Acceptable and unacceptable behaviour

Pupils need to develop effective social, behavioural and emotional skills as a basis for successful learning.

The Primary National Strategy in England and Wales (DfES, 2003) said that children with such skills are able to:

• Be effective and successful learners
• Make and sustain friendships
• Deal with and resolve conflict effectively and fairly
• Solve problems with others and by themselves
• Manage strong feelings such as frustration, anger and anxiety
• Recover from setbacks and persist in the face of difficulties
• Work and play cooperatively
• Compete fairly and win and lose with dignity and respect for competitors

When thinking about my classes students that fall short of these qualities are those who are inattentive and those who misbehave.

If I was to define unacceptable behavior I would say it is that which causes disruption to lessons, is damaging to others and stops others from learning.

Here is a table of what I consider totally unacceptable and acceptable:

Totally unacceptable behaviour	Acceptable in certain circumstances	Acceptable behaviour
Fighting	Swearing	Not paying attention
Bullying	Not doing homework	Lateness
Sleeping		Joking
Shouting		Being cheeky
Damaging equipment		Talking off task
Graffiti
Insulting teachers
Skipping class
Arguing