Working with Students with Behaviour Difficulties
As a school SENCO, I found this to be a very interesting book to read. Angus Macfarlane has published widely in New Zealand and his ability to encapsulate the current cultural needs of students in New Zealand's schools is well described.
Here he looks at the teaching practices and behaviours that influence the classroom culture for good, especially for younger teenagers. I found his notes on how to speak with students very poignant, where being brief and being gone is important rather than a lengthy talk. I find this to be so. Keeping to the point, being clear about what is expected and being gone from that focus and onto the learning works well, especially for boys, I find.
Macfarlane's frameworks for discipline reflect the cultural practices of talking together with whanau about their child and leading students through a restorative practice process to reach agreement and consensus.
He talks about the ethos and values within schools and emphasises the Maori concept of aroha as being central to a whole school culture. I find it to be the heart of a school and without that between all relationships the school seems an uncaring place especially for students.
