Ofsted approves of silent corridors

[noblegiraffe]

Just seen tweeted this extract from an Ofsted report praising silent corridors.

Now that it’s had that stamp of approval, expect to see more schools jumping on the bandwagon. (Assuming the tweet is genuine!)

But some parents won’t be happy - this mum is now home-educating because of this policy. www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6586437/Mother-removes-son-school-academy-banned-children-taking-corridors.html

Ofsted also note some pupils have been removed from the school because of the inflexible behaviour rules. You should also note that progress is outstanding. In fact all categories are outstanding except 6th form. Behaviour isn’t even a whole category. It’s one third of one category! It’s a big leap to go from an extreme policy in one school to say everyone will copy it! Perhaps they should copy the outstanding progress first!

But the outstanding progress is attributed to the strict behaviour rules - which include the corridor policy.

The pupils being removed from the school is what triggered the inspection according to the report. Nowhere does it mention what the outcomes were for those pupils and the impact on progress for the school.

Lots of schools could have outstanding progress if they binned the pupils dragging the measure down.

But zero tolerance and ‘losing’ problem pupils now has the Ofsted stamp of approval.

I live a few miles away from Magna Academy and it's quite a controversial school locally. They had an outstanding Ofsted back in 2015 so I'm quite surprised they have been inspected again so quickly. My child's school was last inspected in 2011.

It is an area with grammar schools and secondary moderns which again can bring its own issues. Interestingly there have been some negative comments from parents on twitter when the school tweeted about their Ofsted success. As an outsider looking in they seem to have a great PR person in charge of social media and selling the school. I'm not sure what to make of the place really but I guess there must be lots of parents happy with the education their children are receiving.

I’m beginnning to think that multi-academy trusts should be in charge of all schools in an area and responsible for overall outcomes (we could call them a Local Authority), so that schools like this get the great success that they do, but also have to be mindful of the children that can’t cope in that environment.

Oh, Lord.

My main concern is that it makes school less and less workable/tolerable for more and more children. Six months down the line, no doubt the individual school will look better to a visiting inspector - silent children, compliant behaviour etc. But there will have been casualties - a growing proportion of children who are able to cope with (and benefit from) a mainstream education, but who cannot cope with these draconian systems. Try looking at the profiles of the frequent attendees in the isolation units of these schools. You'll find lots of kids with additional needs, learning disabilities and mental health problems. These hardline authoritarian policies create a hostile environment for many of those children.

The schools and those running them may well appear to thrive and improve under these draconian regimes, but the sacrificial lamb is children's mental health.

To those not liking the idea, it’s not much different to most primary schools where pupils move between rooms in silence (admittedly usually with an accompanying teacher/adult) for an orderly and efficient change in environment and most parents are absolutely fine with that and don’t question it. Pupils in secondary are only a few months to a few years older than that.
I don’t teach in a school that requires silence in corridors between lessons but waiting for the stragglers at the start of every lesson who always pauses to have chats with their mates and thus cause lessons to begin late or disrupt by a late entrance, is a pain and I can see the merits of this. There was an article on this in Teach Secondary magazine that made some good points. I’ll find it tomorrow if anyone’s interested in the research.

Here’s an extract from the article:

Silent corridors are used in 8% of schools currently. Some people think it is draconian; others see it as an efficient way of getting from lesson A to lesson B. Before deciding your view, it’s worth knowing that the policy is not uncommon at primary level, where 1 in 5 schools demand pupils move silently between lessons. It could be that the smaller number of learners, plus the fact that they are often accompanied by teachers, means that the approach makes more sense in primary schools. But no one has had a meltdown about it, and it does show that a glut of learners will be used to silent corridors when they start Y7; so it may be a fairly uncontraversial policy to implement in secondaries, after all.

The Ofsted report said some parents removed their children from the school due to this policy!

Out of 10 points Ofsted made about progress, one comment mentions the absence of disruption in the classroom. No comment on progress mentions no talking in corridors. No disruption in lessons is the key point. No talking in corridors goes a step beyond and isn’t mentioned as an aid to progress.

The many are being treated as robots to control the few. I think many teachers and Heads don’t want silent corridors but want attention in lessons. Most schools manage this.

