Here’s how you manage behaviour: be consistent; don’t make a threat you have no intention of carrying out; follow through; if you’re going to offer a choice, make sure that both options leave you as the authority figure.

This is common sense, right? Well, apparently not if you work in a leafy, high-achieving school. There, the boundaries can become a little ... blurred.

You see, in a lot of these schools, behaviour can be a non-issue. Or that’s how senior leaders view it. They often tell classroom teachers that “you don’t know you’re born” and “other schools have it far worse”. These kids are “nice” - we don’t need to throw the book at them.

And so the common sense of behaviour management disappears. In these schools with a cosy, comfortable catchment area, the overall standard of behaviour should (and could) be better.

Woolly behaviour policies are the scourge of high-achieving rural schools.

We need to fix this.

Broken windows

There’s a criminological theory known as the “broken windows” theory, developed by James Q Wilson and George L Kelling in 1982. It works on this principle: one broken window left unrepaired can lead to a spate of increasingly more serious criminality, as there is a belief that no one cares and, therefore, the chances are that no one will be caught for their misdemeanours.

This concept is primarily applied to policing: it is believed that if police crack down on smaller offences, it will have the ultimate effect of reducing the amount of more serious and violent crime.

In the schools like those described earlier, we should be working on the same principle.

Yes, the vast majority of the students toe the line without needing a “stick”. But what’s wrong with having a strict behaviour policy? When it is absent, leadership teams scratch their heads when something out of the ordinary happens, contemplating how to deal with it this time. This leads to inconsistent application of sanctions or - worse - too much time passing and nothing being done. Disaster.

The solution is simple, of course: have an airtight behaviour policy. Make a list of behaviours - even those you wouldn’t expect “nice” children to be capable of - and put them into levels. Each level has a set sanction - or sanctions in the more serious cases. Publish this for parents. Make the students aware. Apply it consistently. There can be no room for argument if everyone knows the rules from the outset. Students expect and respect boundaries - even the troublesome ones. It means they know where they stand if they make the wrong choice.

Why does this not happen already? Schools are scared. The start of the academic year brought the inevitable spate of middle-market newspaper stories with their “sad face” pictures: my child was sent home for wearing trainers; my child’s mobile phone was confiscated during a lesson; my child was isolated because they have purple hair.

Schools are less than keen to have their uniforms emblazoned across the news, no matter how appropriately applied their sanctions were.

The media coverage is an extreme. At ground level, the first fear is parent backlash. Parents are often placated, with schools backing down when they should be trying to uphold the values we are trying to instil in the children.

As teachers, we see these students day after day, week after week - and now they have one up on us. Our authority eroded, we then struggle to maintain order on even the small things.

Behaviour life lessons

The sad fact is that some leadership teams think that they are helping students if they “go easy” on them with reprimands, and that maintaining a positive relationship can only happen as a result of sacrificing sanctions. This is simply not the case.

Former students - with the benefit of hindsight - have thanked me for the hard stance I took on issues. It did not make me popular at the time but now, as adults taking the next step, they appreciate the value of the lesson. They realise that, harsh as it seemed, it came from a caring place.

To our colleagues in more challenging catchments, I say: we need to learn from you. Statistics and league tables are only one part of the picture and there is an inaccurate assumption that because results are good - and spreadsheets are everything - we must be getting it right. We’re asked to go into the learning environments of schools with completely different demographics and help our “struggling” colleagues - a concept that I find embarrassing.

Academic attainment is important, but so is the holistic development of a well-rounded, morally grounded young person. Challenging schools have the upper hand here - and we have a lot to gain from them.

Actions have consequences - but so does a lack of action. As educators, it is our duty to encourage young people to take responsibility for their choices and to set them on the right - and fair - path.

Complacency has no place. It takes courage and it might make us unpopular, but the rewards stretch far beyond the school gates.

The writer is a teacher at a secondary school in the Home Counties