The learning lost before behaviour becomes an incident
Updated: Oct 12
Seventeen per cent of Year 8 pupils say classroom disruption happens in all of their lessons. If disruption is this common, every adult needs a redirect they can use well, quickly and repeatedly. |
A teacher is explaining a task when a conversation starts on the other side of the room. Two learners turn around, someone misses the first instruction and another loses their place. The teacher intervenes, the conversation stops and the lesson continues.
Nobody was removed, there was no significant incident and the interaction may never appear in any behaviour data. But several learners have lost part of the explanation, and some will need considerably more support to catch up.
In the Department for Education's Growing Up in the 2020s survey, 17% of young people reported classroom disruption in every lesson. That's around one in six 12- and 13-year-olds experiencing disruption as a regular feature of their school day.
We spend a great deal of time considering the incidents that lead to sanctions, removals and suspensions. I wonder how much attention we're giving to the smaller interruptions that happen repeatedly throughout the day, particularly when we consider their impact on children who already find accessing learning difficult.
For a learner with strong attention and working memory, returning to an explanation after a brief interruption may be relatively straightforward. For someone struggling with processing, language, anxiety or executive functioning, finding their way back into the learning can be much harder. The same interruption can have very different consequences depending on the learner experiencing it.
This is why prevention deserves so much of our attention, and why some of the most useful adult skills are surprisingly small.
Making expectations accessible
At Navigate, we encourage schools to consider how much unwanted behaviour could be prevented by making expectations clearer, recognising difficulty earlier and responding before situations escalate.
Scaffolding the Expectation is a good example. When we tell children to 'get ready', we're assuming they understand exactly what that means and can organise themselves to do it. For some learners, 'ready' involves several decisions and actions that aren't immediately obvious. 'Book open, date written and start with question one' removes some of that uncertainty and makes the expectation easier to follow.
Noticing to Nudge helps adults recognise when attention is beginning to drift and intervene early. Sometimes a gesture, moving closer or a quiet reminder is enough. A learner who has become distracted while helping a friend might hear, 'You've helped Lewis find his page. Now I need you back on your own work.' When a clearer correction is needed, Returning to the Agreement keeps the interaction anchored to shared expectations. 'We've agreed that we listen when someone is explaining. I need you with us for this part.'
These are straightforward approaches, although using them well requires a good understanding of children, development and the demands of the classroom.
The effectiveness of an intervention depends on considerably more than the words we choose. Tone, timing, proximity and processing time all influence whether a learner can respond successfully. Sometimes a child needs a reminder, sometimes reassurance, and sometimes they're struggling because the learning itself has become inaccessible.
This is particularly important when we consider the biology of behaviour. Stress and cognitive overload can affect children's capacity to process information, regulate their responses and access previously learned skills. Adults need to be able to recognise those differences and respond accordingly.
A brief intervention might protect the next part of the lesson, but only if it gives the learner a realistic way to return to learning. And if we're repeatedly nudging the same child, we need to understand why. Perhaps the instruction is too complex, the task needs scaffolding or the learner needs support to develop a particular skill. Repeated reminders should give us useful information about what needs to change.
What should we be noticing?
During learning walks, I'd encourage leaders to pay more attention to the moments before behaviour becomes an issue. Look at how clearly expectations are communicated, whether learners can begin tasks independently and how adults respond when attention starts to drift.
Notice how often adults need to repeat instructions, whether corrections interrupt the wider class and how easily learners return to their work. Pay particular attention to children who quietly disengage. They may lose considerable learning time without attracting any adult attention.
There's also an important implementation question. Have we made these skills accessible to staff? Do adults understand why the approaches work, have opportunities to practise them and receive feedback that helps them develop their judgement? Consistency takes more than agreeing on a set of scripts.
And when we're reviewing impact, we should be interested in how much more learning children are accessing. Are learners beginning tasks more independently? Are fewer reminders needed? Are children returning to learning more quickly, participating more consistently and managing small difficulties with less adult support? These are useful indicators that the conditions we're creating are helping children meet our expectations.
With so many young people reporting disruption in every lesson, there is a strong case for investing in the everyday adult skills that help prevent it.
A well-timed nudge, an accessible instruction or a calm return to a shared expectation may take only a few seconds. Across hundreds of interactions, those skills can help protect a considerable amount of learning.
And for children who are already finding school difficult, making those everyday moments more predictable and accessible could make a significant difference to what they are able to achieve.
Pass it on: Our free Scaffolding the Expectation, Noticing to Nudge and Returning to the Agreement resources on We Navigate Together can help staff develop practical skills for preventing disruption, maintaining boundaries and keeping children connected to learning.
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