My school has no bad – or good – behaviour

TEACHERS ARE ASKED TO NOT BE SHOUTY AND TO USE ‘LESS LOADED TERMINOLOGY’

A school has adopted a novel approach to tackling poor behaviour in class by asking teachers to avoid describing the behaviour of pupils who step out of line as either good or bad.

Dr Julian Murphy, headmaster of Loughborough Amherst School, has explained why and how he is taking a different approach at the independent school, which caters for children aged four to 18.

Dr Murphy, pictured, told inews that Loughborough Amherst is “quite a strict school”, with a “cumulative behaviour policy” designed to tackle “low-level disruption”.

That means students can be expelled for handing in homework late or dropping litter if they “do it enough times”, according to the principal.

However, Dr Murphy believes his decision to ask teachers to avoid the terms good and bad will take the “emotional heat” out of language. Teachers at the Gray Street school have instead been asked to use words such as skilful or unskilful.

Dr Murphy said the rule was not about being trendy or progressive, but were taken from Buddhism as a “less loaded and more accurate way of describing things”.

He said: “While I don ’ t want teachers to be soft, I also don’t want them to be shouty and make pupils feel guilty. I think it’s human psychology, even when you’re an adult.

“If people make you feel guilty, then you get angry and then actually that’s when you’re likely to play the blame game and not to work that well.

“That’s when things get into a bit of a vicious circle.”

He said his school taught children that “there’s a set of rules that are there for practical reasons”. He said: “If you fall foul of those rules, don’t worry about it, just take your medicine and learn for next time.

“I’m not interested in making young people feel bad. I’m just interested in them learning, and us helping them mature and become more skilful people. “You’re not really angry with them, your action is actually much more one of concern because they’re behaving in an extremely unskilful way which is going to negatively affect their live chances and possibly those of people around them.”

The school, which has 313 pupils and was formerly known as Our Lady’s Convent School, scrapped traditional reports in 2017.

Dr Murphy took the step because he felt “emotive” effort grades made some pupils feel insecure, while the reports themselves were filled with dishonest “politician’s speak”.

Dr Murphy said he recognised that his methods could be more challenging to deploy in larger schools.

He said: “It’s much easier for us to establish a tone. I think if you’re in a school of 1,300 or 1,400 it’s much harder to do these things.” He also banned the use of inspirational messages and posters with phrases such as “you can do anything”, saying that they put too much pressure on young people.