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/

It was a dodgy illegal exclusion gig noble

It's illegal for a reason.

I always pick up on slouching (because you cannot write properly and slouch, and it is generally passive aggressive, and usually a sign of inattention). Doesn't mean I shout, issue a demerit (whatever that is) or a detention. I juts ask the child to sit up.

I don't think anyone would disagree with this, it's entirely reasonable.

Yes, but you’re wanging on about a head who gave into parents about how to discipline their children. What you’re actually supporting is that power to enforce isolation being returned to schools and for parents ability to overrule to be ended.

Which is odd as you have, up till now, been siding with parents against teachers on matters of strict enforcement of discipline.

I'm not saying I agree with the discipline policy that school either noble The entire set up seems badly handled.

It’s almost as if your position isn’t to be logically consistent but instead to bash teachers at any opportunity.

It is worries me that teachers look at that situation and shrug, and worse than that, think that he's the right person to be giving them advice.

I am being totally consistent noble
But I'm also consistently disagreeing with you, and when you dont like it you accuse me of teacher bashing.

Who's saying he's the right person? Teachers didn't choose him, just like we didn't choose this government (or I certainly didn't, anyway).

Fair enough Remus I don't know how he was selected. Worrying times...

Who is the he to which you refer?

I am a bit confused!

I haven't read the whole thread but just wanted to add something.

This programme summed up so much for me. At one point, after the numbercruncher had looked at redundancies, cutbacks etc the results were still poor. They then decided SLT would be active in discipline (as opposed to it been dealt with in classroom/by teacher). The results pulled back up. If we have taken away authority from teachers and then SLT do not utilise the authority they have with
detentions, etc, of course, it is not going to work.

It was shocking to me to see that the SLT/Management here only really played an active role in being present as staff to the children towards the end.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/nov/02/bbc-film-crew-to-document-england-school-funding-crisis

What's more shocking really is that SLT in SO many schools only step up to the plate when camera crews roll in...

I know a lot of people are in favour of centralised detentions, but I'm not- we have them at the school where I teach and the problem is no-one chases up non-attenders. About 10% of kids just don't go to detention, and therefore it's a meaningless sanction for a lot of them- if they get 5 detentions that they don't attend, they have a day in inclusion. Some kids seem to quite like this as it's a pretty low demand environment, and they get a fair amount of one on one attention- it's certainly less hassle to them than doing their hour in silence after school.

As an NQT, behaviour is slowly breaking me- I've already decided I'm going to change schools at the end of the year. The poor behaviour means I can't support kids with SEN- they are not the key offenders.

I reckon I've spent around £20 on giving out pens since the start of the year too. My bottom set Y11 with several SEN and disadvantaged pupils can mostly remember to bring pens- it's very occasional that someone doesn't have one. It's my middle sets Y8 and Y9 that are worse for people turning up without them. Even just giving them out at the start of the lesson wastes time. Also, I've had at least 10 pens I've given out destroyed by students which IMO there is no excuse for.

@Piggywaspushed

And this belief that if the child plays up it is because the work is not adequate for their needs or boring.

I can't believe that that whole line of argument is used against teachers. Its as though rather than working on behalf of all children in a school, teachers are being played off against teaching assistants, support staff and SLT - all playing the service provider roles and competing with 'solutions'

FWIW, as a science teacher, behaviour in corridors is a safety issue, particularly for our science technicians who have to move equipment between classes during changeover times/break times.

Distracted kids not looking where they are going can cause accidents.I don't think that means corridors need to be 100% silent, but a certain level of behaviour is required. Corridors aren't the place for letting off steam between lessons.

I honestly think a lot of parents have no idea what behaviour is like in the average state school today- I think they would be shocked at how much behaviour which was totally unacceptable when I was at school about 10 years ago is pretty commonplace now.

As a final point, there are a few kids I teach who display pretty extreme behaviour as a result of unmet SEN needs. However, as a classroom teacher with 32 other children to teach, some of these needs are beyond my ability to meet. These pupils need proper assessment and support, which costs money which schools don't have- I wish we had the funding to support all SEN children really well but this is not the case.

