A Team Approach to Behaviour Management: A Training Guide for SENCOs working with Teaching Assistants

`This is an accessible and clearly set-out book, with a consistently positive and empowering tone. The examples and level of the material are realistic and likely to promote discussion, which is skilfully handled, would lead to a more consistent approach′ - European Journal of Special Needs

`Trying to know something about everything is a tall order, but this book can ease the burden considerably if you feel the teaching assistants (or any staff in your school) would benefit from help and advice on behaviour management.

This is just the thing for a busy SENCO, although, as a special needs adviser, I can already see how I might use and adapt some of the excellent resources and activity ideas to add sparkle to my own centre - and school-based training′ - British Journal of Special Education

`The resource is designed for SENCOs/trainers who work with TAs and it really does hit its target audience, striking a good balance between the SENCO′s need for comprehensive coverage of the material and the TA′s need for an accessible training and developmental experience. In addition, there are clearly potential applications for (perhaps slightly tweaked) elements of the resource with other teaching, and non-teaching, staff in schools.

The resource costs £16.99, which works out at just £2.50 per unit. Setting aside the ′real′ value of the resource in terms of the improved behaviour-management performance of our TA′s and other school staff, the value to the SENCO/trainer of having a comprehensively packaged resource which includes so much useful material and which requires little, if any, ′tweaking′ before being presented to its target audience in the individual school, is vastly greater than what is, essentially, just the price of a pint of beer per unit′ - Spare-Chair

`According to the SENCO in the school where I work: "It′s just what I′ve been looking for! All the work has been done for me, where can I buy one?". This book is well laid out, easy to access and simple to understand′- Teaching Assistant News

`This book provides a clear structure for the SENCO to deliver in-school training on behaviour management…Each unit offers suggestions for practical school-based follow-up work that TAs can undertake. It would be a useful support to SENCOs who are planning training. Brendan Cunnane, Teaching and Learning Consultant for KS3 Behaviour and Attendance notes that: (the book) "chimes fully with the messages of the KS2 pilot on developing SEBS (Social, Emotional and Behavioural Skills) and the KS3 B & A Strand…. Good exercises and strategies which are clearly explained…. A good practical compendium with theoretical underpinnings" ′ - East Riding Teaching Assistant News

`The materials are comprehensive and thought-provoking. They deal with the issues of behaviour management at an individual, team and school level and the participant activities provided are at once engaging and insightful′ - TA Help Website

Developed from training courses run by the authors for SENCOs and teaching assistants, this book provides a clear structure for the SENCO to deliver in-school training on behaviour management to teaching assistants and other school staff.

The emphasis is on planning for a team approach to problem solving within the context of whole-school improvement. The book is split up into a series of units that are designed to develop awareness and understanding through shared training. Each unit offers suggestions for practical school-based follow-up work that the teaching assistant can undertake and provides materials to allow the teaching assistant to maintain a reflective log of their work to support their professional development.

The authors:

- place their material in the context of the increasingly managerial role SENCOs are undertaking with their teaching assistants

- take into account the proposed development of the role of the teaching assistant as outlined in recent DfES guidance

- provide the SENCO with all training materials - photocopiable worksheets, suggested aims and objectives, discussion topics, tasks and activities.

The units offer a flexible training programme that schools can tailor to their individual needs and everything is written in a highly practical and user-friendly style.

SENCOs should find it an invaluable training tool for use with teaching assistants and other school staff. It is suitable for use at both primary and secondary level.

Chris Derrington and Barry Groom are both Senior Lecturers in SEN at University College Northampton and have worked as headteachers in schools for pupils with emotional and behavioural difficulties.