Settling a class again
If you are worried about a learner's safety or wellbeing, follow the college's safeguarding procedure straight away. This tool is not the place for that.
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A routine settles a room. More rules rarely do.
When a class is slow to settle, the pull is to tighten the rules. What works more often is one routine, taught like any other piece of content and used the same way every lesson for two weeks.
For example“Come in, sit down and start the task on the board.”
Pick an activity. Each takes two or three minutes.
The first conversation, then lesson one, then day four. Use your own words.
Why this works in your room
A routine held for two weeks settles a room that more rules will not.
For your learners: They know how the lesson starts and what is expected, so the start stops being a negotiation.
For you: You have one plan to hold to on a bad day, and a date to look at whether it is working.
What I have noticed
No blame, no names.
“I have noticed our lessons take a while to get going.”
What will change
One thing.
“From today, we start the same way every lesson.”
What I am asking
One thing.
“Start as soon as you sit down.”
When we look again
Name the day.
“In two weeks we will see how it is going.”
Lesson one: 30 seconds
At the door, or on the board
Say it. Show it. Do it once. Thank them.
Day four: it slips
Hold it
“Not yet. Back to the signal, from five.”
Same words. No telling off.
Elsewhere in Bradford ThreadWorks
Big 4Copilot: writing a simple prompt and asking for a draft, such as a summary, a starter or a quiz.Open Big 4 (opens in a new tab)
WalkThrusCalm, purposeful classrooms: clear routines and one attention signal.Open WalkThrus (opens in a new tab)
RAISEThe targets on starting well and holding attention.Open RAISE (opens in a new tab)
Prompts to paste into Copilot
Two prompts to paste into Copilot. They are our own wording, not Big 4 training. Change what is in brackets, and leave out learners' names.
A start that settles the room
I teach [subject] to [number] [level] learners. They are slow to settle after [arriving / break / lunch]. Give me three starter tasks on [topic] that a learner can begin alone, in silence, within one minute of sitting down, with no explanation from me.
Words for a calm reset
Write a script, under 60 words, for resetting a noisy class of [age] learners. Plain and firm, no sarcasm. Then give me one line to say quietly to a learner who carries on.
Teach the behaviour you want
The Education Endowment Foundation's review of behaviour found that simple routines, taught and used the same way by the teacher every time, do more than reacting to each incident as it comes.
EEF, Improving Behaviour in Schools (opens in a new tab)How sure is this?
Fairly. Most of the research is from schools, and no routine works for every group. The two weeks and the day four slip are our own rule of thumb, not a finding. That is why the plan asks what you see after two weeks, and not whether you followed it.
No source claimed
In your room
If what you are seeing is tension between a few learners, a routine alone is not the answer. Talk to a pastoral colleague or your line manager about what happens in the room.
No source claimed