This article originally appeared in Issue 46 of the UKEdMagazine. Click here to view.
Article 29 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that education should help children use their talents and abilities. It should also help them to live peacefully, protect the environment and respect other people.
But how can this be translated into something practical and easy to understand for our pupils?
These three questions may help them to make sense of a whole school approach:
1. Am I trying my best?
We can’t try our best at everything, all of the time – or can we? If expectations are high enough and made clear through consistency then maybe, yes – our pupils try their best to be the best pupils that they can be.
2. Am I helping others?
Our school is a micro-version of the wider world. We make our school a better place when we try to help others and when we support each other to feel a collective responsibility for success and achievements.
We help each other. We celebrate together – there is no division.
3. Am I making the right choice?
Our approach to behaviour management is no more complex than this. In a supportive environment with ‘zero tolerance’ we try to teach our pupils that it is OK to make mistakes – we’ll be here to guide them in making the right choices.
As we try to create a better school for all we talk the language of choices, mistakes and doing our best.
It is easy to take for granted that the complexity that is ‘education’ should make perfect sense to our pupils. With these three questions, we may at least have a way of making a start…”
@cmac_uk Headteacher – Camberley, Surrey
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