Managing behaviours of concern in the classroom is one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. For many educators, addressing these behaviours can feel overwhelming, particularly when balancing the demands of lesson planning, marking, and supporting a diverse range of student needs.
This is where the Behaviour Help App, developed by Dolly Bhargava, steps in as a game-changer.
Designed with teachers in mind, the behaviour Help App streamlines the process of assessing, managing, and preventing challenging behaviours, making it easier than ever to create effective Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) plans.
These plans are widely recognised as the most effective way to support students with behaviours of concern, but they are also notoriously time-consuming to write and implement.
The app transforms this process, offering an efficient, user-friendly solution that saves time, reduces workload, and ensures consistent support for students across age groups.
Whether you’re working with young children or teenagers, the Behaviour Help App adapts to the unique challenges of each age group, offering tools and strategies that are as effective for early years as they are for secondary schools.
It simplifies collaboration between teachers, enabling seamless sharing of data and plans, so if one teacher leaves, another can pick up where they left off without disruption.
Everyone can monitor student progress easily.
By leveraging the behaviour Help App, teachers can spend less time grappling with administrative tasks and more time focusing on what truly matters: fostering a supportive and inclusive learning environment where every student can thrive.
In this guide, we’ll explore how the app works, its benefits for classrooms of all ages, and how it can revolutionise behaviour management in schools.
Understanding Student behaviour of Concern Across Age Groups
Effectively managing behaviours of concern in the classroom is a complex task.
These behaviours vary widely depending on the age group, developmental stage, and individual needs of students, but they share one thing in common: they can disrupt the flow of teaching and learning if not properly addressed.
Teachers are often tasked with balancing education, welfare, behaviour and classroom management simultaneously - a demanding challenge, especially when resources are limited, More teacher support is often needed.
The Unique Challenges of Managing Behaviour in the Classroom
Classrooms are dynamic environments, with teachers juggling multiple responsibilities at once.
Beyond delivering lessons, they are expected to ensure the well-being of their students while maintaining discipline and managing behaviours of concern.
Limited time, resources, and support make this multi-threaded workflow even more challenging.
From early years to secondary school, behaviours of concern may manifest differently. Younger children might struggle with emotional regulation, resulting in meltdowns, while older students may display defiance or disengagement.
For teachers, this means constantly shifting teaching strategies to meet the needs of diverse learners while maintaining a focus on the entire class.
The Behaviour Help App simplifies this daunting task, offering efficient tools to identify triggers, assess needs, and create Positive Behaviour Support plans that guide teachers through managing behaviours proactively as as not to disrupt the learning process.
Impacts on the Individual and the Wider Class
Behaviours of concern do not exist in isolation. For the student displaying these behaviours, the impact can be profound—affecting student learning, student understanding, collaborative learning, student engagement their self-esteem and relationships.
Left unmanaged, these behaviours can escalate, creating a cycle of frustration for both the student and the teacher.
Moreover, the wider classroom environment is inevitably affected. Disruptions caused by negative behaviours can lead to lost teaching time, distracted classmates, and strained relationships within the group.
This ripple effect is particularly hard to address in larger classes where individual attention is limited.
The Behaviour Help App empowers teachers to intervene effectively, minimising disruption and fostering a supportive environment that benefits all students.
The Challenges for Teachers: Burnout and Stress
For teachers, dealing with challenging behaviours is not just a practical issue but an emotional one. Constantly managing disruptive behaviours, particularly without the right classroom management tools or support, can lead to burnout and clinical stress.
The emotional toll of trying to balance behaviour management with teaching can leave educators feeling overwhelmed and undervalued.
The Behaviour Help App is designed to ease this burden. By facilitating time-intensive tasks like behaviour assessments and Positive Behaviour Support plan creation, the app reduces the workload on teachers and ensures they are equipped with evidence-based strategies so they can focus more on learning activities..
This allows educators to focus their energy on teaching and supporting their students, helping to alleviate stress and prevent burnout.
