Manage Your First Classroom

Behaviour is the thing most new teachers lose sleep over, and it helps to know it isn't a verdict on your teaching. Pupils usually misbehave because they're bored, stuck, have a need that isn't being met, or are just being naughty, and each calls for a different response.

For the five most common kinds, the five Ds (defiance, disruption, disturbing behaviour, discourtesy and distraction), you'll have practical steps ready. Take the audience away from a confrontation. Give a defiant pupil the chance to do something well. And see how rewards, sanctions and a follow-up conversation work together, so you're preventing the next incident rather than only reacting to this one.

Underneath sits a classroom where pupils are stretched by hard work and feel safe to get things wrong.