Deteriorating behaviour and lack of support bringing the profession to its knees

[noblegiraffe]

“The proportion of teachers reporting difficulty in managing pupil behaviour has increased “significantly” since last year, according to new research.

More than four in 10 teachers now say they are struggling to cope with poor behaviour.

Many teachers say they are not being adequately supported by their senior leadership teams with behaviour management, according to the research by the Education Support Partnership – a charity that supports teachers with poor mental health.”

www.tes.com/news/exclusive-four-10-teachers-struggle-behaviour

I would call this the ‘Paul Dix effect’.

The backlash in the press and from parents about exclusions, isolation and any attempts to discipline that are more than a ‘restorative conversation’ is damaging.

But Dix’s assertion that asking for support with behaviour management diminishes your authority in the classroom has enabled swathes of lazy-arsed SLT to simply throw back any complaints about poor behaviour to the teacher, without any effective tools to deal with it.

[foreverinthelightsyoumake]

Ha ha we have restorative conversations.

Kid dicks about.

You have a restorative conversation. Kid nods and looks chastised.

Next lesson, kid dicks about

With that being said, I personally find behaviour better now but maybe that's because I've got experience under my belt. 2003 - 2013 maybe were grim years.

[noblegiraffe]

More Paul Dix destroying schools:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/3624896-Staff-strike-over-pupil-violence-at-outstanding-school-with-Pivotal-behaviour-policy

I think parents need to be aware of the increasing behaviour problems in our schools. So many threads complaining about uniform policies and isolation rooms but would they really prefer their kid to be unable to learn due to SLT pandering to disruptive kids with cosy chats instead of effective sanctions?

[likeafishneedsabike]

As regards Paul Dix and the pivotal approach, I did a little experiment this weekend. DS in Y4 was complaining that a naughty boy in his class disrupts Music. I put it to him that it was the teacher’s fault: this boy behaves for the normal class teacher so it must be the Music teacher’s problem. She needs to get to know him and build a relationship with him.
DS: ‘What? You’re not understanding the situation. We have Music once a week! How can she get to know him. He’s the one making the choice, not her. He chooses not to listen’.
Shall we get 9 year old to explain it to SLT??!

[Ineedhelptocope]

IME apart from students with legitimate SEN the worst behaved kids had the worst type of parents who refused to accept their kids bad behaviour, were aggressive, belligerent and at time utterly vile. It was ALWAYS the teacher's fault. Everything was a battle with them. Kids were often ride and aggressive towards the parents to with little if any discipline. SLT were too scared to deal with these parents. It was soul destroying.

[Piggywaspushed]

exactly what I am doing fish!!

[likeafishneedsabike]

🍷 for Piggy

[Piggywaspushed]

That is actually what I feel like I am.

And I am not a HOY any more. It seems my school may not have noticed....... attempts to

[noblegiraffe]

That sucks Piggy.

You need this guy.

[Piggywaspushed]

After the day I have had, I am contemplating rounding up the entire student population and sending them all to Dix for some restorative conversations.

Because that would have really worked while I was stuck in the middle of a 30 person fight.

[BelindasGleeTeam]

I've just left the NEU as they appear to have contracted a bad case of Dixitis.

Will find a new union.

[LisaMontgomery]

I trained to teach right in the middle of the "if your lessons are interesting they will behave" nonsense. I saw lots of fellow trainees and then NQTs buckle under the workload of planning ever more interesting and exciting lessons to try to improve behaviour. This "conversations solve everything" is simply going to go the same way.

I was lucky because my HoD for my NQT year said "you apply the sanctions so they behave, then they learn better (which builds confidence) and then they find lessons more interesting and you can trust them to do exciting practicals". Also, words of wisdom from my DM "you don't insist kids follow rules cos you don't like the that much, you do it because you do like them, and want them to do grow up to be successful member of society".

A couple of years ago I had a particularly difficult GCSE student. Nothing worked because when it got escalated to slt they consistently let her off without any real sanctions. She learned that there were no real consequences for her actions. Last I heard of her she had been sacked from her first two jobs. We (as a school) failed her by not giving her any fixed boundaries.

[Heyha]

Redirected here from another thread. I have found my people 🙂. There is a set of schools out there that refer to their policies as 'warm strict' but I can't for the life of me remember where or who. That's my cup of tea. I don't think it's a million miles off ZT but that kind of 'tough love' has served me well over 15 years irrespective of the wider school philosophy. Behave- life is good, you will get to do nice things like the optional extra experiments I've got up my sleeve. Misbehave- life is uncomfortable/dull.
Not many kids that can't manage to follow that most of the time and if they aren't managing you've generally got a good enough handle on them to know if there's a reason why, because shit does happen, and they're still teenagers learning how to get on with life. If they're playing up every lesson or being restoratived all the time then it's harder to spot when there's actually something wrong that's causing their behaviour.

