Is this normal behavior in Uk secondary schools?

[mesha123]

My dd’s outstanding comprehensive school has constant disruption in the classroom. Although the school policy states no phones are allowed but children are watching reels in the class, making live videos and posting on tiktok. The policy states the phone should be on silent and shouldn’t be seen otherwise it will be confiscated for 1 week but clearly it doesn’t seem like any action is being taken. Some kids are chewing gum, mimicking teachers if they are asked anything. Even heard from friends that many kids just lie down and go to sleep during the exams that are conducted in the schools.

Not in my deprived area comp no it’s not. However, we have clear and enforced behaviour policy.

19 year11 boys were suspended from Laurelhill Community College in Northern Ireland last week. The principal said in all her years of teaching she had never experienced such behaviour and intimidation. Female teachers were particularly targeted. Not unexpectedly, some of the parents have made complaints to the local authority about the sanctions against their sons.

No. I've worked in some secondaries, and whilst there is varying levels of disruption in classes, I have never seen this happen. Taking and posting videos is one of the main reasons phones are not allowed out in schools, as before they were banned it led to a lot of problems and is a safeguarding issue.

and that is the reason so many kids are feral.
Because the parents will challenge the school other than deal out an even worse punishment at home for bad behaviour at school.

No that is absolutely not normal behaviour. I’d change schools to once which enforces its behaviour policies.

Ex teacher

I haven’t seen kids taking videos and posting them on TikTok.

more accurately it happened once and the kid got in a whole world of trouble.

chewing gum is quite frequent - I’d say I dealt with it about once every two weeks. Mostly by being very sarcastic at them.

Not necessarily normal but it’s amazing what they can do when you’re back is turned , which is often with the obsession with live marking . … in reality a way of making teachers mark in class so they have more time in evenings for answering emails and other endless admin . I would ask your YP if this is in every lesson or one subject in particular. But yes, I’ve seen kids whip out their phones to film and vape in lessons. Education is largely a shit show .

Absolutely not normal in my school. We see no phones anymore. The occasional child is rude. Lots of low level disruption with chatter and work refusal. Some skipping lessons and wandering the corridors. But the pupils who are very disruptive are known by name by all staff because of how few they are.

No, this is not acceptable behaviour at the secondary school that I work in. We have an ‘on site, out of site’ policy and any child seen with a phone in their hand will have it confiscated until the end of the day plus a detention.

That said, we have our fair share of parents complaining about sanctions. Fortunately, we have a strong head and board of governors who are good at holding the line in the face of Chat GPT-assisted complaint emails and social media moans. I’d say that this is crucial to the success of the school because it means pupils know where they stand and makes recruitment and retention easier.

My sons average comp is an average area has clamped down on phone use and kids are absolutely not allowed to use them in class. There is definitely some disruption in some classes as there was when I was in high school but the school seem to manage it ok. Repeat offenders have been excluded.

DS has a sports teammate in another school who has been excluded for behaviour and is now in another school. He has recently been in trouble for saying inappropriate things towards female teachers. His mum says it’s not his fault as he has ADHD and refuses to back the school. It is a matter of time before he’s excluded from that school too imo.

Not the norm, but not uncommon, I'd say. You'd hope for better in a supposedly 'Outstanding' school. It just goes to show how little anyone should trust Ofsted gradings.

Some low level backchat etc is fairly normal. Phone use that you describe is not normal in my experience. I have only ever seen one pupil put their head on a desk and sleep in an exam. And she was a very troubled young lady and it was really sad that she felt that was the best course of action. Staff know it’s likely and plan for it and have them at the back to minimise the influence it has on others.

What Ofsted say about behaviour is not worth the paper it's written on.