Behaviour - Features - TES

Log in

Publications

Jobs
News blog

Teaching Resources
Opinion blog News podcast

Community
Publications

News

About us

Help

Print article

Save to favourites

Behaviour
Features | Published in TES Newspaper on 18 September, 2009

Comment: Last Updated: 16 November, 2009 Section: Features

A couple of pupils persistently swing back on their chairs during my class. One even fell off and hurt his arm the other day. What can I do to convince my class that chairs are for sitting on and that's that?
For as long as there have been chairs in schools, pupils have taken a peculiar delight in swinging on them. But the passing of time has made it no less annoying. It is often cited as one of the all time great classroom irritants. "It may seem petty, but the constant chair swinging is driving me nuts," says a teacher on the TES online forum (www.tes.co.uk). "While I'm talking, pupils are either falling off their chair or spinning on one leg." It frustrated Tom Wates too. The low-level classroom chatter annoyed him, but it was the rhythmic rocking back and forth that "drove me mad". Every teacher he spoke to agreed. "You'd just be on a bit of a roll, when someone would fall off their chair and everyone would laugh," says Mr Wates, who taught PE and maths at a school in Blackheath, southeast London. "It would ruin the flow of the lesson." Mr Wates felt there wasn't much he could do about the talking, but was sure he could stop the swinging. He came up with the concept for the Max chair last year, which was then created by the design company Sedley Place. It has curved legs that prevent rocking and Mr Wates insists that no child can lift it more than 5cm off the ground. "At every exhibition I've been to, teachers come up and tell me about pupils with broken arms, stitches or scars from falling off chairs. For me, it was an annoyance, but for others it's a safety issue." Up to 7,000 pupils are admitted to hospital in the UK each year as a result of chair-related accidents, according to Government statistics. Of those, 70 per cent were caused by rocking backwards. One teacher says a girl fell back and hit her head on a heater. Another saw a five-year-old fall forwards and bite through the tip of his tongue. A third pupil's bottom teeth went through his top lip, resulting in broken teeth and an abundance of blood. Witnessing such accidents will probably put your pupils off chair tipping for life. For a less dramatic lesson, TES forum users recommend an early verbal warning. Persistent offenders should then be told to stand, sit on the floor or even kneel. If this fuels further attention-seeking behaviour, such as pupils crawling across the floor for laughs, progress up the sanction ladder. "Make them stand for a week," says a secondary school teacher. "If they are enjoying the attention from the rest of the class, make everyone stand. Ignore all comments and moans and carry on as normal. Eventually the others will have a go at the originals for making them stand." Other tactics include charging pupils for broken chairs, putting warnings in pupils' planners, imposing detentions or simply indicating with your hands that they should sit properly. "That gets your message across without you having to stop talking," says one secondary school teacher. Untippable furniture is another possibility. At approximately 20 per Max chair, it may be a costly option, but some schools clearly see it as a good investment. Mr Wates has sold 35,000 chairs in the past year, 90 per cent to UK schools. Mr Wates has left teaching to concentrate on developing school furniture. For those left in the classroom, the message is clear: either consider specialist furniture or treat chair swinging like the behavioural issue it is.
AQA GCSE English/English Language Unit 1 Practice AQA English GCSE Reading Paper Practice More Resources

Related articles
To be honest...
<p>Parents, policy overload, inspection - and then there are the children. But why do so many teachers suffer in silence? Its better out than in</p> Draw the line There's always one More Articles

Related resources
Thesaurus practise

Join TES for free now

Four great reasons to join today... 1. Be part of the largest network of teachers in the world over 2m members 2. Download over 600,000 free teaching resources 3. Get a personalized email of the most relevant resources for you delivered to your inbox. 4. Find out first about the latest jobs in education It's free to join us on TES and it only takes 30 seconds (we've timed it!)

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6023383[25/11/2013 11:48:56]

Behaviour - Features - TES

"It's like any other off-task activity," says Tom Bennett, head of religious studies and philosophy at Raine's Foundation School in east London who hosts the TES online behaviour forum. "It distracts the swinging pupil and the rest of the class, wrecks chairs and is potentially dangerous. Plus, when the balancing goon invariably falls on their backside, the whole class gets drawn into their clownish antics." Remind pupils why you impose a "four on the floor" rule, ideally ensuring a consistent approach across the whole school. They'll come to see that tough love is generally preferable to no teeth Next week Girl trouble DO - Explain why you have a no-tipping rule. - Give a couple of verbal warnings. If chair swinging continues, get pupils to stand, kneel or sit on the floor. - Consider "don't lean back" furniture: www.dlbltd.co.uk. DO NOT - Ignore it. Falls can distract the class and/or cause serious injury.

Rate this story

as yet unrated

Comment (1)
So what do you do when you are faced with thirty-somethings who still persist in rocking back in their chairs? This is something I struggle with in some of my sessions and so would welcome any fresh ideas on how to combat this bad habbit.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment 14:30 16 November, 2009

james397

Add your comment

home subscribe advertise contact t&cs privacy cookies site map link to us tes on twitter
TES Editorial 2013 TSL Education Ltd. All pages of the Website are subject to our terms and conditions and privacy policy. You must not reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell or exploit any material on the Website for any commercial purposes. TSL Education Ltd Registered in England (No 02017289) at 26 Red Lion Square, London, WC1R 4HQ

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6023383[25/11/2013 11:48:56]