Whole-school approaches

In order to facilitate appropriate behaviour from children, all schools

should have in place a behaviour policy document. This policy
document should be shared with parents/carers and governors as
well as all staff and children.
Detailed guidance on developing a behaviour policy for schools
is contained in Section 3 of Inclusion and Pupil Support National
Assembly for Wales Circular No: 47/2006 (2006).
A detailed example of a school behaviour policy is contained in
the Annex.

Well-evaluated behaviour management programmes

There are a number of behaviour management programmes for
primary school-aged children that have received positive evaluations,
including the Incredible Years Teacher Classroom Management and
Dinosaur Curriculum programmes, PATHS (Promoting Alternative
Thinking Skills) and SEAL (Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning.

Incredible Years
The Incredible Years programmes are aimed at children of
Foundation Phase age. The Teacher Classroom Management
programme emphasises skills such as the effective use of teacher
attention, praise and encouragement, use of incentives for difficult
behaviour problems, proactive teaching strategies, how to manage
inappropriate classroom behaviours, the importance of building
positive relationships with students, and how to teach empathy,
social skills and problem solving in the classroom.
The Dinosaur Curriculum emphasises training children in skills such
as emotional literacy, empathy or perspective taking, friendship skills,
anger management, interpersonal problem solving, school rules and
how to be successful at school. The treatment version is designed for
use as a treatment programme for small groups of children exhibiting
conduct problems. The prevention version is delivered to the entire
classroom by regular teachers, two to three times a week.
Multiple randomised control group evaluations of the Teacher
Classroom Management programme indicate significant:
increases in teacher use of praise and encouragement and
reduced use of criticism and harsh discipline

Practical approaches to behaviour management in the classroom 17