Key Features of the Behaviour Help App for Teachers
The Behaviour Help App is one of a range of behaviour management apps for teachers and students that are emerging for use in schools.
This form of educational technology forms part of your suite of classroom management tools, offering a comprehensive solution for managing behaviours of concern efficiently and effectively.
Streamlined Positive Behaviour Support Planning
One of the standout features of the Behaviour Help App is its ability to simplify the creation and implementation of Positive Behaviour Support plans.
Teachers can follow a straightforward process to assess, manage, and prevent challenging behaviours, reducing the time and effort required for these tasks.
By tracking progress within the app, teachers can monitor how well a student is responding to their plan and make adjustments as needed, ensuring a tailored approach that evolves with the student.
Effortless Sharing of Student Data
The app excels in managing student data, making it easy to share important behavioural information among colleagues.
Whether it’s between teaching assistants, subject specialists, or replacement teachers, the data is accessible to everyone involved in supporting the student.
This collaborative approach ensures consistency and keeps everyone aligned on the best strategies for managing behaviours of concern.
Seamless Integration Across Classrooms
The Behaviour Help App integrates seamlessly between classrooms, allowing multiple teachers to contribute to the same student’s support plan.
Whether a student moves between classes or is supported by several teachers, the app ensures that all interventions, observations, and plans are housed in one central system.
This eliminates the risk of miscommunication and ensures a unified approach to behaviour management.
Immediate Access to Prevention Plans
When challenging behaviour arises, time is often of the essence. The Behaviour Help App allows teachers to quickly access the student’s prevention plan and immediately implement the agreed-upon processes for intervention.
This ensures that responses are consistent, evidence-based, and effective in de-escalating the situation, minimising disruption to the classroom.
A Tool That Grows With the Student
The app’s design allows it to adapt to the changing needs of students over time. As behaviours improve or new challenges emerge, the app’s features make it simple to update strategies, adjust goals, and continue tracking the student's progress.
This ensures that the support provided remains relevant and effective throughout the student’s educational journey benefiting teachers and students alike.
Simplifying Positive Behaviour Support Plans with the Behaviour Help App
Creating an effective Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) plan is a crucial but often time-consuming task for educators.
At the heart of a successful plan is a deep understanding of the student, their behaviours, and the underlying factors driving those behaviours - a process that starts with a high-quality assessment.
The Behaviour Help App simplifies the entire PBS process, enabling teachers to assess, manage, and prevent behaviours of concern with unprecedented ease and consistency.
Assess: Building the Foundation of a Successful Plan
The first step in any PBS plan is the assessment phase, where data is gathered and analysed to understand the function of a student’s behaviour.
Traditionally, this process relies on observation and paper-based methods, which can be inconsistent and difficult to share among colleagues.
The Behaviour Help App eliminates these challenges by providing a structured platform for recording behavioural data in a consistent, accessible format.
Teachers can use the app to document incidents using tools like the A-B-C (Antecedent, Behaviour, Consequence) framework, ensuring that all observations are thorough and standardised.
The app also allows for the creation of detailed student profiles, capturing their strengths, triggers, and support systems.
By streamlining these tasks, the app not only saves time but also ensures the quality and reliability of the data collected.
This structured approach to assessment leads to a clearer understanding of the reasons behind behaviours, such as sensory sensitivities, communication barriers, or the need for self-regulation.
These insights form the foundation of an individualised PBS plan, setting the stage for effective management and prevention strategies.
Manage: Responding with Consistency and Insight
The Behaviour Help App takes the guesswork out of managing behaviours of concern by providing stage-specific de-escalation strategies tailored to the student’s needs.
By mapping out a student’s escalation stages—mild, moderate, extreme, and recovery—teachers can identify patterns and respond proactively to prevent further escalation.
With clear guidelines for managing behaviours at each stage, the app equips teachers to act consistently and confidently.
Whether it’s using early intervention strategies or implementing authorised restrictive practices, the app ensures that every response aligns with the PBS plan.
