Page 5 - Course 5 Getting Brain Ready
P. 5
Expectations: Our 7 Key Principles
1 Clear: Explicitly teach what pro-social and pro-learning behaviours sound and look like (don’t
teach explicitly
assume children know).
Focus on the purpose of expectations:
2 Meaningful: a) Now: so it is a happy and calm environment for everyone.
has real purpose
b)
Future: so the child has the skills to be a great friend, partner, neighbour and
work colleague in the future.
3 Collaborative: Get children’s buy-in by agreeing the expectations with children – don’t just set rules
work out together
(or pretend to collaborate).
Acknowledge that they may find it really difficult to keep to these expectations – use
Honest:
4 acknowledge some may our ‘Shaping the Brain’ unit to explain why.
Give children the opportunity to think about a) what they might find difficult and
find it harder
b) what might help them to keep to the expectations everyone agrees are right.
Real-life: Focus on the natural consequences of non-pro-social and non-learning behaviours
5 the natural e.g. If you keep interrupting, people will become frustrated and not want to discuss
consequences things with you so much. If you poke people, they won’t want to sit next to you.
Make sure children know that you will follow-up every time they don’t meet an
Consistent:
6 expectation - because it is vital to unpick the issues and work out how to make things
children can be certain
work better next time. They deserve this level of support to do better.
7 Impactful: people feel Make sure follow-up is about helping children work out unmet needs and develop the
and do better over time
skills, strategies and scaffolds to do better next time.
