Teachers TV: Teaching With Bayley: Attention Seekers

Drayton School is a small Community Comprehensive on the rural outskirts of Banbury in Oxfordshire. John Bayley observes part time French teacher Jane Wright struggle with a particularly disruptive group of pupils in a year 7 class. This is Jane's first year at the school after years of teaching in France. The disruption has made her frustrated and concerned that she can't even teach the pupils who are interested in learning. Bayley suggests she try to prevent some of the disruption by making more use of her vivacious personality and change to an upbeat teaching style with a lot more praise. He tells Jane that the disruptive pupils 'want your attention', and encourages her to replace negative with positive attention. Jane gives it a go in a follow up lesson and is surprised to find these techniques engage the more difficult pupils in the class, and a lot more learning than usual is able to take place.