This structured approach not only reduces the immediate impact of challenging behaviours but also supports the student’s emotional and behavioural development.
Example behaviour management plan
John is a 15 year old adolescent with a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – combined type, Autism Spectrum Disorder – level 2, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and Generalised Anxiety Disorder. Below is John’s behaviour management plan which provides guidance on how identify his escalation stage and how to de-escalate in a structured way.
calm stage
Description of John's outward appearance and manner when he is in the calm stage:
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Face will have a neutral colour,
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Neutral facial expression,
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Speaking at a regular pace,
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Hands are open and relaxed,
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Less fidgeting,
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Maybe standing or sitting but still able to pay attention,
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Using little things to fidget (e.g. playing with paperclip or pen),
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Able to follow instructions,
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Completing tasks,
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More engaged,
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Speak conversationally,
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Appropriate volume,
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Likely to engage in reciprocal conversations,
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More likely to initiate, share and talk about his interests (e.g. Anime book he is reading),
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More responsive to requests for help and will offer to help,
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Will follow through on what he has said he will do with minimal prompting,
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Receptive to learn, sign up to new activities, and read documents,
Management strategies for the calm stage:
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Check in when John enters the class (this can be a non-verbal gesture that is decided with John),
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Provide an outline of work that is expected in the lesson. Break down tasks into steps and include information on where to find the items to complete the steps. For example,
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Get Maths textbook from cupboard,
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Login on your computer and open Maths document
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Open page 40 in Maths textbook
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Write answers for questions 1 to 5 on computer.
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Use wording that is explicit and concrete. For example, discuss 5 characteristics vs. Select 5 characteristics from the choices provided below OR study for 30 mins a day vs. review for ___ mins, for _____mins and for _____mins. For the upcoming test review pages _____to_____.
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Use declarative language in place of demand- based language. For example, I’m wondering where your book is; I notice your worksheet did not make it into the tray!, I’m thinking we might need some colouring pencils, I heard your friend say that she wants to use the red crayon when you are done, I forget what you said you wanted for lunch, I see the other students are starting to pack up their belongings, I just remembered that we need milk for this recipe, I could really use some help carrying this bag, I realised both you and your classmate like this game!
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Positive feedback both verbal and non-verbal to encourage John,
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Not imposing opinions, focus on open ended questions and collaboration,
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Using choices to encourage John’s participation and minimise overwhelm e.g. can do questions 1-5 or 6-7, instead of the whole page you can choose this section or this one,
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If there are changes explain ‘why’ the change has occurred,
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Link his learning to ‘real life’ situations (his eagerness to become an electrician) you will need this to be able to do….
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Encourage and reinforce ‘help seeking behaviour’ (e.g. email teacher if you have any questions).
mild stage
Description of John's outward appearance and manner when he is in the mild stage:
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Cheeks are blushed,
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Speaking at a faster pace,
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Higher volume,
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Tense body,
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Pacing and moving around,
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Difficulty stayed seated,
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Fidgeting – playing with bigger things (e.g. twisting his shirt or clothes),
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Bringing his hands together and wringing together with his shirt to get deep pressure,
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Disengaging from work,
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Not willing to look at sign up sheets, learn or read,
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Being off-task and doing unrelated tasks,
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Avoidant behaviours (e.g. I need to go to the toilet),
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Won’t voluntarily engage in interactions,
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If he does respond its 1 word + and sounds like a bark ‘what’,
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Property damage of own items (tearing paper, scribbling in front of his work book, breaking pencil).
Management strategies for the mild stage:
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Do not ask him to take deep breaths. Do not ask him to calm down,
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Avoid referring to emotional regulation programs e.g. zones of regulations or strategies e.g. ‘take a meditation break’ as that will further escalate him,
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Don’t infantilise him. Speak to him like an adult,
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Avoid labelling his behaviour:
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e.g. you seem escalated; or telling him how he feels ‘You seem really angry. What’s going on?’ or giving him a lecture. Instead use an objective approach e.g. ‘What’s going on?’.
