Controversial Behaviour Policy changes

[Chattonnoire]

I am looking to get some insight into the changes taking places at a number of Free Schools, especially London, that have been making dramatic changes to Behaviour Policy since Michaela Community School made headlines as being the strictest school in Britain:

time.com/5232857/michaela-britains-strictest-school/

metro.co.uk/2017/09/11/britains-strictest-school-bans-pupils-from-looking-out-the-window-and-smirking-6917747/

www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/13422769.The_secrets_of_Magna_Academy_s_transformation__Students_who_walk_silently_between_lessons/

I noticed, that the comments at the end of these articles were mostly negative from parents and students in these schools, and don't appear to be in line with the "hard sell" the schools are making it out to be.

The impression is that teachers are asserting control over the difficult and disruptive students at the expense of the rest; the average student is muted in these "silent transitions" to and from classes and expressed feeling unhappy and the environment oppressive and weird.

None of the students have the authority to question the new policy, too afraid of being given 90 minutes detentions on the same day regardless of any commitments they may have (Medical or Sporting...at the expense of either their health missing long awaited NHS appointments or financial loss for missed activities to lower income families, as many students on free school meals) for often arbitrary and minor and low level disruptions such as is listed on many of these schools behaviour policies.

So they are being taught not to learn any assertiveness, question authority at any point, to conform, never to speak out, contest or oppose injustice, and may in fact have long lasting emotional and psychological negative impact on these teen developing minds in the real world, where they may not be able to defend themselves from unfair treatment from employers, or even personal relationships.

I am concerned about how fitting and convenient it is for the staff of schools in managing the delinquents, but how damaging this can potential be for bright and able children to be treated with less freedom than correctional facilities. Mental health and self harm and teen suicides statistics are already depressingly high, and with high pressured expectations and penalised for low level infractions can sabotage a once engaged teen's self esteem. A friend's 14 year old son recently committed suicide. So this really touches a raw nerve.

I've seen how a hostile school environment can crush a student with so much potential too many times.

I can't help but thinK of Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" with faceless children put through the grinder...sorry for the grim comparison....but I can't shake it.

Is this radical new Behaviour Control in developing adolescent minds a good thing, or setting them up to fail in the real world in order that the schools get "Outstanding" Ofsted reports as inspectors come and see automatons walking silently through schools for fear of punishment and exclusion?

Are any of you in these super strict schools and finding it great or awful?

*If you are a teacher or part of school staff, please indicate in your response, so an understanding of your perspective is made clear.

Thank you

mistigri I did see those posts. Contrast this with our own very effective and caring head teacher, who came to our house during the summer holidays with cards and a small gift for my DDs because their father died during the summer holidays... It's worlds apart and it just shows that treating children like potential delinquents all the time isn't the only way.

I just think being told I'd be in detention for a glance out of the window would render me so anxious and twitchy that I'd probably concentrate on SLANT more than the actual lesson.

I close the blinds in my classroom because kids do PE directly outside and it’s way too distracting.

noble that is the sort of sensible behaviour I'd expect in a good school.

Adults belting and caning little children was regarded as 'normal' in this country, until it successful cases were brought via ECHR.

Article here on successful use of ECHR wrt to school detentions:

Freya Macdonald launched legal action against Moray council, claiming that her punishments were in contravention of Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which states it is illegal to detain children in an educational establishment against their will without a court order. Her lawyers have also cited Article 2 of the ECHR, which ensures the right of every child to an education, and Article 3, which protects children from degrading treatment

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/classrooms-ban-detention-after-pupil-cites-human-rights-138178.html

noble PE? meh.
That is nothing.
It was a bit blustery this week and the concept of rain was mind blowing to 14 year olds who felt the need to inform me that water was indeed falling from the sky.
Blinds also were closed after I overheard a conversation debating if it gets too windy will they close the school?.

Actually this thread makes me feel very sad they are still children . God help their mh. My Ds has Adhd and sensory processing issues so would be kicked out in a week if he lasted that long.

It is very worrying schools are allowed to treat children this way . Prisoners have rioted for less.

