Key messages about intervention scripts:
- No judgement is ever made about the students identity during interventions.
- The relationship between teacher and student is paramount and must be protected.
- People are not their behaviour.
- Students must take responsibility for their behaviour and not have the opportunity to blame their adults for it.
- In 20 years your students will not remember much of what you taught them but they will remember how you treated them.
- Behaviours should be shifted to the past tense as soon as possible.We are not interested in dwelling on poor choices but on creating positive expectations for the rest of the lesson. Conversations are heavily weighted to what is going to happen next rather than what has just happened.
- Presupposition is used to influence limiting self belief.When unspoken positive assumptions lie behind your language they can affect the student’s expectations of their own behaviour. ‘I know that you can…’ beats ‘Why oh why!’ every time.
- It is essential that scripts are complemented with skilled use of physical language and a tone that is calm, kind and nurturing. Any script can be undermined by careless physical language or tone that mixes the message.
Examples of micro scripts used by experienced teachers working with challenging students
- (Drop tone) I’m limited with what I can do here. You have left me no choice in the matter. We have to follow procedure, this is the situation.
- I am happy to discuss this later but at the moment I have to get on with the lesson.
- I’ve noticed that it’s not working. Come out of the classroom to give you a chance to have some time away from the group. I shall come out in a few minutes.
- Jack you are not focusing on your work. The consequence of this is that I need you to move to the front so that you can work better.
- You need to make the right decision now. You normally work well in this lesson.
- I’ve seen how well you can work, that’s not happening today. I am going to give you the opportunity to achieve the work you can do.
- That may well be the case but I still need you to follow the instructions.
- I have noticed that you have chosen not to make good choices. We have now reached the point where if you continue to behave like this you can spend the rest of the day/lesson with a senior member of staff.
- You can make the right decision and a senior member of staff can take you to the hotspot where you can complete the work and return to me at the end of the lesson.
- Altaf, do you understand why the situation has reached this point? Mr Turner is going to take you to the hotspot. I would like you to come and see me later as I know that you are a nice lad and I don’t know why you are behaving like this.