Product reviews for The Discipline Coach

If you teach in an inner city, if you have disaffective, disruptive teenagers in your class, if nothing in the past has helped you gain control, this book will shine a light into a dark area of school life. The Discipline Coach, by Jim Roberson, a tough-talking former American footballer, football coach and now a teacher, is something different.

Where Roberson grew up in the tough Bronx neighbourhood of New York, he learned that self-discipline, respect for others, taking responsibility, then planning for success were the keys to a better life. And these are the attributes that he says can revitalise problem students. But, as he points out, discipline works, not if it's something we do to students, but only as something we can teach them to do to themselves.

He advocates talking to kids about consequences (short term) and repercussions (long term), about inviting them to respect you the teacher, about whether friends are enablers or disablers, about admitting that they need to change. Don't expect this book to be the usual text-heavy SEN publication. Read it through or dip into it -” either way it won't take long. But it will make you think!