Unenforced Rules Part 1: Lesson Expectations
Which rules are frequently ignored?
One of us1 recently wrote a blog post about how teachers sometimes don't follow their school's behaviour policy.
Following this, we will look at which school rules are frequently not enforced and why. We're talking about the rules that are often either completely ignored or where the only sanction is a reminder, and there’s only a punishment if the student continues to break the rule. We will be basing this on our experience as teachers.
In this post, we’re focusing on rules regarding classroom behaviour. Part 2 will look at behaviour around school and Part 3 will focus on uniform rules.
Punctuality
Rules about punctuality to lessons are frequently not enforced. It’s not always clear how late is late, or what’s supposed to be done about tardiness. When teachers are left to make their own subjective decisions about what counts as lateness, enforcement becomes inconsistent.2 This can be exacerbated by workload. If a teacher has to log every late arrival to lessons or organise detentions, many will decide it’s not worth the effort. This is particularly the case if multiple pupils have arrived late. It’s also tricky if poor punctuality has become normal. A school, where one of us worked as a tutor,3 switched to having 100-minute lessons; consequently, the pupils simply reallocated their social time. Instead of chatting while on the journey between lessons, they spent up to ten minutes socialising in the corridor at the start of every lesson. It was as if they’d decided: if lessons are going to be twice as long, we’ll just be twice as late. The total time spent chatting stayed the same.
Sometimes, lateness isn’t even deliberate defiance. Pupils don’t always know what the expectations are, especially when they vary between lessons or staff. And they may rely on well-worn excuses, with “I needed the toilet” being one of the most common. Between lessons, that excuse becomes even harder to challenge. Whether pupils are allowed to use the toilets during movement time is another rule that may be poorly defined or enforced.
Some schools make it clear what counts as late. In the school where one of us currently works, there’s a four-minute movement window between lessons. Pupils are expected to arrive within that time. After break and lunch, the expectation is different: there’s a whistle five minutes beforehand, and pupils are supposed to arrive by the start of the lesson.
Even where expectations are clear, enforcement can still be difficult. Some teachers are moving between rooms. They may be arriving just in time, setting up the lesson, and are not well-placed to track which pupils came in at which point.
Settling at the Start of Lessons
Another likely weak spot is the expectation that pupils should settle straight away when they arrive. Schools may have clear routines in place — “come in, sit down, get started” — but in practice, these are hard to enforce consistently. We have already mentioned that teachers may be setting up their lesson; moving between classrooms, or arriving at the same time as their pupils. When a teacher is teaching away from their department, far from other staff, enforcing entry routines (like getting pupils to line up, enter in silence) on one’s own can be much more difficult.
It’s not just about entering quietly. Pupils also need to get their equipment out, open their books, and get started. For some pupils, it seems to take ten minutes to find their pen. One thing one of us tried is refusing to let pupils sit down until they’ve got their pen out.4
It can be even worse when there are books or equipment to be distributed to pupils. Pupils love to hand out books, but this can take twice as long as if they just collected their own books as they come in. Compliance at the start of lessons is typically more of a challenge than later in the lesson and, sometimes, it is remarkable how long it takes for a lesson to begin.
Talking Out of Turn
Perhaps the most damaging commonly tolerated behaviour is talking out of turn. It’s just difficult to stop it every time, and teachers may not try. As long as they can get pupils to be quiet eventually, they don’t give a sanction for everyone who’s stopping the quiet. One of us has found this can only be done by having a printed seating plan; looking around, and marking pupils off for each interruption.
One of us once had a Year 7 class, who were a very interesting bunch. But detentions had to be given because it was impossible to complete a sentence without a hand going up—somebody asking a question or pointing out, “Miss/Sir, your projector’s off.” It was very, very draining. Because some of the pupils were very sweet, there was a feeling of guilt about giving a detention for raising a hand. However, they did not know or understand that putting their hands up was an interruption. In that situation, the rule was made clear: “Do not put your hands up”, and the hands went up anyway. It made for an exasperating lesson. Sometimes we have to say things like, “Can I have no questions that aren’t about the work?” yet the hands still go up.
Equipment
Equipment is another area where enforcement may break down. The school rules might say one thing, but teachers often come up with their own expectations. Some teachers will lend pens, pencils, rulers and other items5 every lesson. Some won’t. There’s also a tipping point. Once more than a few pupils are missing what they need, it’s quicker to hand out a whole class set than to go around giving out individual items and trying to keep track. But that makes it harder to reinforce any kind of consistent message. If pupils think the teacher is going to provide everything anyway, there’s little incentive to bring anything themselves.
Sanctions can help, even simple ones. Saying, “Yes, you can borrow one, but you’re getting a demerit,” can be enough to stop pupils asking. Without that, some pupils will just never bring equipment. And some ask for things they do have, but can’t be bothered to look for.
There’s also the question of who is supposed to check pupils are arriving to school with the correct equipment. Typically, it falls to form tutors. However, form time is full of other tasks that are also meant to be done in ten or fifteen minutes. It’s not usually defiance from the form tutor that prevents them from doing equipment checks, it’s just not realistic. So, equipment checks that are supposed to happen frequently don’t. One of us was told to do an equipment check every day for a new Year 7 form group and issue behaviour points when pupils didn’t have what they needed. It became clear during the year that no other tutors were still doing this, and their year head conceded that the checks should probably just be once a week.
A special mention should be made of planners. Some schools say every pupil must have a planner, but no one checks. It’s just another rule that’s announced and then forgotten.
It’s Often the Same Pupils
Many of these issues overlap. Pupils who arrive late are typically the same ones who don’t have their equipment. The same ones who take forever to settle. The same ones who don’t get started until they’re prompted three or four times and then interrupt everyone else by calling out. When rules like punctuality, settling routines, and equipment expectations are left unenforced, a small group of pupils can waste a remarkable amount of lesson time.
With help from the other.
Thinking back to the 00s, it’s hard not to be shocked at how unserious some schools were about this issue. More than once, we have encountered schools where the sanction for lateness was “to keep pupils in at the end of the lesson”. This gave the impression that managers thought every lesson was followed by a break and teachers had enough spare time to do this throughout the day.
i.e. providing individual tuition, not teaching classes.
It worked to speed things up, but was strongly resented by the class.
Such as calculators.
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