The learning environment: Building routines, habits and familiarity
Written by: James Blake
5 min read
James Blake, Assistant Principal, The Skinners’ Kent Academy, Tunbridge Wells, UK
Rules, routines and regulating them are part of the day-to-day running of any school. Drawing on my experience with a Year 9 class, this reflection considers the role of routines in creating a productive classroom environment that supports learning. From lining up in silence to putting your hand up, coats off at the door and phones turned off, we embed rules and routines from the offset. Most students seemingly accept these instructions, having had them drummed into their minds from at least primary school. As the Shotten Hall Research School (2021) reported:
Retrieval practice is what will make our new routines stick. It’s hard to predict how many times we will have to reteach a routine before it becomes embedded, but we must remember that students learn routines regularly for every subject and every teacher, and the more we repeat the routines, the less they will impact on our students’ cognit
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- Shotton Hall Research School (2021) The role of routines in behaviour for learning. Available at: https://researchschool.org.uk/shottonhall/news/the-role-of-routines-in-behaviour-for-learning (accessed 9 May 2022).
- Collie E (2020)The importance of routine for children. Available at: https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/the-importance-of-routine-for-children/ (accessed 9 May 2022).
- Willingham DT (2009). Why Don’t Students Like School? San Francisco, CA: Jossy Bass.
I agree.
The battle remains to convince all !
‘it hinders creativity’ ‘it does not matter’ but it clearly does. it helps us and it helps them. We will use it as a starting point for our own staff
Maybe this will go some way to help persuade some that routines can actively help with behaviours for learning
I teach KS1 and the effectiveness of routines is clearly visible. More learning time & less confusion and stress for the little ones.