Gav calls for Silent Corridors - School Behaviour Squad Assembled

[noblegiraffe]

Gavin Williamson made a speech today praising strict schools that don’t let kids piss about in lessons (you’d think this’d be fairly standard, but, y’know, Dix) and have silent corridors.

A new £10 million behaviour task force is being assembled led by Tom Bennett and will work to tackle this on a national level. Not sure how this will have any more impact than his behaviour report that appeared to make fuck-all difference though.

What would be lovely is if he could say ‘centralised detentions are a non-negotiable to be implemented immediately’. But I suspect not.

NEU are not happy, obvs.

schoolsweek.co.uk/williamson-calls-for-silent-corridors-and-banned-mobiles-to-be-the-norm/

Nobody is denying that some bad behaviour is the result of far deeper issues, of course that can be the case. However, proper behaviour policies, centralised detentions, smaller classes and money out into properly staffed withdrawal rooms/units that offer tailored support programmes would all make it easier to identify and then support individual needs.

Completely agree with everything you've said noblegiraffe. My DS is in Yr 11 and his school is run pretty much along those lines you describe. No phones at all, students expected to be 'ready to learn' i.e. have all necessary equipment, settle quickly at the start of the lesson, uniform rules to be followed, students to arrive on time at the beginning of the school day. If they don't follow the rules there are sanctions in place.
I 100% support this approach. DS is on track to achieve excellent GCSE grades. I really don't think he would be in that position if the school had a relaxed approach to behaviour management, simply because he wouldn't have found it easy to remain focused and engaged. My youngest DS is due to start there in September and I know this will be the right environment for him too.
I don't know how Senior school teachers put up will all the shit they are given from students and their parents. I think you all deserve medals just for showing up every day.

@Piggywaspushed we must follow the same people!

Not every child who misbehaves suffers from trauma or an ACE. I'd argue most children who misbehave don't. Being "trauma informed" seems to be code for accepting pupils with no boundaries who speak to you like crap and continue accepting it until they fail their GCSEs.

@Piggywaspushed further money spent on SALT and EPs in school would back up the provision along with the identification of increased need. We can’t ignore the needs of a child if we suspect there is something underlying their behaviour?

I work in primary and am a parent of SEND children in secondary and primary. I do see this from all sides and two of my children go to the school of one of the DFE behaviour team, so I’m aware of the benefits of this system and the disadvantages. My dc will appear with the required amount of kit, all the time, but the anxiety that it causes is brutal. Reasonable adjustments are made and my dialogue with school is good. However, months after annual review her plan is still not updated, they are still looking into parts of it, despite a legal requirement to return the plan in 15 days. It’s very frustrating all round.

@wrinkledimplelover I’m really interested in ACE and epigenetics also. Thanks for links above - looking forward to reading!

Also that explanation of trauma incorporates things that the majority of students will have experienced. Why is that an excuse for poor behaviour?

Reasonable adjustments for SEN are fine. Accepting terrible behaviour from the majority because they have suffered ACE is not fine.

I'd also like to know how to reinforce a rucksack to industrial strength! My Y7 kid brings everything everyday strategy works to keep him out of detention but I'm not sure it's good for his back!

Also, whatever kids might have gone through, having a decent set of exam results gives them a key to get out of a cycle of poverty etc. We don't do them any favours by just lowering our expectations and condoning disruptive behaviour day after day.

imip - further money?? There are no SALTs or EPs whatsover in any local school I know of!

Most of the irritating pen type behaviour is no more than that : irritating. A 'demerit' (nothing I have ever heard of in my school) is not the end of the world. Presumably they have to accumulate.

All that aside , I do know of a child with autism who ahs an industrial strength rucksack!
Moreover (and I learnt this from The Times, not my school) current guidelines during the whole Corona Virus spread says children should NOT be borrowing or sharing pens and pencils...oh dear.

My worry about current definitions f trauma is that schools are running around assuming every child who misbehaves has suffered trauma, whilst ironically overlooking the children who are silently traumatised.

By those definitions, I suffered childhood trauma. Not all traumatised children misbehave. In fact, lower attendance is the bigger issue.

Many years ago we had trauma training and attachment training from a specialist nurse. it was brilliant and made us think about a handful of students in the school much more carefully.