[luckybird07]

I am in the US and I fondly miss those booths Dix is trying to ban- the little cubicles they work in when they get ejected from class- we do not ave them here-they all go in a room and have 'quiet lunch' and they like going there- like criminals going inside and learning more from each other.This year has been so hard- i think the iphone babies are coming through middle school grades now. It is the boys that are the challenge- my last week I dealt with one of mine robbing/shaking down a special ed kid for a significant amount of $$, serious tagging in the bathroom, and vaping- only one got suspended. Thank God I have 9 weeks off and they pay us well over here is all I can say.

[noblegiraffe]

The NEU are too busy sucking up to Paul Dix and his stupid ban the booths campaign to care about teachers facing behaviour issues as a result.

Loads of teachers I know switched to the NUT over strike action. I’m glad I stayed put as the NEU seem shit.

[Piggywaspushed]

The magazine certainly runs counter to the recent EEF / government research. The government seems only to use Ofsted reports to 'prove' behaviour has not deteriorated. I am interested. however, that the EEF guidance does not say it has improved. Everything else in education (apart from MH) we are told has improved, but not behaviour :that's just 'the same' as if we are supposed to accept this.

And, anyway, if they bothered to speak to teachers and their unions...

[Ledkr]

I have noticed even in dds year 3 that some of the behaviour is so extreme and yet the parents are posting all over sm how proud they are of their little darlings.
It's as if they are clueless and I wk der if they are.
When dd1 was bullied in year 9 and 10 I asked the head outright how specific he was to parents when describing their children's behaviour.
Did he tell them that my tiny daughter was called a fat cunt in the dinner queue and had her dinner knocked from her hand or that pictures of naked lowers halves were put on sm with her name on them?
He chose not to answer that and I was abused in the street for calling police when she was pushed over and elbowed in the face by BOYS 😩

[CaptainBrickbeard]

I’m with NASUWT but don’t get the magazine - it might go to my old address actually. Is there a way to see that article online anywhere? It sounds like exactly the direction my school is going in.

[noblegiraffe]

Did anyone else see this in the NASUWT magazine? Front cover ‘Every time I raise an issue about a pupil’s behaviour, I am made to feel I am to blame.”

Pic from inside. Clearly ‘restorative practices’ are causing huge concerns for teachers across the country AND MAKING BEHAVIOUR WORSE. Why are school leaders falling for it? I don’t get it in teaching, whenever something happens that makes a teacher’s life easier, something else becomes popular that instantly makes it more difficult again. Get rid of graded lesson observations? Bring in triple marking! Get rid of triple marking? Bring in a shitty behaviour policy!

[StayDetermined]

I've got 6 more weeks in a school that runs this Pivotal sh*t. I feel like I'm failing as a teacher - there is so much I just don't know how to begin dealing with. And my HoD seems to think the best of all the students I send out, which is admirable, but leaves me with zero support. I am being observed next week - the focus is engaging lessons and students being on task.

I am honestly considering asking my GP to sign me off sick with stress, and I have had minimal time off, under 2 days in the last 3 academic years.

I don't know how to get through it.

[Fossie]

I’m so glad you’ve raised this noble. I’m on my way out of teaching I fear. I will be refusing to teach a pupil next week so I expect the full weight of sanctions upon me. I refuse to be a victim.

[Piggywaspushed]

That war has broken out on Twitter noble! Tom Bennett (basically, the author) is annoyed that it has been reported in that way.

[noblegiraffe]

The report is on this page educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/tools/guidance-reports/ Improving behaviour in schools Early Years

[noblegiraffe]

I found the report too after reading the Schools Week article (it’s under guidance on the EEF website but was headed for ‘Early Years’ which was misleading!)

This bit in the Schools Week article annoyed me: “The guidance, published today (Friday), also points to a lack of evidence on the impact of zero tolerance behaviour policies – sometimes described as “no excuses” – which aim to create a strict and clear whole-school approach to discipline.”

People will read ‘lack of evidence on the impact of zero tolerance behaviour policies’ to mean ‘there’s no evidence that it works’. But actually the box in the report clarifies that there haven’t been any robust studies carried out, and none in English schools, so there’s no evidence that it doesn’t work either. No evidence has been collected.

[PinguDance]

Oh if you found the report please will you link to it? I just read that article again (fun Friday night) and it interests/irks me that ‘building relationships’ is often interpreted as ‘have nice chat with kids when they do something naughty’. I have bollocked a couple of kids and noticed a considerable improvement in our relationship afterwards. Not necessarily with pupils who have very entrenched difficult behaviours and very complicated lives - I can see why bollocking isn’t always a good approach there - but with eg. whingy yr 11s pratting about, I don’t feel the need to be nice about that, I tell them off and they still ask me to sign their year books 🤷🏻‍♀️.

[Piggywaspushed]

There is,however, an interesting box in the report itself(which I have now found) which hasn't been widely reported. Evidence suggests improved exam results (especially amongst weaker students) in schools which have no mobile phones! They seem not keen to say this is causal : but I don't bloody care. Bring it on!