The resulting behaviour is extreme to the point of sometimes being scary- I know it upsets other children in the class. And sometimes, those children are seeing frightening behaviour on a daily basis.

I had a Y11 kid commit a really violent assault in my class just before half term- regardless of his needs, that impacts everybody in the room. IMO, the sanction he was given wasn't adequate. If he'd done similar in a pub (for example) he'd have been arrested.

There's a combination needed of a really robust behaviour policies in schools, with supportive and present SLT, as well as more funding to properly support children with SEN and difficult home lives.

Gripes against ineffective SLT are perfectly valid. Especially when they override a sanction, give conflicting advice, contradict each other, undermine the teacher/TA when they do intervene and are all wishy washy, or their advice is all about ignoring, treats,reward time and marble jars. The more carrots we dangle the more kicking off we get ,and kids getting them without earning them or needing them ....because they kick off.

@PanicAndRun

I agree with you about understanding. Teachers do understand why some students don't behave due to SEN, crap home life, trauma etc. Like you say, that doesn't mean our expectations should change.

It's not about kids who live in fancy houses being ok, it's about those whose emotional health is undermined having it further compromised by a school system that treats them as bad for reasons that are often stem from reasons without their immediate control.

I'd wager that 80% of the students I teach suffer from little t trauma from your list. That doesn't mean I should accept being sworn at, talked over and them fighting. I overlook students without a pen most of the time, that's not a big issue. However I don't disagree with schools that impose sanctions for this.

ATM you can bet your ass I am fucking angry. I'm a TA and we have a very high needs class, at the same time I need to support the teacher and manage needs/behaviour so she can teach(worst behaviour is during input), take a step back and let the the teacher with the behaviour AND we both need to avoid relying on SLT so much.

When in the same lesson we can have a kid refusing to do anything and shouting/throwing things about, one storming out and one starting a fight on top of the general low level disruption and chatting. There's only two of us. What the fuck are we supposed to do? If I step back there's mayhem and I struggle to cope,not to mention everyone else, if i intervene i overstep (apparently i need to wait to be asked), if we call SLT we rely on them too much. Fuck it.

@PanicAndRun

It is an impossible situation, Panic. And whatever you would do would be wrong or could be wrong at a given time.

That's a reflection of the situation and not you, or the teacher however, teacher should speak to SLT (prob already has) and SLT do need a better strategy.

As an NQT, behaviour is slowly breaking me

Really sorry to hear that, Sansa, you always sound enthusiastic and professional in your posts, one the profession can ill-afford to lose.

I notice that you say that non-attendance at centralised detentions isn’t chased up at your school. That’s not a problem with centralised detentions, but a problem with the administration of them. Be careful what you wish for, you really don’t want to be responsible for the setting and chasing of non-attendance at your own detentions - it is a massive workload creator, and if not backed up by automatically escalating sanctions for non-attendance (they didn’t show up? Contact home and reset it! Is the cry of useless SLT) they’re the road to madness.

I had a Y11 kid commit a really violent assault in my class just before half term

That’s awful, you must have been pretty shaken. It sounds like it has dented your confidence in your SLT. They should have involved the police, or at least recommended it to the parents.

All kicking off again.

A week after Gav told everyone that silent corridors are the best, an Ofsted report has come out slating a school for its overly strict behaviour management (while at the same time admitting that behaviour in the school is good).

schoolsweek.co.uk/government-behaviour-tsar-calls-out-contradictory-ofsted-report/

Coherent strategy anyone? A school’s place is in the wrong, as always.

It does all seem contradictory. That school has been at the centre of controversy for a while, mind.

Delighted to see the Ofsted report. There is an epidemic of mental ill health among children and I do not think being frightened of disproportionate sanctions is going to help.

No one gave a shit about the mental health of kids who previously had to turn up to school where bad behaviour was rampant and the corridors a bull-run.

I expect trying to get your GCSEs but you can’t concentrate because Johnny is pissing about again is also pretty stressful.

I was a child like that noble in a ‘bog standard comp’ (awful phrase). But I still don’t support these methods