Best Practice

Vulnerable students: A school without sanctions

Non-confrontational behaviour management can be very effective with vulnerable pupils, especially those who have mental health difficulties. Why is this and what does this look like?


My colleague Mick Simpson and I are school leaders on a mission. We pioneered a system of behaviour modification based on compassion, wellbeing and reward, eschewing the use of sanctions.

Similar to a public health approach to tackling anti-social behaviour, a non-confrontational approach to modifying behaviour focuses on developing positive relationships and shifts the narrative to be preventative. It focuses our attention on tackling “upstream” risk factors that are driving challenging behaviour and helps us to prevent the “downstream consequences” of more challenging behaviours.

An element of this approach is based on the hierarchy of needs created by the renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow (1943). Maslow hypothesised that we could explore what motivates people and put these things into a pyramid-shaped hierarchy.

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