Supporting positive behaviour in education

To help educational settings to develop and sustain positive learning behaviours we have developed a behavioural toolkit including some playlists.

The playlists are:

• 'Building and maintaining positive relationships'
• 'Enabling a positive learning environment'
• 'Using effective teaching to support positive learning behaviours'
• 'Individualised needs of learners'

They link to resources from:

• government organisations
• intergovernmental organisations, such as the OECD
• Estyn reports
• peer-reviewed publications
• registered charities such as the Education Endowment Foundation
• independent cost-effectiveness toolkits because of the budgetary constraints faced by schools

The toolkit was inspired by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF’s) Improving Behaviour in Schools guidance report.

This toolkit is a live document. We are treating it as a partnership toolkit between you, the professionals, and us. Please contact our designated mailbox of CMIA.SATE@gov.wales if:

• you feel any of the content provided should be expanded on or is out-of-date
• links do not work
• you have a suggestion or feel more guidance should be added 

Developing positive learning behaviours:

• builds and rebuilds relationships
• creates a sense of engagement and belonging

Positive learning behaviour is also an important part of learner progression. More information on this can be found in The Curriculum for Wales: Progression Code. 

The pandemic has had a negative effect on school communities. Estyn states that school leaders have said that following the pandemic learners are:

• finding school routines and expectations more difficult
• finding re-establishing daily routines and expectations more difficult as they attend school less often
• showing a lack of social skills
• showing higher levels of anxiety and mental health issues
• showing lower resilience and focus
• showing more aggressive and authority-challenging behaviour at breaktimes and lunchtimes
• displaying challenging behaviour linked with sleep deprivation, this often relates to phone use and gaming, poor diet, and a lack of home routines

These findings show why developing positive learning behaviour is important for schools.

• Inspiring teaching: Learning from exemplary practitioners. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, Sammons, P., Lindorff, A.M., Ortega, L. and Kington, A. (2016).