The Unteachables Podcast

#104: My 3 non-negotiable exit routines to make the final 15 minutes feel less like crowd control

• Claire English • Season 6 • Episode 104

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Does this sound familiar? The final moments of your lesson feel chaotic... unfinished, rushed work, students hovering by the door, mess everywhere, disruption, noise, and disorganisation leaving you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated?

If this sounds all too familiar, you are not alone. The good news is that with consistent, simple exit routines, you can transition out of your lesson calmly and purposefully without feeling like a bouncer at the door.

IN THIS EPISODE, I DISCUSS:

1.  Why exit routines are essential:
Small, consistent steps at the end of a lesson do more than tidy up; they reinforce engagement, help wrap up the learning, and make classroom transitions less stressful.

2. My 3 non-negotiable exit routines:

  • Self-reflection for early finishers – Teach students to ask, "Am I really done?" with an anchor chart that encourages independence and self-checking.
  • Plenaries that stick – Wrap up the learning in a way that reinforces key concepts and expectations without falling into the trap of "death by plenary."
  • The ‘row by row you go’ method – Use a clear, calm system for exiting the classroom that ensures it stays tidy and ready for the next group.

3. Practical tools to streamline your routines:
From self-reflection prompts to ready-to-go plenary resources, learn how to save time while keeping students engaged and ensuring smooth transitions.


When you embed these three routines into every lesson, you can:

✅ Reinforce behaviour and work expectations consistently
✅ Avoid the chaos that often accompanies lesson endings
✅ Create a calm, controlled environment that allows for smooth transitions

Ready to take the stress out of your lesson endings? Grab the resources mentioned in this episode inside The Behaviour Club or check out:

The Exit Routine Bundle: the-unteachables.com/exit

The Early Finishers Bundle: the-unteachables.com/earlyfinishers

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Speaker 1:

Oh, hi there, teachers, welcome to the Unteachables podcast. I'm your host, claire English, and I am just a fellow teacher, a toddler mama and a big old behavior nerd on a mission to demystify and simplify that little thing called classroom management. The way we've all been taught to manage behavior and classroom manage has left us playing crowd control, which is not something I subscribe to, because we're not bouncers, we're teachers. So listen in as I walk you through the game, changing strategies and I mean the things that we can actually do and action in our classrooms that will allow you to lean into your beautiful values as a compassionate educator and feel empowered to run your room with a little more calm and, dare I say it, a lot less chaos. I will see you in the episode.

Speaker 1:

Hello, fabulous teachers, welcome back to the Unteachables podcast. I am Claire. I'm your host. If you haven't listened to my voice before, welcome. It is so nice to have you here. If you are a long-term listener and you're back again, thank you. It's so nice to have you here. If you are a long-term listener and you're back again. Thank you. It's so nice to have you join me.

Speaker 1:

This episode is going to be epic. I am so excited for this episode, because my mantra for the year I don't know if you've heard me say it multiple times by now that my goal is to help as many of you as possible stop crowd controlling in your classroom and start really truly classroom managing in a way that is intentional and actionable and authentic and really aligns with your values. And this episode here is just the epitome of stopping crowd controlling in your classroom and it's all about exit routines and how to really nail the last kind of like five, 15 minutes of the lesson. So you're not standing by the door with students like hovering around you pushing to get out, or you don't have a situation where students in that last five minutes are just like it's a free for all because there's no structure. You're not having a situation where you know students are just running in and out or like screeching off. You know what that last five minutes can really get like. And nothing in my classroom experience has made me feel more like a bouncer than being in a room of 15, 16, 17, 18 year olds who are standing by the door surrounding me like towering over me, because my students are like you, you know, once they hit like year nine, year 10, they tower over me. Nothing makes me feel more like a bouncer than standing by the door five minutes before the lesson as they crowd around me, feeling super helpless and just like watching my clock saying oh my gosh, please, belle, can you please go? Obviously, things are very different now and my routines and structures are in place, which is exactly what this episode's about. It is my three non-negotiable exit routines to make the final 15 or five, however long that last kind of bit of lesson goes for, feel less like crowd control and feel super calm, super composed, super in control and just having students leave the room really, really nicely, which is so much, so much better than the alternative.

Speaker 1:

So a bunch of challenges do arise as the lesson starts to come to an end. So if you've got mess everywhere, if you've got that door hover that I was talking about, if students are taking it upon themselves to leave, if you've got students running around, if there's disorganization like if there's like completed like work on desks that haven't been packed away, or students are rushing their work to complete it, or students are finishing a different time, so you know, things get really messy in that last bit of the lesson. So if any of those things are causing friction, then this episode is going to help. It's all about having solid exit routines for those things that you can use consistently every lesson, like I'm talking every lesson you're doing the same thing, so students know what to expect and I promise you it's going to help so immensely. So the first thing is, what is an exit routine? It is just the consistent steps you follow at the end of a lesson to transition out of the lesson and out of the room. And for me, a really good exit routine does three things it reinforces expectations around engagement and behavior. It wraps up the learning itself in a way that's super productive and meaningful and it helps you feel more calm, helps you feel more organized and you know that kind of spreads into how the students actually exit the room. It just does make the end of the lesson feel so much more calm, controlled and less like you're a bouncer. So here are my three non-negotiable end of lesson routines that really do kind of put a spike in those challenges that I spoke about before.

