So…you have drafted or revised your behaviour guidance? You are confident that it now links explicitly to your vision and values. Clear rewards and sanctions are in place. You have consulted with all stakeholders to ensure high levels of ‘buy in’. Governors or trustees approve, and it is launched to fanfare and applause. You sit back, confident of early impact and reassured that the behaviour guidance represents an effective response to the uptick in SEMH needs, post-pandemic.

Before you publish your policy, why not pause for a second or two and reflect on the purpose of this document. It will doubtless contain sections on expectations. You may have broken this down further to set expectations for general conduct as well as behaviour for learning. Although the purpose of any policy is to provide an essential framework for colleagues to work within, to ensure consistency and fidelity to an approach, I ask that you now look more closely at the policy. This is why… All too often we expect children to behave because of the incentives or sanctions we put in place. As if chasing a carrot or avoiding a stick was enough to rectify underlying issues. However, it is common for our behaviour policy to seek to address the symptoms, rather than the underlying cause of the undesirable behaviours we witness. Our policies can sometimes assume that high standards of behaviour happen by osmosis. That high expectations, strong adult modelling of expectations will lead to improvements. Undoubtedly, these will contribute positively to pupils’ behaviour. However, does this go far enough?

Chris Pearce, Trust Director of the Institute of Education

To read the full article: Behave Yourself: The critical role of the curriculum