Authors

Paul Dix says adults must maintain their own discipline when faced with children who have lost theirs

As a cover supervisor I have had to do internal exclusion duty and was left alone with a very aggressive boy. He was rude and threatening. He has been sent in for another incident and I’ll have to cover it. Can I request not to be alone with him?

The problem: I have just started in a school and there is one class that is very noisy and easily distracted. One boy keeps shouting and two other boys act up and encourage him. How can I get them to settle?

The problem: I’m having issues with a Year 9 class. There are about six boys who are intent on making every lesson a disaster: they won’t sit in the correct seat, they mess about and they wreck every practical I try. How can I win them over?

The problem: I’m a trainee on a new placement and the kids are running riot. I’m planning to use the wait for silence technique, but I’m not sure how they will react. Surely they will be glad not to work and sit there talking for 20 minutes

A them-and-us culture between teachers and pupils is a common problem. Paul Dix offers advice on how to stay cool as a cucumber when pupils test the boundaries