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Behaviour is communication so attempt to work out why John is exhibiting the behaviour of concern and aim to address the underlying trigger. Examples include:
Work related triggers:
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Task is difficult,
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Hasn’t understood/ heard instructions,
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Isn’t sure of where to access the items /technology,
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Fear of failure, Peer related triggers
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peers aren’t doing the work/right thing.
Anxious about upcoming appointment:
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Inform him you will set an alarm so that he won’t miss his appointment.
Preoccupied with a problem before class:
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Suggest he got to the office to talk to his wellbeing coordinator about it.
If you can’t address the trigger to de-escalate then ask him to do a job (heavy work) to help redirect his attention e.g. take this box to the office.
extreme stage
Description of John's outward appearance and manner when he is in the extreme stage:
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Cheeks will get redder,
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Volume will get louder,
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Insulting the person/activity,
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Swearing,
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Wringing of shirt with more force,
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Non responsive to other’s speech,
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Disordered speech (jumping from topic to topic),
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If someone attempts to touch him he may become aggressive,
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Hit his head,
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Pull his hair,
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Hit his leg,
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Property damage – own or other’s,
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Throw or break everything in pencil case, rip book,
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Crying,
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Leaves the environment.
Management strategies for the extreme stage:
If John has left the environment, then go outside and ask him to go to the office to see his well being coordinator or sit outside the classroom and the coordinator will come soon. Ensure you accompany him as he is at risk of self harm/suicidal ideation.
If the coordinator isn’t available then refer to the who can I talk to list to suggest another person
Who can I talk to?
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Well being coordinator
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Deputy principal – 1
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Deputy principal -2
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Call Mum
recovery stage
Description of John's outward appearance and manner when he is in the recovery stage:
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Tired,
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Quiet,
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Withdrawn,
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Appears to regress (present as very young),
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Most vulnerable,
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Most likely to say the truth,
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Sensitive,
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Ask for ‘mum’ (request co-regulation to feel safe/calm down).
Management strategies for the recovery stage:
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Give him space,
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Avoid discussing the incident,
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Wait till he is completely calm to engage in restorative practice.
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Examples of questions:
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What happened?
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What were you thinking at the time? What have you thought about since?
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Who has been affected by what you have done? In what way?
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What do you think you need to do to make things right?
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If the same thing happens again, how could you behave differently?
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What support do you need? Who can you go to for support?
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Acknowledge his apology and apologise if you have made any errors
Prevent: Creating Supportive Environments and Teaching New Skills
The ultimate goal of a Positive behaviour support plan is to prevent behaviours of concern by addressing their triggers and teaching the student alternative, functional behaviours.
The Behaviour Help App guides teachers through this process, offering tools to design supportive environments, tailor activities, and foster positive interactions.
By using the app to identify potential triggers and develop preventative strategies, teachers can create a classroom environment that minimises behavioural challenges.
The app also supports the teaching of Functionally Equivalent Replacement Behaviours (FERBs), which allow students to meet their needs in appropriate ways.
This proactive approach not only reduces the frequency of behaviours of concern but also empowers students to develop independence and improve their quality of life.
Making PBS Plans Work for the Entire Team
One of the app’s standout features is its ability to facilitate collaboration. With the Behaviour Help App, behavioural data and PBS plans are easily shared among colleagues, enabling everyone involved in a student’s education to stay aligned.
If a teacher leaves or transitions out of a role, their successor can seamlessly pick up where they left off, maintaining consistency in the student’s support.
This collaborative functionality reduces the workload for individual teachers and eliminates the risks of inconsistent or fragmented approaches.
By streamlining the assess-manage-prevent process, the Behaviour Help App ensures that every student receives the support they need, and every teacher is equipped to provide it effectively.
Management and Behaviour Reporting with the Behaviour Help App
In addition to managing behaviours of concern in real-time, teachers are often required to document and report these behaviours to school leadership, parents, and support teams.
