Sanctions helping learning happen
Positive classroom environments (part 3): 5 sanctions shaping positive classroom environments in successful schools
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This is a guest post by History Leader, Temi Alanamu. If you’d like to research or write for us, head to the bottom of this post.
Sanctions are an inevitable part of classroom life. Even in the calmest, most predictable classrooms, things do not always go to plan. What distinguishes schools with consistently positive classroom environments is not the absence of sanctions, but the way they are used.
Across earlier pieces in this series, I focused on the foundations of calm, positive classrooms in 30 successful schools. First, the routines that create predictable starts, smooth transitions and clear endings. Then the reward practices that reinforce those routines, recognise effort, and strengthen positive learning habits over time.
Sanctions complete the picture. They sit alongside strong routines, clear expectations, and well-established reward systems to reset behaviour, protect learning time, and support pupils to rejoin the lesson successfully.
This final piece explores how sanctions are used across schools with strong positive classroom cultures, and what this tells us about sustaining calm, inclusive learning environments. In particular, this piece explores how schools:
Use verbal warnings as opportunities to reset behaviour.
Apply sanctions through clear, graduated sequences.
Use removal from lessons purposefully and sparingly.
Support pupils through restorative follow-up and reintegration.
Make reasonable adjustments to sanctions to ensure fairness and inclusion.
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5 sanctions shaping positive classroom environments
1. Verbal warnings are used as opportunities to reset
In 19 of the 30 schools, the first response to disruption is a brief verbal warning.
Far from a reprimand, a verbal warning is a clear signal that expectations have slipped and gives pupils an opportunity to adjust their behaviour without further consequence.
These warnings are typically:
Short and specific.
Linked directly to the routine or expectation.
Delivered without interrupting the flow of the lesson.
Used well, verbal warnings allow lessons to continue smoothly while reinforcing boundaries. Pupils are given clarity and a chance to self-correct, which helps maintain calm and reduces the need for escalation.
2. Sanctions follow a clear, graduated sequence
In 28 schools, sanctions sit within a clearly defined graduated structure.
This means staff and pupils understand
What happens first.
What comes next if behaviour continues.
When behaviour is escalated beyond the classroom.
Common steps include warnings, time out of class, detentions and structured pastoral support. The detail varies, but the principle is consistent responses that are predictable and proportionate.
This clarity reduces uncertainty for pupils and decision fatigue for staff. Teachers do not need to improvise responses, and pupils know what to expect. As a result, sanctions feel fair, consistent, and easier to accept.
3. Removal from lessons is used purposefully
Across schools, temporary removal from lessons appears as part of the graduated response, but it is used carefully and deliberately.
When removal happens, it is usually:
Time-limited.
Accompanied by structured work.
Followed by a planned reintegration
The focus is on restoring learning, not excluding pupils from it. Removal creates space for the class to continue learning and for the pupil to reset. This approach helps protect classroom routines while keeping pupils connected to learning and expectations.
4. Restorative follow-up that supports reintegration
In 9 schools, sanctions are paired with restorative conversations or reintegration meetings.
These conversations typically:
Revisit expectations.
Clarify what needs to change.
Support pupils to re-enter lessons positively.
Conversations are usually brief and practical and focused on next steps rather than past mistakes. In one school, pupils are explicitly welcomed back into lessons with a brief, positive guidance on what teachers would like to see differently within the lesson.
This follow-up helps to repair relationships, rebuild trust, and reduce repeat issues, particularly for pupils who struggle with regulation.
5. Sanctions are adapted to ensure fairness and inclusion
In 13 schools, sanctions are adjusted to ensure they remain accessible and appropriate for pupils with SEND.
This includes:
Additional verbal prompts before escalation.
Alternative detention arrangements.
Access to regulation spaces or movement breaks.
Shorter or modified sanctions where appropriate.
These reasonable adjustments are planned and documented and the aim is not to lower expectations, but to ensure pupils can realistically meet them.
By building flexibility into sanction systems, schools support equity while maintaining consistency.
Would someone else find this helpful?
A final reflection
In schools with positive classroom environments, sanctions are part of a wider system designed to keep classrooms calm and predictable. They are not intended to punish, but designed to support learning, reinforce routines, and maintain calm. Used well, sanctions provide staff with confidence and pupils with clarity.
Is this also true of your setting? Here are four questions worth asking as you review your own practice:
What purpose do sanctions currently serve in your behaviour culture?
How clear is the sanction pathway for staff and pupils, and how confidently is it applied across classrooms?
Do sanctions communicate consequence or help pupils return successfully to learning?
What routines reduce the likelihood of resorting to sanctions?
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