I think behaviour is the unspoken issue nationally in schools. Teachers are really struggling with it but SLT, LEAs and nationally it is not publicly recognised for the issue it is.
If you have a look on MN for threads about behaviour in schools, you are far more likely to see complaints about sanctions issued than you are complaints about how learning has effectively stopped because of poor behaviour in the classroom.
In the news it’s various people competing for the title of ‘Britain’s strictest head’ and poor little Jonny being sent home for having too cool a haircut or the wrong shoes.
At the same time the narrative from the DfE is that more children are in good or outstanding schools than ever.
And yet teachers are leaving in droves and behaviour is cited as one of the main reasons (along with workload).
Where are the unions? The main union, the NEU is spending its time lending its weight to ban the booths campaigns and arguing that children shouldn’t be permanently excluded from schools. It favours a Paul Dix style of restorative justice that places the blame for poor behaviour in classrooms and the expectation for solving it on the individual teacher and washes SLT’s hands of any responsibility.
The NASUWT have raised the issue of behaviour and restorative approaches in their magazine but god knows if they’re doing anything about it on a national scale.
Ofsted don’t seem to be picking up on it and also criticise schools who expel pupils.
The public narrative is that behaviour is no longer an issue in schools. It’s so pervasive that teachers are reluctant to speak up about their own issues because the tendency is to blame the teacher and ask them what they’re doing about it.