I teach a class which some of the most experienced teachers have told me is the most challenging class they have ever come across. During this first year of teaching, I have toyed with multiple ways of getting them to write the requisite minimum by the closing bell. It feels easier to experiment with slightly different personas, but hopefully not enough that they would notice: consistency is, as my PGCE mentors always stressed, key to building a trusting relationship with your pupils.

As is often the case – remember your own school years – the students in this year group don’t want to be in your stuffy classroom. They are in the year where the novelty of secondary school has worn thin, their GCSEs have not yet started, and their hormones are raging tsunami-style. Most of the disruptive students are disruptive because they need to find an outlet for their energy, and they have not yet developed the ability to delay gratification, which working with people brings.

I have come to the conclusion that the classroom does not have to be fought to be won: in fact, it does not have to be won at all, because your job contract says, in so much legalese, that it is yours. Your contract should also say that you have the duty to teach your students, so I’ve decided to do just that. If the class is behaving like the classroom is theirs, no sweat: it’s not theirs, it’s yours, and nothing they do will change that. If the class is not learning, no sweat: fulfill your contractual duty and teach them.

One of the resources I have found fundamental to achieving all of the above has been Teach Like a Champion, which, broadly speaking, teaches the importance of consistency and routine. The ‘TLAC’ brand covertly suggests that the whole school buy into a single system of behaviour management so that the children understand the consequences of all actions – good and bad – so they can expect the rightful rewards and sanctions for the achievements and misdemeanours.

Here are some strategies I have found work for this class:

1. Project Calm
   1. It’s hard for the class clowns to whip up a frenzy when the teacher is unruffled
2. Non-verbal gestures
   1. Use when you see someone off task, or doing well
3. Individual intervention
   1. Go and talk to loud disruptors individually, whilst setting the class off on an easily quantifiable task
4. Assume the best of disruptors
   1. Ask the disruptors whether you can help them complete the task in hand: never say ‘don’t do [x,y,z, etc.]’
5. Show them you’re looking
   1. Through vigilant body language, always let them know you’re watching
6. Égalité
   1. During task-times, apportion an equal amount of one-on-one attention to every child, and never go to the noisy child first
7. Praise them a lot
   1. Smile at them when they do something right: let them know you’re pleased with them
8. Realise they’re whole people
   1. Have a short chat about how their days/weeks/holidays were, and ensure you get to know them: you should be interested in them as individuals
9. Be courteous
   1. Thank every child at the end of the lesson and wish them a good day/evening
10. Outside the classroom
    1. Say ‘hello’ to them in the corridors: they’re not a project that you ignore when not in your domain

Also…experiment: as my ECT mentor emphasizes, the chemistry of the classroom is complex. It’s almost like a miniature chaos theory: every child’s mood will vary slightly depending on every small bump, glitch, or smooth patch they have experienced recently. You are older than your children so have the natural advantage of having more control over what you keep hidden and what you project.