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Five-session mentoring course

Disrespect to authority

Who it's for

Consider this course for a pupil showing:

  • Talks back, mimics, or undermines staff specifically, distinct from general rule-breaking
  • Responds more negatively to certain adults or roles than others
  • History of difficult relationships with authority figures inside or outside school
  • Behaviour often escalates when the pupil feels corrected in front of peers

What it works towards

  • Explore the pupil's own experiences and beliefs about authority and trust
  • Build perspective on the adult's role and pressures
  • Practise respectful ways to disagree or push back
  • Repair specific staff relationships through restorative conversation

The five sessions

  1. Session 1 Trust and respect Pupil can describe, in general terms, a personal experience of adults and authority.
  2. Session 2 Seeing the adult's side Pupil can describe one plausible pressure or motivation a staff member might have.
  3. Session 3 Communicating respectfully Pupil can practise a respectful way of disagreeing with an adult.
  4. Session 4 Repair and restore Pupil takes part in, or rehearses for, a restorative conversation with a specific staff member.
  5. Session 5 My working relationship plan Pupil has an agreed, simple plan for working with key staff members going forward.

A sixth session follows, without the pupil: the mentor writes the support plan and agrees next steps.

The approach, and where it comes from

This module leans on relational and restorative approaches, evidence reviewed by the EEF found that strong, trusting relationships between staff and pupils are one of the most consistent predictors of improved behaviour, more so than sanctions alone. This mirrors the DfE's Behaviour in Schools advice, which sets out that consistent routines and modelled respect from staff, not sanctions in isolation, are what sustain improved conduct, and supports the standard expected under Ofsted's attendance and behaviour evaluation area.

Try it with a small group

Three weeks free, no card, up to three staff and ten pupils. Everything recorded during the trial carries over if you continue.

Start the free pilot

Or read the white paper, which sets out the evidence behind each of the twenty courses.

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