 This Byte's ICPD video is based on a video created by pupils at Richard Landers School in Cornwall. It was developed as part of the Head Start Kernel project. Students wanted to share ideas with school staff about how to respond and how not to respond when students were struggling. They looked at two common scenarios where they felt that the way that staff respond was sometimes not helpful and they considered a more helpful way that we might be able to respond. The scenarios were when a student is late for a lesson or if a student opens up to a member of staff. In both cases they filmed what not to do and then what to do. So let's look first at the first scenario. This is when a student is late for a lesson. In this first clip we see what the Richard Landers students thought we should not be doing. These are some of the doing words. Jess. Why are you late? This is the second time this week you've been late. It really isn't good enough. You're gonna start falling behind. Okay quickly take a seat and write down what's on the board please. Right guys, where were we? This isn't the best way to deal with this situation. You're isolating a student and making them feel vulnerable in what's probably already a vulnerable situation. They might actually have a genuine reason why they are late and now they feel completely cut off from the rest of the class. What do you think about the clip? How do you think the student feels in this situation? Have you responded this way yourself in the past? I think most of us have. What do you think might be a better way of responding? And now let's take a look at what the Richard Lander pupils thought would have been a better way of responding in this instance. Doing words. Jess. Fantastic. Brilliant. Excellent. Great. What is a noun? And name some things for me? Brilliant. Brilliant. Okay so what I want you to do now is continue working on your stories for me. Okay and we'll have some feedback in ten minutes. Okay let's go. Hey what happened to make you late today? Oh I just have to stay behind and talk to the teacher about something. Okay you know this is the second time you've been late this week. Okay so what we just need to make sure is that you catch up on any work that you miss. Okay so if you don't get all the work done today can you stay behind for five minutes just to make sure it gets done? Just don't want you falling behind all right. While this won't necessarily solve the problem it avoids the child feeling singled out and reduces disruption to the lesson. Do you agree? Can you imagine this response working in your classroom? How would you adapt this for use for yourself? In the second scenario a student opens up to a member of staff about their personal circumstances. Let's have a look at the clip which shows what the Richard Lander students thought was a common but unhelpful way of responding in this circumstance. Samson just wanted to talk to you about your photography work. You are a fantastic young photographer but you're really starting to fall behind in your theory. What's going on? My parents just decided to split up. I'm really struggling at school. I can't focus in classes. I don't understand it but it's really hard. Totally understand where you're coming from. My parents deforested and asked them to raise to you. Really nasty divorce. It's really hard. Best thing I found when I was your age is to just get my head down and really focus on my school work, focus on me and put aside all the things that are going on outside. Yeah thanks. Comparing past experiences isn't very helpful. It can make you feel invalidated and frustrated. What do you think about this clip? How do you think the student feels and how do you think the staff member could or should have responded differently? Now let's take a look at what the Richard Lander people thought would have been a better response in this situation. Samson just wanted to talk to you about your photography work. You are a fantastic young photographer but you're really starting to fall behind in your theory. What's going on? My parents just decided to split up. I'm really struggling at school. I can't focus in classes. I don't understand it but it's really hard. I understand. I'm really sorry to hear that Samson. Is there anything I can do to help? I don't think so but thanks for offering. Okay well I'll keep my room open a few lunch times this week. Give you a chance to catch up on any work. Give you a bit of a quiet space if you wanted to come by and relax and try to potter along in your own time but if you do want to talk at any time I'm here for you okay? I will. Thanks. No worries. Do you think this is a better response? Can you imagine this working for you? How would you adapt this response to make it work for you? Can you think of any other situations where the way in which we might commonly respond might not be the most supportive way to respond to our students? Think about what those situations might be, what our common response is and perhaps what a more supportive response would be. I hope this gave you a bit of a chance to reflect on the more supportive and less supportive ways that we might be able to respond to students. A huge thank you to Head Start Kerno who sponsored the project and to the students of Richard Lander who created the films and an especially big thanks to the superstar teacher from Richard Lander who was such a good sport and who deserves an Oscar don't you think?