Exactly Starlight345.
Scandinavian, German, French ,Greek and other EU schools often produce charming, multi lingual, confident and well educated children without having to resort to these techniques.

It's a sad inditement of english schools. In fact many of the issues posted on these education threads are.

And I do know there are thousands of excellent and committed teachers working in the system despite it all. Really.

My friends DD went to an academy with strict rules. She agreed to rules but disagreed with how they weren't applied fairly.

She questioned the school on why a teacher did uniform spot checks and walked past loads of students with rolled up blazer sleeves but singled out her DD for punishment.

School actually replied is because her DD is a louder student so "on their radar".

When friend questioned if her DD was being disruptive etc the consensus was no but she's finish work quickly and want to chat which did disrupt other students.

My friend was fully supportive of school punishing for uniform infringement and fully supportive of her dd not disturbing others (and asked about extension work or a book to read etc).

But it fell on deaf ears. It seemed the school wanted to created a kid of clones (we joked a replica of the demon headmaster!) and would actively try and break down the characters with a zero tolerance policy whilst also ignoring others and not having zero tolerance.

My friend agreed they needed to improve behaviour and low level disruption but not that her DD should just sit up straight in silence and not give we contact to her peers because she was clever and finished work quickly. Her DD MH declined dramatically and she moved schools.

She's never so much as had a teacher make one comment to her about behaviour or uniform. And this school achieves might higher than the other school.
Other school has outstanding ofsted - this one has a good.

There is no good having draconian rules that don't reflect reality - we are setting the Holden up to fail this way. They do need to learn respect and following rules and there's consequences for not doing so. But they also need to find a way to be themselves and how to fit themselves into a box without losing who they are.

I don't agree with zero tolerance rules that are set up for the sake of it and have no learning attached to them. I do agree with teachers needing students who disrupt lessons to be removed.

youarenotkiddingme this might have been my DDs if our school were different. They both have really high ability in several subjects and yes, did always finish their work early. Teachers have always responded to this by having extension work ready for them or by having them support other students with their work if appropriate at the time.

They have both been peer mentors and DD2 is a prefect - hard work and excellence is rewarded at our school. And yes to being consistent in implementing a policy - 'being on the radar' is a lazy excuse for picking on someone who is easily identifiable.

I do agree with the point about consistency of sanctions. DS's school has daily uniform checks during form period, and detention will be given to any pupil who breaches the uniform policy regardless of who they are. The same punishment will quote rightly be applied whether it's a diligent student whose tie isn't done up tightly enough or a badly behaved one who's wearing trainers.

Hooray for clip on ties!

Why would any sane adult discuss punishing children for not having a tie done up to the right degree of tightness?

That's literally insane.

The gazing out of the window thing reminds me of a conversation I had with ds teacher in year 3.

She told me she'd once made the mistake of pulling him up for stating out of the window and asked to to repeat what she's said.
She said he did just that, perfectly word for word and even added extra bits of factual information along the way that "he thought people might like to know".

She was laughing and said it reminded her that not all students learn the same and some students focus better without the eye contact and pressure social interaction.

I was cringing at the idea of my ds being a smart arsed know it all but teacher actually reminded me that he was just being how he is (he's autistic with spectacular echolalia and sponge like brain with ability to monologue!). She went on to add that it made her think about why he became so task avoidant and disruptive during writing times because he was clearly very able and so they'd done some tests. The result of this was him getting literacy support and various interventions.

The point of this story is to show that in a draconian environment my ds wouldn't survive. (He became suicidal in his first secondary due to poor practice). And also by not automatically assuming a child staring in a different direction or being disruptive at certain times is deliberately flouting rules you may discover more about them or may even discover they are learning, or may need help.

My son is now in a high standards but totally non draconian secondary with an EHCP. Their pastoral care is amazing, results second best in whole area and who's ethos is what makes the school great rather than leading with an iron rod.
He has a fantastic HOY who is open and honest and at times we've had different view points and we've managed to discuss them effectively and in some occasions he's then got I'm saying ds can't due to disability and other times I've realised I'm still overprotective of ds due to his disability.

