Relationship-building from day one: A simple technique to build rapport and recognise new students’ needs

When I started teaching in the 1990s, I knew almost nothing about the students in my new classes apart from their names. Now every September I have data for each child: their prior attainment, spelling and reading ages, and their minimum expected grades (MEGs). I start to know students before meeting them. But this still isn’t enough, as I realised when becoming frustrated teaching GCSE science to one class. I had students’ data, yet I felt that we were getting nowhere fast. When the results were published, my fears were confirmed. I reflected: why had I failed to make an impact? A substantial body of evidence (e.g. Hattie, 2009; Cook et al., 2018) suggests that establishing good relationships with students positively impacts on their future academic performance. In Hattie’s words, ‘It is teachers who have created positive student-teacher relationships that are more likely to have the above average effects on student achievement.’ (Hattie, 2009, p. 126) Developing a war