Last year we had 'attachment training' from a half informed AH from another school in 20 minutes flat. He made us believe every child was suffering an attachment disorder. What happens to the genuinely traumatised then? The very definition of sticking plaster approach!

And what if we don't know about a child's traumas? I know this is a separate issue but all the stuff does rather assume schools know every child's home circumstances pretty intimately.

BoucleEponine

Nice ableist attitude there. Let's hope you're not actually a teacher, or work with children in any capacity.

@Igglepigglesgrubbyblanket

Get your DC 5 magazine holders and label them Monday-Friday so he can - with help of laminated timetable - put what text books/exercise books he needs for that day in each one and transfer on daily basis after he's finished his homework.

Have a pencil case/calculator for home and one for school that stays in his bag

DD's school has no desks or lockers for storage so they have to carry everything around with them all day including packed lunch and PE bag. There's no way I'm letting her damage her back and shoulders lugging everything around so I've taught her some organisational skills. And it didn't happen overnight 😃

Nice ableist attitude there

Oh give over.

No I will point it out every time.

Boucle dd is capable of organising herself but is so anxious that she will be asked for any random thing and not have it or that some unspecified thing will go wrong that she struggles to leave things at home. She routinely carries half a dozen identical pencils and pens, several rulers, extra notepads and 2 or 3 reading books, just in case. This is an improvement from the start of Y7!

It's not ok to be ableist. Just like it's not ok to be racist. And if you acted on it then you would be breaking the law in this country. That's why schools have to be careful, because they could be looking at a disability discrimination case.

Let's just hope you're just talking from a place of ignorance, rather than nastiness.

Boucle disablist attitudes are vile

Believe me once you’ve watched your own child struggle where a very small adjustment could make their life bearable you would not say those things

Bear in mind none of these parents have the option of special school

Dear god all these people who wang on about poor behaviour being about an undiagnosed SEN or some childhood trauma should watch a bunch of bouncy Y11s pissing about in the corridor and the penny might drop that they do it because it’s more fun than quickly and quietly getting to their maths lesson, and even better, it’s without consequence.

Teacher after teacher after teacher will tell you that the reason for a lot of poor behaviour is a shit school behaviour policy. And they know because they’ve seen behaviour be affected by a change in policy. Same kids, different policy, better/worse behaviour.

A lot of the time poor behaviour is because the kids are allowed to get away with it either sanction-free, or with a sanction that they are willing to take (‘a demerit? Who gives a shit?’).

These initiatives do fill parents of children with SEN with total dread because schools and LAs are notoriously bad at making the adjustments needed and funding them properly. Even assessing the needs is a hurdle. Spend any time with the SEN community eg volunteering for IPSEA and you see the fuller SEN picture - not just how well it is managed in one specific school.

There has also been a massive reduction in alternative provision such as PRU places just when exclusions have risen by 70%. Any govt department wanting to fix behaviour is going to have to actually fund alternative provision of 70% more than 5 years ago and create a robust alternative eith places available.

Add to that, a huge proprtion of excluded chikdren have SEN. Thats before you get to the dark underbelly if off rolling and involuntary homeschooling of children with SEN.

Despite that, do want my NT child to go to class and be taught without other the NT children being disruptive, or without fear of violence? Of course i do.
I just think the money should have gone to alternative provisions and SEN support.

Dear god all these people who wang on about poor behaviour being about an undiagnosed SEN or some childhood trauma should watch a bunch of bouncy Y11s pissing about in the corridor and the penny might drop that they do it because it’s more fun than quickly and quietly getting to their maths lesson, and even better, it’s without consequence.

Hell, they could come to Y1 and they'd see the same thing.

I just think the money should have gone to alternative provisions and SEN support.

Every state teacher wants more money to go to alternative provision and SEN support. All of them.

But given the teacher exodus due to poor behaviour, clearly that deserves a bit of money and attention too, or there’ll be no teachers left for any kid.

Yep totally grasspigeons.

No one is saying behaviour isn't a problem. No one is saying there should be no behaviour policy, or a ineffective one.

People are trying to highlight the consequences of a strict zero tolerance behaviour policy on some of the more vulnerable students WITHOUT the funding and support in place for those children to be able to cope with it!