Speaker 1:

The first thing is a routine for when students finish that final task early. This is the time where things can very quickly slip into chaos because they're finished. The bell's not long off ringing. So you need something that reinforces your expectations around that. And when I say expectations, yes, I mean behavioral expectations of how they are once they've finished, but I mean more. So you know, I expect you to finish your work to the best of your ability. I expect class time to be productive time. I expect you to really think about the work that you're doing.

Speaker 1:

So when a student finishes early, one of the routines I use is the use of a self-reflection anchor chart. So the title I use I imagine a big chart up on the wall the title at the top is are you really finished? And it has self-reflection prompts on there like the following. The first I've asked for help when I was confused. So this is like the student kind of asking themselves these questions and going through that self-reflection process. So I've asked for help when I was confused. And this one here just make sure that students haven't just rushed through it because they're confused and haven't really done anything about it. The second is I've reread my work to check for mistakes. I've corrected any mistakes I've found. I've ticked off the success criteria. I've put the date and my name on the page, if that's relevant, and I think this is my best work.

Speaker 1:

This is something that I give to students when they're finished early or I have up on the wall to refer to so very quickly, non-verbally. I can either point to the anchor chart or give it to them on their desk. It consistently embeds the language of reflection and it hardwires that skill for them. So remember it's a consistent routine that we're using every single lesson. It encourages reflection and independence in student learning and it gives you your time back.

Speaker 1:

I always say the best things that we can do in a classroom is to try to remove ourselves as much as possible from actually giving the instructions. So routines, visuals, anything that we can embed that allows us to just do something really quickly and then continue to, you know, circulate around the room and use our non-verbals and you know, doing that is such a really important and fantastic part of classroom management. And on this anchor chart I also add like a what's next section that has a routine to follow, all about what to do once they're finished that work. So I do a couple of things like and you can do whatever suits your class, but I have like a folder of early finish tasks. I have like a menu of tasks they can kind of look at and choose from. I just do a bunch of different things depending on the context of the class, but having something for them to do after that's already planned, already prepped there's some options for them gives them a bit of autonomy. It just takes, again, takes the time and the pressure away from students finishing early because they've got something to do and they're going to be running around causing disruption.

Speaker 1:

The second routine that I use for the end of lessons is a routine for wrapping up the learning. So using a plenary to consolidate the learning, review the objective, encourage reflection and consider the next steps. Yes, this is all teaching and learning stuff, but it is also just the perfect example of how everything is interlinked and classroom management is so much more than the behavior itself. So plenaries are brilliant, proactive classroom management tools because they first up, reinforce their expectations around engagement. Used as a routine, they encourage work completion and they send nonverbal messages of yes, I give a crap about what you do this lesson, I'm not going to allow you to sit at the back and like, just be on your phone or just doing work. That's not your best work. I am going to check your work, I am going to expect you to reflect on this. I am going to expect you to think about the next steps and how you can kind of up your game and be better and do all the things that I know you can achieve. So all those non-verbals are really important.

Speaker 1:

However, plenary fatigue is such a real thing. Once my principal gave me this plenary resource and I had like, honestly, he thought it was the best thing ever and I'm not going to name the resource because he clearly just downloaded it on a website for free. I'm sure if you were to Google you'd be able to find it, but he thought it was the best thing ever and it was going to help his teachers so much and, you know, save all this prep time. But all it was was just like 200 slides with pretty much the same question written over and over and over again in different ways, with just different modes that students could complete these plenaries in, but they were like super unrealistic for teachers to actually do in practice. So, like when you're finishing a lesson and you want students to reflect on their learning, the last thing you want to do is have a plenary task. It takes 20 minutes and requires a bunch of materials you don't have to hand and will actually cause more chaos than it will. Just kind of settle students into a task.

Speaker 1:

So things like create a model of what you learn today or draw something you learn today with no real like criteria around what that looks like. It's not explicit, it's not clear. It just causes more confusion. Act out what you learn today. Create, like a you know, a full picture, bloody production with three other people around, what you learned today, like it was actually pathetic and I was so off the idea about and he brought this resource up so many times and he spoke about it in meetings and it's classic ticking the box of wanting just to make sure people are doing plenaries but not really understanding yourself what it looks like to engage a class. But anyway, so for students who do struggle and, you know, for classes that feel chaotic, these are the worst things you could do, for more reasons than I have time to explain. So just be mindful of that.

Speaker 1:

When it comes to plenaries, and if you're in the behavior club this month, I have popped up a PowerPoint. So I redid what that principle gave me and not redid. I created something that was far, far, far, far better. So if you're in the Behaviour Club, you have access to that. It's a PowerPoint called what door will we exit through today, so there's 38 doors on the first slide. You click on it and it takes you to a new plenary that you can use for that lesson.

