Flip it

Key Points

This strategy can go along with Catch them out [being good]. It’s about understanding how things can be re-worded to support positive language, why this is important, and some practice for you to become a pro at flipping negatives into positives!

How is this tweaked for flex?

Children often get a lot of negative feedback, from themselves and from others around them. To improve their experience of school, it is really important to use as much positive language with them when you communicate- this strategy helps you turn neutral or negative comments into something positive

Plan

This strategy involves praise, which only works when you are specific about what you are praising- we call this specific labelled praise- be specific about what you say, be clear (label) the behaviour that you are talking about, and say something positive (praise) to your student about it
We know that you might intend to do this all the time, but it gets challenging when you are managing lots of students all at once!
So this ‘flip it’ activity is to give you some ideas of how you can turn potential negatives in to positives before you communicate with the student

Look at the examples on the flip it sheets (turning non-specifics into specifics, and turning negatives into positives)
Then write your own examples of things you often say to the toolkit student or could say more of on the my flip it template
Note how you are going to remember to keep using positive praise with the student
Keep the flip it sheets or my flip it template handy to remind you of how you can turn a negative thought into a positive comment

Review

After a day, a few days, and a week, use the reflection template to note some examples of things you have said, and how the student reacted
Talk to a colleague, your SENCo or head of year about your new praise comments and how they are impacting your students

Resources