When we consider how to make our Classroom happier, the best way to start is to consider those things that prevent a classroom from operating in a cheerful way.

Because young people, children, students, kids, call them what you will, are fundamentally happy people.  They laugh a lot, they smile a lot, they like to joke.  It takes a very miserable, or a very disillusioned, teacher to turn a cheery group of youngsters into a class of little Mr and Miss Grumps.

It could well be the case that a happier classroom is a theatre of fun, in which gleaming eyed, smiling pupils work hard, support each other and enter the room with a gay hop and a skip, and a bottle of fizzy pop (well, water) and some iced buns for Miss. A classroom in which a happier atmosphere would be nigh on impossible to find.

More likely, sometimes it is a great place, and sometimes it isn’t. Which is not just down to the sun shining through the wall of windows.  Why is it that 4B enter Classical History as though they are attending a One Direction Concert some days, but by the end of the next lesson it is as though they are being marched off for six of the best and a double dose of school custard and Brussel sprouts?

Pupils and teachers; we are not that different really.  Sir’s desk might represent a border post between our great nations, but the checkpoint guard is looking to do the best they can for the near neighbours.

So, what stops our classrooms from being a happier place than Dotheboys Hall?  I would argue that there is nothing ground breaking about identifying the causes of cheerlessness.  They include:

• Stress (for pupils and teachers)
• A sense of failure
• Stress (for teachers and pupils)
• Boredom
• Stress (for everybody)
• Injustice, perceived or real
• Our own personal circumstances, and those of the children we teach
• And finally, a dose of highly infectious – you’ve guessed it – stress.

Everybody will have their own methods and systems to make their Classroom Happier.  Here are some of the key ingredients that have, to a greater or (sometimes) lesser degree, worked for me in making my classroom happier.

Good Teaching leads to Classroom Happier

Kids come to school expecting to work.  Mostly.  And if we can create the environment whereby they fulfil that expectation, then they will be cheery enough.

• Keep ‘em at it. The most enjoyable lessons are where the students work their hardest.  Being engaged with plenty to do (including some practical activities) is so much better than listening to teacher rabbit on.  In fact, when we are enjoying the sound of our own voice, that is probably the time to realise that the classroom could be a happier place.  Perhaps there is an inverse relationship here – the more engaged we are with our own performance, the less enjoyment the students are getting.  There’s a thought.
• Provide a variety of activities. Nobody enjoys just listening.  Few enjoy just writing.  Not all enjoy discussing.  Many do not like having to speak up in class.  Many more love it.  Watching a video is great…the first time, and perhaps even the second.  But not after that.  Variety – the spice of lessons.
• Make your environment a celebration of success. We all like to feel that we are doing well.  Make your classroom happier by encouraging the students in all that they do.  My children’s school has just introduced a new system of feedback.  In it, the school highlights what each pupil needs to do to make the next steps in their progress towards GCSE success.  Very helpful, indeed, but the methodology is totally devoid of humanity.  There is no recognition of success, of having reached a target, of having worked hard or overcome a difficulty.  It is just about more, more, more.   As a result, all but the most over confident child thinks that they are doing badly, even when they are in fact achieving brilliantly.

Be Friendly

Not a friend, but friendly.  Delivering that friendliness depends a lot on the age of your students.  Year One love to talk about what Mummy and Daddy are up to, which of course provides the teacher with much needed ammunition against Mr and Mrs Angry type parents.  Year 10 are generally more monosyllabic.

That doesn’t mean they don’t appreciate an observation about their interests, be it music, sport…even their school work on occasion.

You could even try telling some jokes.  Don’t worry if they are rubbish – a little self-humiliation is well received, and dad jokes – ones which are knowingly bad – are quite the in thing at the moment.

For the one or two of us who do engage in a little sarcasm from time to time, it is best avoided.  Sarcasm might get a laugh, but it is a cheap one.  We are seeking to make our classroom happier, but not at the expense of our pupils.

Use the Fairness Fairy

A happy classroom is a fair classroom.  Any of us who has been teaching more than a couple of months knows that children have a finely attuned sense of fairness.  Their perception might not always match our own, but that doesn’t mean their judgement of justice is not important.

Consciously unfair teachers do not last long.  Fortunately.  But many of us employ reward and punishment as motivatory tools, and that often goes down badly with young (and older) people. Just because Emily has, for the first time, made a (minimal) effort with her homework doesn’t mean she deserves ‘Star of the Week’ when Jason works his socks off all the time.  And when Jason’s work falls from its normal immaculate state to a position of just very good, that is not the time for a ‘motivatory’ look of disappointment.  Everybody is entitled to an off day.  As teachers, we have enough of them!  In all likelihood, our managers have even more.

Clear Expectations…

Are like a window.  Transparent, but impossible to cross without some breakages occurring.

I fear that it is stating the obvious, but the happiest classrooms are ones that have the clearest expectations.

During my initial training, there was nice young bloke who found the entire concept of the teacher setting rules and the students following them completely alien to his personal beliefs.  There are schools – King Alfred’s in London, The Dolphin in Berkshire to name but two – where guidance replaces rules, and self-discipline replaces guidance.  It doesn’t always work.  In fact, it frequently falls down.

My training colleague tried to introduce an expectation free environment into his teaching practice school.  He left the course after his first four weeks.

Pupils like expectations; in fact, we could argue that they need them.  Over the centuries, humans have evolved to place the socialisation of its species in the hands organised units, in part at least.  We call them schools.  I know, ‘organised’! With clear expectations, everybody knows where they stand – teacher and students – and the result is a happier classroom.

Stress – The New Green-Eyed Monster

I’ve saved this till last.  Stress is the modern plague, the biggest detrimental impact to children’s learning and teachers’ teaching that exists, and I include Michael Gove in that judgement.  (Although, on reflection, OFSTED probably comes higher up the list).

We can do a lot, but not everything, to keep that stress at bay in our classroom.  Remaining calm, making jokes, offering reassurance and guidance, not getting too het up ourselves about the forthcoming SATs or GCSEs or A Levels all help.  Not taking life too seriously is also a good idea.  There’s nothing like an impromptu laugh to make the classroom a happier place.

Often, the staffroom will buzz with will meant observations such as that little Louise is having problems at home, and that is why she is not at her best.  Certainly, Louise is probably suffering from stress, and there is probably nothing useful that we, as teachers, can do to ease that tricky home situation.  But we can make school a chance to provide normality.  To offer routine.

We can make it a fun environment, we can make it a busy but not pressured setting, we can make it supportive without being intrusive.  And maybe, for a little while, Louise can leave her stress at the classroom door.

Then, we all have a happier classroom.  Students, yes, but also teachers.  Because if we are happy, then it is far more likely that our students will be too.