In Key Stage 2, due to the children being older and understanding the appropriate behaviour required in a lesson, we can be a little more strict and firm with children.​ We can also use the Behaviour techniques used with the KS1 year groups.
We still always refer to the schools Behavioural policies and the class teacher for any techniques that they use that are effective. ​
KS2 Behaviour Management
Once children reach KS2, they should be able to understand how to behave within a lesson. If they misbehave, unlike in Early Years and some KS1 classes the children understand and know what they are doing and are often misbehaving to impress friends or get a reaction out of the teacher.
This is very common and if you find yourself in this situation, you must remain calm. If you are new to the class / school liaise with the teacher / supporting staff to see if there are any children you need to be made aware of eg. additional needs or friends that do not work well together
The first thing you should do before you attempt any techniques is have a read of the schools behaviour policy. This will give you an insight into what the children are familiar with on a daily basis for example Holy Trinity implement Trinity Points and a Green card system. As well as making your life easier, this also helps the school you are working with by keeping the behavioural management techniques consistent across the school. If you are not sure on how to implement these, speak to your Line Manager and they can give you more information.​
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If that is unsuccessful then you should try and address the class as whole for their behaviour rather than singling out an individual as this can be perceived as more negative and the individual may not respond well to being singled out. You can see some examples below
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Finally if behaviour still has not improved because these are KS2 children can start understanding there are consequences to their actions so the next stage would be sitting that child out.
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You can sit children out for a little longer however always make sure they are in sight and that they are not kept out of the lesson for longer than 5 minutes at a time. Please note if you sit a child out, do NOT ask them to turn around and face the wall.
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When reintroducing a child from a time out you must ask the children why they were asked to sit out. Confirm with the child this poor behaviour will not continue and make sure they agree and then let them join back in the class
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If sitting the child out doesn’t work and they are still disrupting your lesson, after you have given several warnings you can ask for the supporting member of staff / teacher to remove the child from your lesson. In most cases, this child will then have to go and sit with a member of the Senior Leadership Team i.e. Headteacher / Deputy. Please note this is a last resort though as any member of a schools SLT is usually very busy.
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Class Behaviour Management
For any of the techniques below to be effective, you need to make it clear at the start of your lesson or session how you expect them to react to a certain behaviour that you may do for example, if you clap a beat, they must repeat.​
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Clap to a beat and encourage the children to clap the beat back to you to show they are listening. Use a different beat each time you clap and continue this until you are happy that all the children in your group are at least attempting to copy the beat.​
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Use a chant the children copy with at the end of the chant expecting silence eg. Hands on top, that means stop. Shouting out the word ‘Attention’ for the children to say ’Silence’ is a great technique that has been shown to work with very difficult children due to it also being very interactive. - See Video Hub​
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Use your whistle! Within a school, the children will be older than in a nursery and should react very quickly to a whistle. This is a very effective tool to use to get a child’s attention in any setting. With the children being older you can incorporate your whistle into your session for it to be most effective e.g. 1 whistle means freeze, two whistles mean sit down where you are etc.​
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If the children in your group are not listening, sometimes the best way to say something is by saying nothing at all. Wait in silence for children to stop talking, explain to them that they are wasting their own time and once the children show respect the lesson can continue. I would always speak to any supporting staff before implementing this so that they can mimic you and reinforce the behavioural technique. Also if you don’t let them know what you are going to do they may think you don’t know what your doing and are struggling to control your group when in reality you are just implementing a new behavioural technique.​
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​Separate problem children from one another. This can be done by employing the use of learning partners or just explaining to those children they may not work together due to their poor choices they make when together. For a new group of children that you may not be familiar with, ask your supporting teacher to highlight any pairs or groups that you have organised that may cause an issue. Your supporting staff will know which children work well together and which ones don’t so ask them for help.​
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