82% of teachers surveyed say pupil misbehaviour is widespread at their school

[noblegiraffe]

It’s not just untucked shirts either:

“with more than half (57 per cent) saying they had been verbally abused by a pupil in the last year, 18 per cent having been threatened with violence and 14 per cent having been physically attacked.”

Just to balance out the threads of parents complaining about schools enforcing the rules. Maybe there’s a reason for it.

www.tes.com/news/behaviour-widespread-problem-say-82-teachers

I don’t think there is a ‘well behaved majority” at my dcs school. I would challenge that assumption at other schools in the area too. I think it’s a minority . Behaviour has got so bad and the intake is so challenging that lessons exist in a state of constant low level disruption and with someone kicking off at some point in most lessons.

I think the majority have the potential to be well behaved and will be if the right culture and ethos pervades the school. In the Pivotal world of indulging the extreme kids and taking away sanctions whilst rewarding poor behaviour with attention, the majority will absolutely drift into low level disruption (which is a massive problem despite the phrase making it sound minor). Achieving, concentration, focus on learning, contributing positively - I’d say most students would want to do these things but most don’t see the point or see it as something to aspire towards because the Pivotal-style ethos celebrates low expectations. It strips students of responsibility for themselves and places all the demands and hard work on the teachers. Students in a school where this thinking has taken hold expect to sit back, let their emotions reign supreme and to be spoon fed and handheld through their education. They expect to achieve even if they don’t participate in lessons or even listen. They expect glowing praise and treats even if they talk over the teacher and barely set pen to paper. They expect great exam results or to be allowed into whatever college or course they like afterwards because their actions have never had real consequences, they don’t know how to self regulate and they think the world will be full of open doors and cajoling encouragement regardless of their attitude and behaviour.

“In the Pivotal world of indulging the extreme kids and taking away sanctions whilst rewarding poor behaviour with attention, the majority will absolutely drift into low level disruption (which is a massive problem despite the phrase making it sound minor)”

This is exactly what has happened

Yes agreed. My children's secondary is one with the reputation of being super strict and totally intolerant of low level disruption (we chose it because of this). Day to day what it actually is is very calm. The rules are pretty much what's posted above (ie common sense) and because the kids know they'll be enforced they are rarely challenged by the vast majority.

cajoling encouragement regardless of their attitude and behaviour.

That’s it in a nutshell. Plead with the kids to behave. If they don’t, you haven’t pleaded enough.

Here are some objections to the entirely reasonable school rules posted above. ‘Child abuse’.

Just noticed the school in question though is Harrop Fold. Not a fan of the Povey Bros.

On the other hand , I once inherited a child form the 'resisting' school. She had interesting things to say . Their communication was useless!

Yeah, no fan here either, but criticising those school rules??

I can't actually read them... but I am sure they make sense!

They’re easier to see on last night’s post?

Stuff like not throwing stuff, not talking over the teacher and actually getting on with the work. Child abuse.

Oh, I can see them in your previous post. Would love to know what X covers ! And why they couldn't at least try to get to Z!

X would hopefully cover bottle scrunching. God that drives me crazy.

@Tipsywoo

Your husband clearly doesn't understand the role of the governors. Assuming, he has been one long enough to have attended training, was he paying attention?

That said, the SLT sounds weak by your description. Correct response from AH should have been either “on your bike” or “tell me which day will you be volunteering and I'll make sure the room is available”.
HT should have requested Chair of Governors remind other governors that their role is strategic, not operational.

The correct way to deal with it, assuming attending the lunchtime club is in your son's personal plant would be for you (non-governor parent) to have asked the Senco what was being put in place instead to meet your son's needs at lunchtime.

Aaaaaarghhh to bottle scrunching! I have misophonia . Pen clicking can go in x,y and z too.

Personal plan, not plant...

(Remember when personal plants become the next teaching fad that you read it here first.)

It is absolutely not the role of any governor, parent or otherwise, to make operational decisions such as whether or not a lunchtime club is run. The focus should be on asking why the behaviour was so bad that the club had to be cancelled and sorting that out at a strategic level. A governor going to the head and demanding that the decision reversed just smacks of "Don't you know who I am? Change your decision to suit MY child because I'm a GOVERNOR dontchaknow" and that just gets my back up, I've been a school governor and seen this in action so many times.

@noblegiraffe do you think the issue of behaviour is reaching its peak, are we likely to get any improvement any time soon? The hardest thing I find is the attitude of some of the parents, I can't see that changing any time soon :(

I see it from both sides, I have a teen child who really struggles to learn because of the attitude of some kids in her classes and the lack of support for teachers in her school, both from parents and SLT, to do anything about it.

But as far as we know, that's exactly what happened Jeffter - and the teacher was able to bar certain pupils/enforce expected behaviour criteria and reopen the club. Possibly a case of a Governor overreaching but just as possibly a Governor supporting a teacher who wanted to take a stand over poor behaviour.

Not a teacher but absolutely agree with Jeffter!. Change your decision to suit MY child because I'm a GOVERNOR dontchaknow. Not something I'd crow about!

do you think the issue of behaviour is reaching its peak

No, I don’t think so. I think the current fad for ‘restorative conversations’ and the behaviour policy being peddled by Pivotal which is inexplicably creeping into schools across the country will make things a lot worse.

I give it at least a couple of years before education really starts to wake up and realise it’s been had again.

I thought the trend at the moment was for more schools to become zero tolerance/Michaela like. Has that been replaced by something else?

There's nothing worse than lovely kids looking at you sadly while badly behaved ones are stopping you from teaching. Parents need to be accountable for this and schools need to support teachers so this can be avoided.

This - a million times. Focus needs to be moved to where it belongs - negligent & entitled parenting. I say this as a close relative of a secondary school teacher and a cover supervisor.

Fudge some schools are going zero tolerance (or low tolerance), and they are certainly getting a lot of publicity, but at least in my area they’re in a minority.

What is steaming through schools like a particularly unwelcome bulldozer at the moment is a behaviour management style that puts all the emphasis on the class teacher and building relationships. Paul Dix wrote a book called ‘When the adults change, everything changes’, and there’s a company he founded called Pivotal that is making a fortune going into schools and peddling the system. No sending kids out of the class if they can’t behave, just endless pandering, cajoling and ‘restorative conversations’

Do you remember the thread in AIBU a while back about the teacher who didn’t want to shake hands with every kid as they came into the classroom? That’s part of it.

I really lost my rag today because Yr8 just could not stop talking. When did this happen? When did kids start to think it was ok to talk over instructions

This really isn't new! I went to a very naice all girls' grammar school where the worst thing that happened was that someone didn't hand their homework in on time. Yet our whole class was put on report for low level disruption in our second year - ie Y8.

Kids have always been naughty in school.

And I agree with short break times. DS' school had two breaks of 20 and 30 mins. They minimised both bullying and bad behaviour, and extra curricular is done after school.

I'm bored of the continued low level stuff in my year 10 class. And I'm bored of following it up. That said, my year 9 class are fab. I am, however, dreading another year with the same year 10 group. They demonstrate everything negative explored in the fantastic Boys Don't Try. If only I could get the head of year to read it.

Thanks noble. Thankfully i don't think my dcs' school is doing that. My eldest's year group has had behaviour problems, so they've brought in a Year X Behaviour Strategy. I know that does involve kids being sent to a room after a being disruptive. I think they get a couple of warnings. Then being sent out 3 times in a week leads to internal/external exclusion. I can't remember which. I only heard about it from my kids. A friend was telling me it has worked.