3 lessons a day can be awful if you are stuck with a poor teacher! It also assumes children can concentrate for that length of time and most studies say they cannot. If a school has a discipline problem they need to deal with it. I’m so glad my DC didn’t go to schools that make poor decisions based solely on being unable to discipline children. With 3 lessons a day, does in class behaviour actually improve? With a naff teacher, probably not!

A mother removed her son because he - and all the other pupils - would have to move between classes quietly? Incredible!

KissingInTheRain there is a massive difference between moving between lessons quietly and being totally silent. Learning how to moderate your voice and behaviour in public and know what is acceptable subjects to talk about in public is what is needed to taught in schools. Not shuffling along in silence and being in fear of being put in isolation because you dare to speak. Not gossip. Not talking at loud volume. But normal everyday words like "Joe, you dropped your book".
Travelling on buses everyday (busy London ones) will soon make you dream of the next generation being taught how to communicate in a better way than the volume 11 f-word after f-word I hear (from adults). What does the silence teach? That only what happens in a classroom is important in schools? Pass your exams and be silent the rest of the time. A school should be a community. Your children's community. It's an important part of their life and a school community and environment needs to be much much more than the exams.

Learning how to moderate your voice and behaviour in public and know what is acceptable subjects to talk about in public is what is needed to taught in schools.

They get taught that in lessons, tutor time, any interactions when a teacher is around. At changeover time we don’t want to be teaching the kids how to chat quietly, we want them to get to their next lesson as quickly as possible so as not to waste learning time.

Ha !! Was going to reply and say thats just like our local school.... amd it is!! I think weve chatted about it on threads before, Nobel. It has a huge photowall of david cameron inside the school, he loved it!

Happy to pm about it ;)

Come and visit... Ill go round with you !

Waves at Pun Curious as to your views on other secondary schools... We're approaching school choice time.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree noblegiraffe.

Saying "Joe, thanks for that" in the corridor would get you a detention/isolation so they really are silent corridors. Not just quiet.

Theres silence in most lessons too. Each lesson senior staff patrol the school and check on every classroom to remove any disruptive children.

There is v little/no low level disruption as kids are ousted. However its a very marmite school. They're upfront about expectations on open evening though.

Every night 1.5 hours homework is set (mainly self quizzing). Every single night. In 30min slots, for evey slot not done the child has that amount of detention that night. So if they never did homework its 1.5 hours a night. (School point out it saves you policing homework.)

They have extra lessons after school/saturdays to help those behind catch up. They spend a lot of extra time helping those who cant read, read, but set extra homework so they spend more time reading.

Noblegiraffe ” (we could call them a Local Authority)". 😂😂. That will be the next 'innovation!'

I really do hate what schools in this country are becoming. It's so very sad.

@bookmum08
Travelling on buses everyday (busy London ones) will soon make you dream of the next generation being taught how to communicate in a better way than the volume 11 f-word after f-word I hear (from adults)

But presumably the majority of these adults you mention would have been moving from class to class being able to talk as they please, which doesn't appear to have taught them how to converse normally
So surely noisy corridors aren't the answer either!

No one is arguing for noisy corridors. Children being able to converse at a sensible sound level using words that are suitable for everyone to hear is not, in my view, what classroom teachers should be responsible for. There should be guidance from home and expectations from school. Most children manage good behaviour and sensible levels of chat.

I think it would be very sad for "normal" children in this school to have to be silent. In fact I think it is rather an abusive policy for children who would converse normally with their peers. Surely the majority? I agree - what on earth are schools turning into? I can see this is more like a prison and can the children really grow up and think for themselves? Or are they like a taught spring when they are released into the real world? This school is not remotely close to any real world I know, nor the peope that inhabit it!

This is all about control and not even when I was at school in the 60/70s were we expected to be silent in the corridors and staircases. We were, however, capable of being taught in the classrooms because we started the lessons on time and did not disrupt the teaching. Essentially it is good manners - and that starts at home.

user14 - but if all children are taught is 'be silent and no talking' how will they learn how to communicate when they are in the actual real world. No one expects silence on a bus but I don't want to hear conversations at the top of peoples voices, yelling over each other and every other word being the F word.
However I don't talk like that and I didn't have silence when changing lessons. My school was in no way perfect but seriously what is the problem with saying to your friend after one lesson "see you later, enjoy your art class, I will meet you later by the side gate". Tell me what is wrong with that? It's just normal communication. In the work place no one would find it odd or disruptive to say "see you later, enjoy the meeting, I will meet you later in the lobby".