If you notice some students who are not fully engaging in the work that they have been set, try using the “sandwich method” and comment on two positives and one improvement they could make. i.e: “Jack I can see you have completed quite a few questions on your worksheet, however you seem to be getting distracted by Tom. Let’s keep up the good work and finish off the other side of the sheet.”
• Try your best to organise your classroom work or activities set for you with time schedules. For example, explain to the students that the first activity may only go for 10mins, they way they know what to expect. A brilliant way of displaying this might be to write it up on the whiteboard/smartboard.
• We are all aware that during supply you may only have the students for a short period of time, however, building positive relationships with them and taking the time to get to know them can make a huge difference whilst in the classroom. Who doesn’t want to be known as that teacher who is easy to communicate with!?
• Always try and follow through with any disciplinary action and be consistent. An easy way to keep up with this is to use sticky notes and write down any names of students who are late or misbehaving. Always remember that restorative practice may be a great way of handling this situation before having to take the issue further.