National Behaviour
Support Service
Promoting Positive Behaviour
NBSS
The NBSS is working with 73 post primary schools
identifying, developing and disseminating
current good practice and assisting with
behaviour issues which impede teaching and
learning.
Additional schools will be supported in 2010 - 2011
National Behaviour Support Service
Mission Statement
Promoting and Supporting Behaviour for Learning
Our mission is to promote and support positive
behaviour for learning through the provision of a
systematic continuum of support to school
communities, grounded in evidence based practice.
NBSS Guiding Principles
The NBSS is guided by the following key principles:
Schools can make a difference in young people’s lives.

A whole school approach, founded on respectful relationships, is
essential in promoting and supporting positive behaviours
throughout the school community.

Behaviour is intrinsically linked to teaching and learning.

Inclusion is a core educational value.

Good practice in schools is acknowledged and disseminated.
NBSS Team
 National Coordinator
 4 Assistant National Coordinators
 10 Regional Development Officers
 Literacy Development Officer
 Research & Development Officer
 2 Administrators
Positive Behaviour Support Programmes
 Framework for Intervention (FFI) – Birmingham, Scotland,
Norway
 Restorative Approach – Australia, New Zealand, United
Kingdom, North America, Sligo and Donegal
 Solution Oriented School Programme (SOS) – Scotland,
Jersey, United Kingdom attendance and behaviour strategy
 School Wide Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) – North
America, Canada, AustraliaSocial and Emotional Learning
(SEL) – North America, Europe, Asia
 Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning (SEAL) – DCSF,
England
Designing School-Wide
Systems for Student Success
FEW
1 - 5%
SOME
5 - 10%
ALL
80 - 90%
NBSS Model of Support
Academic and Behavioural Support
at Level 1, 2 and 3
Level 1 - Whole School
School System
Vision
Systems
Structures
Policies
Practices
Consistency
Preliminary findings from a survey conducted by
the NBSS on Low Level Disruption found that:-
• Only 5.8% of the 982 respondents agreed that
school rules were “enforced consistently by all
staff”.
• 47% stated that enforcement was “consistent
most of the time”.
• 43.2% reported that consistency ranged from
“some of the time” to “never”.
Henefer, 2007-2008
Consistency
English
RE
Irish
Maths
Art
Home
Ec
History
Student
Wood
Tech
Geog
Busine
ss
Science
SPHE
CSPE
Inconsistency
English
Irish
RE
Maths
Art
Home
Ec
History
Student
Wood
Tech
Geog
Business
Science
SPHE
CSPE
If our students don’t know how to read, we teach them
If our students don’t know how to multiply, we teach them
If our students don’t know how to play sport, we teach them
If our students don’t know how to behave,
we…
teach?
punish?
Present Reality
 The behaviour of a very large majority of pupils
remains satisfactory or better
 Most schools are successful at managing behaviour
and creating an environment in which pupils feel
valued, cared for and safe
 The most common form of poor behaviour is persistent
low-level disruption of lessons that wears down staff
and interrupts learning.
Source: ‘School Matters’ 2006,Ofsted 2006
Nine Contextual Factors that Contribute to Punitive
School Environments and Promote Antisocial
Behaviour
 Low student involvement in school activities
 Unclear rules for student deportment
 Weak or inconsistent administrative support
 Student academic failure
 Student deficiency in social & personal management skills
 Problems discriminating prosocial & antisocial behaviour
 Consequences delivered inconsistently
 Inadvertent reinforcement of antisocial behaviour
 Over reliance on punitive methods of control
(Mayer, 1995; Similar to home-based contextual factors noted by Loeber, Stouthammer-Loeber & Green, 1987 and Reid & Patterson, 1991), Hattie,
J., 2003
Facilitating change
15%
40%
15%
30%
Lambert, 1992
15 – technique
15 - reputation
30 - relationship
40 - strengths focused
Continuous Professional
Development
However noble, sophisticated or enlightened proposals for
change and improvement might be, they come to
nothing if teachers don’t accept them in their own
classrooms and if they don’t translate them into
effective classroom practise.
Fullan M, Hargreaves A. (1982)
Level 1 – Whole School
Support
(a) Establish a Whole School Positive Behaviour
Leadership Team or School Strategy Team
(b) Gather data to:-
 Determine what staff perceive is working well,
needs attention and is not in place to promote and
support positive behaviour in the school.
 Determine problem areas/behaviours in the school
General Data Rules for
Objective Decision Making
Example
 If more that 40% of students receive one or more behaviour
referrals – Whole School System
 If more than 50% of referrals come from 10% of classes –
Classroom System
 If more than 35% of referrals come from non-classroom settings –
