What Strategies Might You Employ to Encourage Pupils to Behave Appropriately? Describe How You Might React to Incidents of Bullying and Violence.

a) Strategies to encourage pupils to follow a good behaviour
As a support staff, I am obliged to share the same values as the whole school and to help children to develop and to manage their behaviour. I should create, with other members of school, a climate of safety and security, and having good relationships with pupils. Therefore, it would be essential to know school rules and behaviour management policy. Having known all the prizes and sanctions, I could apply them accordingly to procedures, remembering that they should be applied shortly after a good or bad behaviour occurred.
To reinforce children’s positive behaviour, I would apply some strategies that would help them to understand what behaviour is expected. I would encourage pupils verbally to work together and co-operate at any time. I would focus their attention on tasks and instructions given by a teacher, praising them for efforts, help offered to their peers experiencing difficulties and for any positive reaction. It might be a good idea to create a reward board with magnets or stickers to collect for showing a good behaviour. I would award children with a small gift after having collected a number of stickers to motivate them to behave appropriately. It may work especially among young children. For older ones it might be a notice board with their names that could be displayed the whole day to be visible to others. We could choose the queen or the king of the day/week, and the criteria would be a positive behaviour, help and respect shown to others. A very common idea – house points – may be given to pupils for showing a positive behaviour and for learning as well. For some children it might be helpful to seat together in groups and set a behaviour target for each one. It must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) to discuss once a fortnight. The targets could change for each child depending on a pupil’s needs. But after all, behaving appropriately and with respect to others is a main point in teaching children good manners. Living example always works best and seems to be the most natural way of showing our expectations.
b) Reacting on incidents of bullying and violence
Sometimes it happens, that rules have been broken and a teaching assistant must deal with incidents of bullying or violence. In that case. I would remain calm and respond to it as quickly as possible. Pupils must be told that behaviour they show is unacceptable and against school/class rules. I would need to remember that we condemn the behaviour, not a child. I would clarify the situation by clearly naming what has just happened. I would keep eye contact with pupils and keep the personal space of each other. In case of an aggressive behaviour, I may need assistance of another adult. In that situation, I would ask a pupil to call for help of another teacher. It might happen in the classroom or during a break, so I may ask another teaching assistant or a member of staff to supervise the children while I would deal with the incident. If the pupil broke one of main rules, I would take him to a head teacher to continue the conversation or discuss a sanction agreed in the school behaviour management policy. If any other support is needed, I would consult it with a relevant authority. It might be a good idea to speak to SENCO, especially in case of an issue with a statement child involved. I would then show support to a child who has suffered from bullying or violence and ask for help if needed. I would make a note of the issue and would try to prevent those situations happening in the future by reminding class rules during a circle time, it the one was organised by a teacher. We may also use a program called “restorative justice” to let pupils consider the impact of their behaviour (actions or harmful words) on others.

Stonebridge Course Materials + "Supporting Teaching and Learning in schools (primary)" by L.Burnham and B.Baker