Speaker 1:

These plenaries are all ones that you can have students complete individually. They don't require any additional resources. They're engaging. They have a bit of novelty, which is always great for buy-in. So that is probably one of the most universally helpful resources that I've ever created for all teachers. So if you're in the Behaviour Club, make sure that you do not sleep on that one. You go and download that immediately and you start using it for every single lesson that you teach. It just takes so much of the pressure off. As well as that, I've got 10 print and go plenary slips that you can just keep in your drawer, again with engaging plenaries on them, just a bunch of different ways for students to reflect and show how they understood the lesson. And I've got things like traffic light posters and turn it in tray labels. So just if you're in the behavior club, get in there and download all of them.

Speaker 1:

Um, but at the end I'll speak about it, but you can also just grab that stuff separately. If you head to the dash on teachablescom, forward slash, exit. I just want you to have all of the done for you resources. If you want to invest, invest in that, I want you to have access to it because, again, plenary fatigue is a very real thing. And, um, plenaries, I don't want to just like put out there on the unteachables podcast that the plenaries are the best thing in the world, but then you go and do them and you're like this actually sucks and my students hate them. That's the last thing I'd want.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the third routine is a routine for cleaning up and exiting the room, because the second that bell goes, as I mentioned in the intro, it can be an absolute free for all. So my routine for exiting the room is called row by row, you go, but you can call it whatever you want, group by group, table by table. It's just the way that we can communicate the expectations of packing up, waiting and exiting only when instructed. It's just about being really clear and consistent so they know every single lesson. You will dismiss them when they're standing behind their chairs and everything's nice and tidy and things are calm. I use my get ready, get set, go process to help me communicate this. So it's very clear every single time what this sounds like is I'll step through the get ready, get set, go. So if you're saying get ready, it's okay, everybody, the bell is going to go shortly and I will be asking you to clean up, but wait for further instructions.

Speaker 1:

Get set is giving explicit and clear instructions on what success looks like for that. So for this routine it would be. I want you to pack up your books, pick up any rubbish and be standing behind your chair. So I know you're done. I'll also be looking for the table. Who have done all three of those things to go first. And the go is any questions? Great, let's get going. And as students are cleaning up the classroom, you're going to be verbally reinforcing the expectations and highlighting what you want to see to keep them on track. So good work everybody.

Speaker 1:

Jenny's table over there is nearly finished. Oh, bob's group over here. There's still some paper on the floor there. Come on, let's get going. And then the bell goes. You pause. Be sure students are paying attention. Get into your credible teaching persona. Wonderful job.

Speaker 1:

James's row, you can head off first. Looks like Jenny's group is ready to go too. Excellent, have a lovely lunch, penny. Oh, your row still has a chair untucked. Let's get that in. Fantastic Penny, your row can go.

Speaker 1:

So you're just really clear, really explicit about the exit routine. So you're not having everybody run out of the room at one time and you're controlling the energy in the room, like you are influencing the way the energy is when they're walking out of the classroom, and that right there is going to be a frigging game changer for any of you who are struggling with feeling like a bouncer at the end of the lesson. So those are my three non-negotiables for my exit routine and they all play a really important part of getting to the end of the lesson in a way that doesn't make me want to hide in a corner away from the chaos or literally feel like I'm crowd controlling standing by the door while they hover around and try to push on out past me. And just to recap the three non-negotiable exit routines that I do have the first is thinking about what do they do after they've finished that final task. So the self-reflection Thinking about what do they do after they've finished that final task. So the self-reflection setting up some tasks for them to do once they've finished, so they can kind of get on with it without too much input from you, so you can continue to do the work that you're doing in the room, thinking about how you wrap up the learning in a way that reinforces your expectations around task completion and reflection and growth. So the plenary but just being mindful of death by plenary and how monotonous and boring they can be that shouldn't just be a ticker box thing. Unless it's meaningful, we shouldn't be doing it. And the third non-negotiable that I use is the way they exit the room. So I use row by row. You go, you can call it whatever you want, it's just exiting the room in a way that's calm. It leaves your environment tidy for the next class, it sets the next teacher up for a successful lesson because they won't need to rechannel that energy that they ran out with. So those are the three that I would always recommend people having in their classroom. And it's your exit routine, it's your context, it's your students. You have to choose what feels good and right for you as well.

Speaker 1:

Now, a little bit earlier, I did get super passionate about the resources that I created inside of the behavior club.

Speaker 1:

This month, I completely no doubt on the resources I create. You can get all of those, of course, inside the behavior club along with the training teaching you explicitly how to use them, or you can grab those resources in my exit routine bundle, which has like a select few resources that can stand alone. This month's resources I'm not joking are probably the most universally helpful things I've ever put together for teachers. Just the plenary doors themselves will take the pressure off every single lesson and do so in a way that's going to be really strategic and add immense value to the learning you're doing and to your proactive classroom management approach. So, behavior clubbers, go download them immediately and start using them, or you can head to the dash on teachablescom forward slash, exit to see those resources for yourself. Make 2025 the year that you stop the door hover. You are not a bouncer, you're a teacher, and you're a wonderful one at that. Thank you so much for joining me this week and I look forward to seeing you back here at the same time next week. Bye for now.

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Claire English

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