Non Classroom System
 If more than 10 students in a class receive more that 5 referrals –
Targeted Group Intervention
 If less than 10 students receive more than 10 referrals and do not
respond to Targeted Group Intervention – Intensive Individual
Intervention
 Based on data prioritise the top two/three areas for
support
 Decide on actions to address the prioritised areas.
 Decide on a timeline and who is responsible for
completing the actions
 Decide how to evaluate progress
 Incorporate the areas for actions into your school
improvement/development plan
 Review on a regular basis – Is there a decrease in
problem behaviour?
Whole School Positive Behaviour
Leadership Team
BI
Plan
Whole
School
Community
Inclusivity
Collaboration
Participation
School
Specific
Professional
Development
Common
Purpose
Whole School Positive
Behaviour Leadership
Team
Linked to school vision
Evidence
Based
Data
Collection
Level 2: Targeted Intervention
Skills for Success Taught to Class Group
School A: Reading Ages (68 1st Yrs)
Community School
Reading
Age
Percent
6 yrs
8.8% (6)
7 yrs
16.2% (11)
8 yrs
11.7% (8)
9 yrs
16.2% (11)
10 yrs
7.4% (5)
11 yrs
17.6% (12)
12 yrs
10.3% (7)
13 yrs
10.3% (7)
14 yrs
1.5% (1)
Total
100.0% (N=68)
Level 2: Targeted Intervention for
Behaviour, Literacy and Learning
Class A:
 40.9% (compared to 18% pre-intervention), of the students were reading at
or above their chronological age.
Class B:
 47.1% (compared to 17% pre-intervention), of the students were reading at
or above their chronological age.
Class C:
 50.0% (compared to 14% pre-intervention), of the students were reading at
or above their chronological age.
Behaviour Support Classrooms
 An intensive, short-term, individualised school based
intervention for students who consistently do not
respond to alternative interventions and supports
provided in the school.
 Provides an academic, social and emotional,
behavioural curriculum for students whose behaviour
significantly interferes with teaching and learning in the
majority of their subject classes.
 The fundamental aim of a BSC is reintegration
Behaviour Support Classroom
Research 2008-2009
Student Profile – 648 students
96.9%
Junior Cycle
40.2%
2nd Years
Most Frequent Educational Patterns
•
Poor literacy and numeracy
•
Difficult home circumstances
•
Poor attendance
•
Special education needs
5.2% reading at or above their chronological age
76% reading three or more years below their chronological age
Henefer, 2010
Reason for the Development of a
Whole School Behavioural
Curriculum
 To proactively address skill deficits
 To teach skills in context
 To facilitate a positive and unified classroom
culture
 To teach core classroom procedures and
routines
What is Behaviour?
 Behaviour is anything a person does which can
be observed
 Behaviour has to be learned so is taught
 Everyone can learn new behaviour
 Behaviour which has been rewarded is more
likely to be repeated
 Behaviour is influenced by what happens before
it and what happens after it.
Source: South Eastern Education Library Board 2006
Current NBSS Interventions
(additional to Level 1,2,3 support)
 Academic Literacy, Learning & Study Skills
 Peer Mentoring
 Students with Multiple and Complex Needs (Sept. ’10)
 Positive Behaviour Liaison Teacher (11 hours)
 Solution Oriented Schools (SOS)
 Behaviour for Learning Programme Teacher (Sept. ‘10)
 Transition and Transfer
 Occupational Therapy
 Social and Emotional Literacy
Effective Solution Oriented
Systems
Work on, not in a system
 Visual
-
What will it look like?
 Emotional -
What will it feel like?
 Functional -
What will it act like?
Some Solution Oriented School
Principles
1. If it works, do more of it; if it does not work, do
something different
2. A small change in any aspect of a problem can
initiate a solution
3. A focus on possibilities and solutions enhances
change
4. No sign up – no change
5. Co-operation enhances change
Solution Focused Meetings
 F
Focus
Focus on what you want to be different
 O
Outcomes
Describe the desired outcomes in detail
 R
Realised
Describe results already realized
 W
When
When did similar successes already happen
 A
Action
One small step forward
 R
Results
Monitor for achievements of new results
 D
Desire
Make desire for further change explicit
Behaviour for Learning
Programme Teacher
 Has responsibility for a ‘Behaviour for Learning
Programme’ targeted at students in need of intensive
individualised intervention (Level 3)
 Works with indentified students individually and in small
groups on programmes designed to meet the social,
emotional, behavioural, academic needs of students
 Programme avoids a ‘wait to fail’ intervention model
Transition and Transfer
Belonging Plus Initiative
Occupational Therapy
 OT focuses on enabling people to engage in meaningful everyday
activities. It uses purposeful activity as the therapeutic medium.
 Based on Sensory Processing Theory
 Relevant for students who have difficulty :






