Better Behaviour: A Guide for Teachers

How can better behaviour make you a better teacher? TES behaviour columnist and Executive Headteacher Jarlath O’Brien combines insights from psychological research and hard-won personal experiences into a practical and uplifting guide for teachers new and experienced. Avoiding gimmicks or magic bullets, Jarlath shows you how a perceptive approach built on empathy and understanding the children you teach can lead to a happy and healthy learning environment that allows you to become a more effective teacher. Looking at how your behaviour influences their behaviour, this book will challenge your thinking, increase your confidence, reduce your frustrations and empower you to improve the behaviour of the children you work with. 

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1: Why understanding behaviour matters Chapter 2: How psychology can help your understanding Chapter 3: Your behaviour Chapter 4: Rules and expectations Chapter 5: Motivation and rewards Chapter 6: Sanctions and punishments Chapter 7: Restorative approaches to preventing and resolving conflict Chapter 8: Working in partnership with parents to improve behaviour Chapter 9: Working in partnership with support staff to improve behaviour Chapter 10: Special educational needs and behaviour Chapter 11: Fostering your own style

About the Author :
Jarlath has been a teacher for over two decades. He has worked in comprehensive, independent, selective and special education, including in schools for children with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties, and severe and profound and multiple learning difficulties. Since 2011 Jarlath has been a Headteacher and Executive Headteacher. Jarlath is a behaviour columnist for TES, has written for The Guardian and for several other education publications and trains teachers on behaviour, school leadership and special educational needs. He is also the author of Better Behaviour’s sister publication, Leading Better Behaviour: A Guide for School Leaders.

Review :
Effortlessly brilliant. Jarlath's combination of deep understanding, hard evidence and splutteringly funny stories is irresistible. Jarlath unveils the child behind the behaviour. Invaluable for anyone working with children and young people. 'Better Behaviour is easy to read and accessible to all. Textured with personal parenting anecdotes it has a conversational style to its message. Jarlath’s authentic voice and pragmatic approach encourages you to be an active reader. The reflection points throughout hold the reader to account, moreover, the discussion points encourage you to bring others into the discussion.  The impact of reading Better Behaviour will be the reframing of your own classroom practice, via a deeper understanding of how our values translate into our actions. Jarlath’s ultimate goal is to affect cultural change in our schools, through his experience and insight – this book is practice informed and values-driven.' In debates about education Jarlath O'Brien's voice is an important one.  When he speaks, I listen - and then think very hard about what I believe.  Better Behaviour has exactly that effect; Jarlath's authoritative voice of experience confronts us with the idea that if schools are going to be truly inclusive, then every child needs to succeed and this has to be about fundamental principles, not merely  a list of exceptions and special cases.  Here is a coherent set of ideas and principles about behaviour management that will resonate with many and challenge many others - as any great book should A thought-provoking book that should be on the reading list of every new and established teacher, particularly with the renewed focus upon reducing exclusions. I simply loved this book, and introduced it to colleagues, the language was earthy and the stories very real to the classroom environment.  Many of my student's found this a useful book, to facilitate an awareness of strategies that can be employed to work with challenging behaviours in the classroom.  A key message in the book that stood out for the teacher training students was that a lot of the behaviours experienced by them are and have been fully experienced by fully trained teachers, the message had a universal effect and gave students hope with confidence.