Kids who display low level disruption - what causes it

[WeAllDeserveAnEducation]

Daughter ( year 7) is livid about the fact her learning is continually disrupted by people. I am quite annoyed by the fact they are stopping her from learning but wonder if there are factors that may cause thus instead of just kids being selfish and rude

Sorry I forgot to say that DD is in set 2/3 so not the brightest nor is she the stupidest though and she also has mild dyslexia so finds school hard without the disruption sometimes

A mixture of things in my experience:

1. Not valuing learning
2. Being complacent so tending to consider it as 'just talking' vs 'being inconsiderate and thinking my conversation or joke or pen is more important than anything else in the room'
3. Because they don't like the teacher
4. They dont like the subject or don't value it or are planning to drop it anyway
5. They have mates in the class and therefore dont want to be seen to try
6. There's a student in there with a reputation and status so others act up to get in with them
7. Showing off to get the attention of the opposite sex / same sex depending on persuasion
8. Teacher doesn't set high standards
9. Teacher does set high standards but there's around 12 of them in a class and there's nothing massive to start getting rid of some and they'll claim they weren't doing anything anyway

10. SLT are unsupportive and back the perpetrators when 9 happens 11. The work is difficult and they cant be arsed to do it so they'll be lazy 12. Work is too easy and so theyre bored and the devil makes work for idle hands 13. They know they can do what they like because home will back them (see MN threads where the OP is raging and furious because their DC got a detention just gor asking for a pencil & the pile on circle jerk about calling the LA and demanding a meeting and calling ofsted) 14. The seating plan could be poor 15. Theyve come from a lesson where one member of staff allows them to behave poorly and then the following member of staff starts on an uphill battle because Mr Blogs in Geography has been their mate for an hour 16. Theres been something dramatic at break/lunch which must be spoken about urgently 17. They the sort of student who feels a ridiculous need to act like the class clown and others encoruage it because it's funny for a few minutes and it'll always be the clown in trouble

I hate the phrase low level disruption and rarely use it. If its disruptive then it harms learning (and to be honest dealing with a 'fuck off' is quicker to deal with than Sarah, Amanda and Grace who think boy drama is sooo important whilst Matty tries to accidentally get highlighter on his face).

I should add, I'm not saying all apply all of the time but they're a selection of reasons which can be stand alone and combined.

What do I do then ? Do I just let it go , do I email her teachers ( she has multiple ) , email the HoY. Ect

It will depend whether what she experiences is within reasonable experiences.

E.g. I'm a strict teacher. I'm firm, fair and friendly. Some days I have to remind students of my expectations at the start of lessons or sanction or have a word outside. If a student was to complain that that's their learning being ruined then I'd say that complaint was probably a bit over-reacting as part of being a teacher is managing the classroom.

But one of my former colleagues used to endlessly and very ineffectively make requests, not follow through, had no presence and so their day was constant low level disruption and no progress. In that situation then a complaint (and we had several) would be reasonable.

Equally, some students talking whilst working is reaosnable some of the time (other times it's not). A student being topic police or complaining because others talk probably needs to get over it a bit. But a student in a class where the class are talking repeatedly after being told not to has every right to feel irritated.

I think you need to talk to her a bit more and drill down into what exactly is bothering her and which subjects.

What does the school ofsted report say (much as I have my issues with them)? What's the reputation like for behaviour at the school?

Ofsted graded the behaviour level satisfactory

In which case it sounds like the school know behaviour isn't as good as it could be because the old satisfactory judgement is now 'requires improvement'.

Have a chat with her about more information (e.g. if it's 3 students causing a problem in multiple classes vs general comments)

Personally, I would have a chat with the Head of Year about how your daughter is feeling (after talking to her and getting specifics as it's always easier with specific subjects/students/staff). Go in with a aim of gettinf your daughter some focus rather than a general complain about some students talking.

Most years I have had to speak to ds' school about his problems with noise. Eventually the solution has been to give ds a five minute pass. This allows him to leave the classroom for five minutes (without asking the teacher) whenever there is too much noise.

It is not ideal because he has dyslexia and is very slow with his work. But it has reduced his anxiety massively and I think it has made him more focused.

I have this problem too. I can't get on with my work if there are lots of voices talking around me. I suspect I have dyslexia too. But I don't know if this problem is part of being dyslexic? My son does have other sensory issues.

And also my son has wireless ear buds he wears to school and puts in his ears to block out the noise. But totally understand that is not something most kids would want to do and also teachers might not like it.

I would email the head of year if it is multiple lessons.

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/6544673/Dyslexics-find-it-hard-to-filter-out-background-noises.html

The article in the link is quite old.but explains exactly how I feel when in a noisy environment. Front of the class is definitely better.

DD said one of her friends causes much more disruption when there's lots of issues going on at home. Presume its a way to get attention but week she went on maximum disruption mode SS were called in due to problems in family. Always remember one boy kicking bottle around at sports day, teacher didn't notice, Mum nowhere in sight so I said to him is that what you are supposed to do with your water bottle? He laughed, stopped it and said my (estranged) Dad died 2 weeks ago.

Sometimes kids with SEN can cause low level disruption but school should know if its that, trouble is there's a shortage of resources going into SEN.

Sometimes think it is just to appear cool to friends or to hide fact from schoolmates they can't do work or work is far too easy and bored so chat. Obviously shouldn't be disrupting others.

But it's up to school to deal with other kids, if its bothering your DD I would question for more details and if appropriate raise politely with school to find their view.