Government Behaviour Hub pushing zero tolerance in schools

[Usedtodance]

I've just been reading how the Behaviour Hub set up by the government has been pushing this idea of very strict behaviour policies and zero tolerance in schools. The sort rolled out by many of the academy chains. Does anyone know what the evidence base is for this?

The policies in many of these schools are highly restrictive - short lunch breaks, limited access to toilet breaks, consequences for minor mistakes. Many adults would find it stressful to be in an environment like this. I wonder if anyone has looked at the cost of these measures to the children in terms of their mental health, fostering independence and social skills etc.

Any insight, thoughts or links to research on this would be great.

Useless parents having children and then not raising them leads to even more inequality as they are unable to cope in life.

As a parent of two boys with SEN we had a very bad experience with a zero tolerance school. They refused to make any adjustments. They literally said proudly "we give the sanction first and pastoral support second".

As a last resort for DS's safety, we moved to a different school, it was another world. They also had high behaviour standards but it was managed with support and kindness, year heads and teachers took time to get to know the children and build up relationships of trust so that any sanctions were delivered positively with a "let's improve" message.

I now say to people looking at secondary schools , get them to show you the student support/pastoral area and the isolation/detention room. You'll soon see where they put their emphasis. If they won't show you, what are they hiding?

The thing is many DC only show up SEN in secondary school and the process of diagnosis is glacially slow. So a child can fall foul of the behaviour system in a couple of terms before anyone has really figured out their issues.

I preferred a school uniform, my parents didn’t like buying us clothes and when they did they were never “normal”. I would have been bullied even more than I was.

All the claims that strict schooling makes children into compliant adults is a bit nonsense isn’t it. Functioning in society and in the workplace require us to be able to adhere to norms. Children are learning those norms and that there is a difference between home/school/ with your mates. Most lessons will have discussions where your child will be free to dissent or proffer an opinion. Wearing a uniform and following the rules of a particular place isn’t going to dampen their individuality or freedom of thought.

Some of the eye tracking stuff is a bit insane and I wouldn’t go that far but it’s reasonable to expect kids to be able to tuck a shirt in, sort out their bags be quiet for five minutes. Low level disruption can persistently hamper other students. It’s like low level crime, no-one dies but it makes loads of normal peoples lives a bit miserable.

I feel for teachers, I really do.

As an ex teacher who took her own DC (& herself) out of state school to home educate, reading this thread just reminds me why I am so glad we are not part of this system any longer.
It saddens me to say that as I’m a great believer in education just not school. Especially when I hear of incentives such as ‘slant’ 😞 poor kids.

They'd have to sort out admissions though. We only got a choice of two schools for ds and one was because DD was already in due to church attendance, otherwise it was one and tough luck.

Neither of mine can do slant, being autistic and hypermobile and anxious and dysregulated. Slant is positively dangerous for DD, could knock herself out.

But what is a troublemaker? Friends son has severe background trauma, he goes jnto school on 'High alert. If a teacher raises their voice /changes their tone, his body goes into figth/flight, he needs to be out of the class and will misbehave to get sent out.
He is not a troublemaker but school eefuse to work with him and punish him every time.

A child with asd shuts down and refuses to answer /do.work. school punish him.

Brothers who are young carers get detentions because they don't do their homework because they don't have time. Now starting to act up at school because.its totally unfair

Schools cannot have a 'one size fits all' behabiour policy UNLESS all children are starting from a level.playing field and some are at a much lower level than the 'average ' kid through Jo fault ofctgeir own but they are continuously punished by academies,/schools with zero tolerance crap.

@Georgeandzippyzoo

The problem is that all children need to feel safe at school. Should we allow kids with complex issues to lash out at children and staff with no consequences? Is it fair on the other children in the class to allow constant disruption?

There are ways of doing zero tolerance sympathetically and in a way that makes students feel supported.

Unfortunately, schools aren’t equipped to deal with complex behaviour problems. That is what the PRUs used to be for. But they are either full or parents refuse the help. Social services are on their knees and can’t help. Ed Psych bare exists anymore and CAHMS won’t do a referral these days unless there is a suicide attempt.

So these policies are sometimes a schools only method of getting a handle on some of the deeply unsafe, violent, disruptive behaviour that is becoming an every day occurrence.

I would happily go back to less strict rules, if that didn’t lead to more serious incidents.

But I am not convinced giving kids the power over rules would stop them- taking drugs on site, self harming in the loos, sending nudes, getting drunk between lesson, taking upskirt photos in the dinner queue, violently attacking each other and sexually assaulting other students.

The SLANT thing is too much. But asking them to be kind, considerate and hard working is hardly asking for the earth. It is quite obvious to me that if we didn’t try to teach this at school then some kids would never learn it.

Because a growing percentage of children are brought up by unrestricted screen time. They are watching porn and violent videos. They are making contact with inappropriate adults on social media and generally being taught that being a snarky, nasty arsehole is what being an adult looks like.

I t us a bit hard on kids with sen I guess, but schools can't have a 2 tier system.That would not be fair any more than a two tier legal system would be, So they just have to go what us best for most pupils and accept there will be a little collateral damage.

But there is already a 2 tier system. Cope in mainstream and have the opportunity to have a full range of GCSE's and choices. Do not cope in mainstream and get shipped off to the local EBD secondary and have the opportunity to do a maximum of 3 GCSEs (our local provision).