First day as a Year 7 form tutor. “I want you all to be the kind of people who have integrity. I say, you say: “Integrity!”

“Integrity!” the 11 year olds all shout back, with enthusiasm.

What do I mean by ‘integrity’? It means to do the right thing, even when no-one is watching. When the teacher isn’t watching, do you talk when you know you are meant to be silent? When your parents are not watching and you said you are doing your homework, are you really doing your homework? The people I admire most, are the ones whose actions match their values. I want you to become like those I admire most. These people have nothing to hide. They can proudly say that they do the right thing.”

***

The above might be what you hear in my classroom on any given day. I have crystal clarity about what kind of culture I want to develop in my classroom because I have clarity about what I value. I want the pupils in my classroom to become better people each day. This happens when they actually behave in a way that reflects the values we share: integrity, taking responsibility for our actions, thinking about our duty to others, working hard, being grateful, radiating positivity.

But values themselves are abstract. Pupils need to be taught specific behaviours that enable to them to practice living those values. So making them concrete (are you really silent when the teacher asks?) makes achieving living that value more likely.

***

It’s now break time & and I am observing my Year 7 class. Miles is chatting away to Reece when a tissue drops out of Miles’ pocket and onto the floor. I watch Miles: what will he do? He glances at the tissue, pauses, ignores it, and carries on talking with Reece. A few seconds later, Miles catches my eye. I raise my eyebrows and look at the tissue on the floor. He picks it up and throws it into the bin. I give him a thumbs up but then ask him to come over.

“How are you, Miles?”

“Good sir. How are you?”

“I’m well, thank you. Great manners for asking. Can you remind me what integrity means?”

“Doing the right thing even when no-one is watching, sir”.

“Well remembered! Now, I want you to answer honestly. When the tissue fell, did you see it and ignore it at first?”

He pauses, deciding how he ought to answer.

“Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble. I’ll have huge respect for you if you answer with integrity.”

“Yes, sir – I did see it and just left it there until you told me to pick it up.”

***

We’ve gone from theory to practice. This is the hardest part. It is easy to give an assembly about values, to talk about values in the abstract in lessons and form time. To actually invest the time and effort in helping pupils to live those values in every interaction is tough part. (Notice how I reinforced the value of politeness and thinking about others by praising Miles when he asked me how I was). But that is the very thing that will transform culture and forge character in our pupils. Miles agreed to share this little story in form time that afternoon, and explained how it taught him that another way to show integrity was to pick up litter even if no-one was watching.

I praised him & celebrated the progress he had made. He was becoming better, he was reflecting on his mistake and he was living our form’s values.

If you can forge an identity where living the values you share is something worth celebrating and worthy of admiration, and explain that being in this class/school means showing integrity, then you allow others in the group a chance to belong to the form/school by living those values too. Appealing to a sense of belonging is one of the most powerful levers for behavioural change.

The story of Miles allowed me to highlight to my class why the value of integrity is so important and how they too can behave in order to live this value. I praised Miles to reinforce the value publicly and tied the behaviour to an identity so that others had the chance to belong too.

Utilitarianism vs Character

I so often hear teachers narrating behaviours they like to see in utilitarian ways: if you work hard, you will be able to get great qualifications and get the job you want. On punctuality: imagine you are late regularly to your place – you’d get fired! On integrity: imagine if your boss saw you doing something you shouldn’t!

I disagree with this narration. Getting and keeping their job in the distant future isn’t really why I want my pupils to work hard, be punctual or show integrity. I want them to live these values because that is what makes them better people right here, right now.

Building culture > managing behaviour

I think the phrase ‘manage behaviour’ sets us up to view our jobs with the paradigm of getting pupils to comply with rules. I see teaching & school as much more than that. I think schools have a role in forging culture and moulding character. Once you view things from the lens of ‘building culture’ or ‘shaping character’ instead of managing behaviour, you can start to think beyond keeping bad behaviour at bay and start to think about how you can inspire pupils to become better versions of themselves each day.

Now, I am not saying that we should forget about behaviour management. Rewards, sanctions, clear rules, consequences etc. must all be in place and secure. In fact, building culture depends on excellent behaviour management. Thinking about character and culture means getting behaviour management right and more.

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”
~Aristotle

The (often attributed to) Aristotle quote above teaches us that actions are the key to excellence. If we can make it clear to pupils what those precise actions are and reinforce them continually, through every interaction we have with them, then we can start to build a culture of excellence.

As I came to understand this big idea, I struggled with reconciling two others: what are the relative roles of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation in our classrooms? More on this in a future post.

@PriteshRaichura.bsky.social / @Mr_Raichura

To see an example of how and why I push the value of ‘hard work’ in my classroom, see my previous post.

Big thanks to Becky Staw, James Sibley, Joe Kirby, Rob Orme, Neena Sharma & Grace Steggall for conversations over the years inspiring this post.