This can be a time-consuming and stressful responsibility, particularly when juggling the demands of the classroom.
The Behaviour Help App offers a solution, transforming reporting into a seamless, efficient process that supports both teachers and school management.
Effortless Documentation of Behavioural Data
The app’s intuitive design allows teachers to record behavioural data as incidents occur, using consistent and structured formats such as A-B-C (Antecedent, Behaviour, Consequence) charts.
This ensures that all key information—such as triggers, behaviours, and outcomes—is captured accurately. The ability to log data directly into the app eliminates the need for paper-based systems, reducing the risk of lost or incomplete records.
Comprehensive Reports for Leadership Teams
The Behaviour Help App makes it simple to compile detailed reports that school leadership teams can use for decision-making.
Teachers can generate summaries of behavioural patterns, intervention outcomes, and progress against Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) plans with just a few clicks.
These reports provide clear evidence of the strategies being implemented and their effectiveness, giving management the information they need to support staff and allocate resources appropriately.
Supporting Safeguarding and Compliance
Accurate and thorough documentation is a critical part of meeting safeguarding and compliance requirements in schools.
Whether it’s responding to parental concerns, demonstrating adherence to policies, or preparing for inspections, the Behaviour Help App ensures that all behavioural data is well-organised and readily accessible.
This reduces administrative pressure on teachers while helping schools maintain accountability.
Facilitating Parent-Teacher Collaboration
Regular reporting is key to building trust and collaboration with parents.
The app enables teachers to produce detailed updates on a student’s behavioural progress, including evidence of how interventions are working and areas for further development.
These reports can be shared during parent-teacher meetings, creating a transparent and constructive dialogue about the student’s needs and achievements.
Data Sharing for Team Reviews
Behavioural data stored in the app can be effortlessly shared with other staff members, enabling team reviews and professional discussions.
Whether it’s during a pastoral care meeting, a special education review, or a teacher handover, the app ensures that everyone involved in supporting a student has access to the same accurate and up-to-date information.
This collaborative approach eliminates the inconsistencies that can arise from fragmented reporting systems.
Enhancing Consistency and Collaboration in Positive behaviour management
Effective behaviour management isn’t just about individual interventions - it requires a consistent, collaborative approach across all staff members involved in a students behaviour.
A lack of coordination can lead to mixed messages, inconsistencies, and frustration for both students and teachers. The Behaviour Help App addresses these challenges by providing a unified platform for collaboration, ensuring everyone is on the same page when managing behaviours of concern.
Aligned Strategies Across Classrooms
When students move between classrooms or are supported by multiple teachers, inconsistent behaviour management can disrupt progress and exacerbate behaviours of concern.
The app integrates seamlessly across classrooms, allowing teachers to contribute to a single assess-manage-prevent process for each student.
This unified strategy ensures that students receive the same support and expectations, no matter which teacher they’re working with.
Continuity During Staff Changes
Staff turnover or teacher absences can disrupt a student’s behaviour management plan, particularly when critical information is lost or poorly communicated.
The Behaviour Help App eliminates this risk by ensuring that all relevant data and plans are stored in one place.
If one teacher leaves, another can pick up exactly where they left off, maintaining continuity in the student’s support. This feature is invaluable for minimising disruptions and ensuring consistent outcomes.
Collaborative Development of Positive Behaviour Support Plans
Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) plans are most effective when they are developed collaboratively, involving input from teachers, support staff, and specialists.
The Behaviour Help App facilitates this process by allowing multiple team members to contribute observations, strategies, and feedback.
This shared effort ensures that PBS plans are comprehensive, actionable, and tailored to the student’s unique needs.
Building a Culture of Teamwork
Beyond its practical benefits, the app promotes a culture of teamwork and shared responsibility in behaviour management. Teachers feel supported knowing that they are part of a collaborative system, and students benefit from a unified approach that prioritises their well-being and development.