Achieving academically
Staying seated, sitting still, listening
Writing and copying from the board
Paying attention
Behaving appropriately
Managing materials
Understanding spatial concepts
 Relevant for students who seem overly sensitive to sounds, textures,
heights, odours, light etc. within the school setting and have activity levels
unusually high or low
Sensory Integration
 Takes place from infancy to childhood
(matures 8-10 years). Continues
throughout life.
 Occurs at an unconscious level.
 Forms the foundation for our well being.
The Alert Programme
“How Does your Engine Run”
 Designed to: Increase awareness of self-regulation
 Increase the number of strategies for students based on
how they feel in school
 Assists students to understand when their ‘engine’ is
running high, low, just right
Mapping of Acting Out
Behaviour
Thinking
Feeling
Doing
Physiology
Escalation and
Cognition
Emotional
arousal
Decreased
reasoning
skills
Teaching Social Skills
 Social skills should be taught by the same
procedures and principles used to teach
academic skills.
 There is a direct, positive relationship between
the amount and quality (integrity) of social skills
training and change in social behaviour.
 Social skills training should be supplemented
by behavioural rehearsal opportunities,
performance feedback, and contingency
systems in naturalistic settings to promote their
occurrence, fluency, and mastery.
Walker, Ramsey, & Gresham, 2004
Social Skills
Examples
 Following Instructions
 Accepting Teaching
 Disagreeing Appropriately
 Accepting “No” for an Answer
 Getting the Teacher’s Attention (or Asking Permission)
 Making a Request
 Resisting Peer Pressure
 Accepting a Compliment
Encouraging Positive Behaviour
 Structure
 Predictability
 Consistency
of approach
 Firm but fair
management
RULES
and
ROUTINES
Communication During Times
Of Crisis
FACIAL
+ TONE OF + WORDS
EXPRESSION
55%
VOICE
38%
7%
Sanctions as an
Intervention
 Punishment alone will not lead to a durable
change in behaviour. (Braaten, 1994)
 Reactive strategies that rely primarily on
punishment assume that individuals know what
is expected, how to do it, and are properly
motivated. Unfortunately it fails to teach the
expected behaviour (Horner & Sugai 1999)
 Some forms of punishment may actually be
rewarding and maintaining problem
behaviours. (Gresham, 1991; March & Horner,
2002)
Rewards
“ Where good behaviour is reinforced and
acknowledged, it is more likely that it will become
internalised. Public acknowledgement of positive
student behaviour also helps to promote a sense of
community within a school.”
School Matters. The report of the Task Force on
Student Behaviour in Second Level Schools (2006) p.
75
Teaching Class Rules
 Clearly written
 Few in number
 Essential
 Enforceable
 Enforced
 Visible
 Positively Phrased
 Teachable
Using Consequences
 Make it clear that you are against the behaviour
not the person.
 Avoid early escalation to severe sanctions,
reserving them for the most serious
misbehaviour.
 Avoid whole group sanctions that punish the
innocent as well as the guilty.
 Take account of individual circumstances.
 Encourage students to reflect on the effects of
misbehaviour.
Consequences
 Logical – appropriate to the behaviour
 Directed at the behaviour
 Predictable
 Fair
 Consistent
 Immediate
Principles Underpinning C of B
Ensure:
 A climate that encourages and reinforces good
behaviour.
 A positive and safe environment for teaching and
learning.
 Positive relationships of mutual respect and
support among students, staff and parents.
 That behavioural expectations are known and
understood.
(NEWB p.22/23)