Children who constantly tell tales can be a real drain on a teacher’s time and patience. There’s nothing more likely to raise your blood pressure than having a whole class poised on the brink of a lightbulb moment only to have one child shatter everyone’s train of thought by announcing that Billy’s fiddling with his ruler again.
There’s no universal quick fix that will staunch the flow; simply ordering children not to tell tales tends to be as effective as trying to stop a leaking tap with a custard cream (yes, I’ve tried it, this is austerity Britain!) but if the tale-telling is persistent, here are some things that you could try.
1. Turn it back on them
It’s a fact: young children love seeing their peers get into trouble. Watching another child being told off in public while they bask in the smug glow of their own virtue is their favourite type of theatre.
If this is the case with your telltale, then you need to burst their bubble quickly. Turn the spotlight back to them. If a child interrupts your lesson to tell you another child is swinging on their chair, zap them with a quick: “I can see that but I’m more annoyed by you interrupting our work to tell me. Why were you looking at him and not at the board?”
Remind children that the only behaviour that they have to worry about is their own.
2. Tell your own tales
If simply explaining to children that telling tales is wrong isn’t working, then try showing them instead. Use The Boy Who Cried Wolf to illustrate how children who tell attention-seeking tales aren’t taken seriously when something serious actually happens.
I also tell habitual offenders embellished stories from my teaching past of children who lost friends because they couldn’t stop telling on others.
3. Control the timings
Children normally choose to tell tales at the worst possible moments: during a mental maths test or a scientific explanation; 10 seconds before hometime. If you’re sure it’s not serious, it’s best to acknowledge and defer it.
A quick, “Oh dear. Come and talk to me about that at the beginning of lunchtime,” is all you need. In most cases, by lunchtime they’ve either forgotten about it or have decided that it’s not worth missing playtime for.
If children come to tell tales while you’re on playground duty, try responding with a very sympathetic, “Oh no, that must be awful for you,” and walk off. You’ll find that the follow-up rate using this method is surprisingly low.
Don’t bother asking younger children if what they have to tell you is urgent. For them, pretty much everything falls into this category.
4. Pre-empt it
Children who constantly tell tales don’t always recognise that they are doing it. Talking explicitly about the behaviour - why it’s not helpful and why it doesn’t always make you popular - can help. Remind children of the difference between telling tales and informing. Ask children to first ask themselves, “is it kind?” and “is it necessary?”.
You can put up classroom posters to reinforce this message. Whether you do it through social stories, role play or just a chat, try to get children to consider their motive for telling on other children. Are they doing it to get someone into trouble, or are they doing it to keep someone safe or stop them from being upset?
5. Choose your battles
Finally, however infuriating persistent telltales can be, don’t ever give your class the impression that they can never tell you about the behaviour of others.
Making sure to keep one ear tuned for when there really is a problem is an important skill for a teacher to master. Make too big a deal out of telling tales, and you might prevent the children who really do need to tell you something from speaking up.
Jo Brighouse is a pseudonym. She is a primary school teacher in the Midlands
This is an article from the 15 April edition of TES. This week’s TES magazine is available in all good newsagents. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here
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