There is absolutely no way my ds with asd and CP who has absences would ever survive in this environment - not would this environment prepare him for adulthood.
He would however and does thrive in an environment where a school effectively deals with disruption and bullying without resorting to scaring the crap out of the pupils and making them too scared to relax within the school walls.

I am very anti-authority and don't see the point of school uniform etc but my daughter who is very anxious was at a school that was quite free and easy. It was very loud and unregulated place. She found it really intimidating and also couldn't learn because she doesn't have great concentration and the classes were constantly disrupted.

Now she is at a very strict church school and she has flourished. She loves the calm and the control and the very boundaried environment. Different ways suit different children. I think it would be nice if we could keep to a system where there was some choice.

flicka classrooms should always be calm learning environments and disruption should be dealt with. That isn't controversial at all.

Beyond that, a big school can get loud at break times and not all children will be able to cope with that. What you do with that knowledge as a parent is up to you - in the real world, everyone will have to deal with loud situations at times, but equally there are ways of helping children learn to deal with that as they grow older.

Hooray for clip on ties!

Or no ties.

youarenotkiddingme makes a good point about different learning styles. We were talking about this at work just yesterday. I am one of those people who actually concentrates and learns better if I'm not looking at the speaker. Of course, I do so periodically, but there is no way that I could sit through a presentation of any length and get much out of it if I was expected to stare at the speaker the whole time.

Seneca I am with you on no ties. I am one of the 'please no uniform' brigade, but that isn't what the thread is about.

My DD2 is one of those who doesn't do well with constant tracking - fortunately she isn't required to do that. She just gets her head down and works.

pointythings Her last school really could not enforce discipline and it was huge school. She was fine socially but she found the lessons horrible. Lots of shouting from teachers and lots of disruptive students.

I agree that school is a preparation for adult life and there will be times when life is loud and chaotic, but school is a unique situation in that for the rest of your adult life, you do have a certain amount of choice about what works best for you. Some people thrive in offices, some self-employed, some on the go etc.

I would never go to Disneyworld because it is my idea of Hell, but my daughter's old school was her equivalent of that.

I really am not big on rules. I am the softest parent going. But my daughter is reasonably well behaved. Not the hardest working but good, doesn't break rules. And she really suffered because the teachers had no control.

Her new school has endless silly rules and really strict uniform and she loves it. I have an appeal on Wednesday to get youngest daughter in there.

flicka but wouldn't it be nice to have a school that manages discipline and doesn't have endless silly rules? It is perfectly possible. The endless silly rules may be great for your DD, but they will be very, very difficult for many other good children.

No wonder British children are meant to be the unhappiest in the world. Some of these kids will be just 11.

I want to thank you for this link woman11017

www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/classrooms-ban-detention-after-pupil-cites-human-rights-138178.html

It has given much to consider about children’s rights to counter unreasonable policies.

I believe it’s why Independent schools don’t deal with these problems, as affluent parents just ring up lawyers and hand in clearly drafted legal letters to point out unreasonable rules they won’t tolerate and didn’t sign up for, and certainly aren’t happy to continue to pay exorbitant termly fees for their DC’s education.

You’ll notice that article was in 2003 and detentions haven’t been banned in English schools, in fact it’s clearly stated that schools have the legal right to issue detentions and parents do not have the right to overrule this.

Fantastic news on the movement break card, by the way. That’ll make a real difference to your DS. :)

It's possible to enforce discipline with no silly rules. I once had an amazing English teacher who never once raised his voice to anyone, or to my knowledge ever issued a detention. His classes were the most respectful, peaceful place, it just seemed inconceivable to anyone to play up. Same class, different teacher and it was carnage and chaos. Only poor disciplinarians constantly shout and punish and use fear to enforce compliance. Good ones cultivate mutual respect.

It's not as simple as that though frog.
Behaviour management is complex.

I rarely raise my voice, but do have a firm tone that I use. I rarely give detentions, but did when I started the school. Consistency is key on sanctions. I built a reputation for being strict and fair so now I rarely have to sanction because students know the score. That took time to establish.

It's not sanctions or none, nor is it draconian rulea vs sit and talk it out with no clear boundaries. It's a complex balancing act.