Behaviour worse than ever in schools

[PrimaryTeacherabc]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-68674568

Why have we got mob rule? A couple of days ago, secondary school children were injured in a crush at the school gates. Yes, the gates weren't open, which was a serious mistake, but the kids then pushed and shoved like a riot. Our children are crying out for serious boundaries. I have argued this for a while, we are heading. In the wrong direction, with "soft" approaches that don't work. How many young people who had trouble with their behaviour, have said that the services with strict routines, rules and consequences changed their lives for the better?

Behaviour is getting worse since the introduction of a curriculum that doesn’t meet needs; is teaching them things that don’t apply to life and since a pandemic that has had a huge negative impact on students telling them school didn’t matter for ages and now fining and challenging poor attendance: staffing is in crisis. Pupils aren’t more challenging now than they were 20 years ago - I’ve always dealt with things like knife crime, year 10s smoking cannabis, online issues (maybe not 20 years ago) and challenging behaviour but now we’re in a very different age where everyone thinks they know how schools should run - hardly difficult to be that way when you have education ministers who have never stepped foot in a school.

plus the solution is still ‘academies’ which actually haven’t improved anything all they did was change the Ofsted criteria so they could say 92% of schools are good or better as opposed to 60+% when they came to power but outcomes aren’t any better as you’re comparing apples and oranges as the two curriculums and expectations are completely different.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68703213

Report from today, suggests that weak leadership is a significant cause. This is Wales, but it's happening across the UK. Headteachers afraid to fight fire with fire. More and more violence in schools and society as a whole as young people (and parents) arn't held to account. Poor curriculums, should never be an excuse for violence and hurting others.

I do think there are huge issues in many schools - I hear it in the area I work in, which is one of the most deprived towns in the country.

The school I work in has approximately 40% PP and 60% living in the most deprived parts of an already deprived town. So many challenges come with that which don't help anything.

We have worked so hard, and continue to do so, on a strong behaviour curriculum. We have a lot of consistent routines and ways of doing things to support good behaviour. Our pastoral team are beyond amazing at supporting children, families and staff.

The big thing at our school is that there are clear consequence for poor behaviour and these are enforced from the head teacher down.

As a result, behaviour in our school is, on the whole excellent.

I think a lot of the issue can be weak systems where there are few/no consequences for poor behaviour and senior leadership teams who shy way from dealing with poor behaviour and don't support staff.

@PumpkinPie2016
Totally agree with everything you have written. I also work in a school where the Headteacher robustly enforces the rules. Parents are told very sternly "Your child has to be behave in my school or they will receive consequences. If it's not for you, take them elsewhere." Teachers are supported to hold children and parents to account. Like your school, behaviour is excellent. Children are actually told off, they learn that actions have consequences. But I know our schools are rare examples. Having visited schools where behaviour is bad, weak leaders allow bad behaviour to run rife. And then we see it in our streets.

Totally agree. I started a new school in September and the behaviour is awful. There are no consequences, I’ve been attacked, photographed without my permission (which has been shared on social media) and absolutely nothing was done about these incidents. The student who attacked me then made it her mission to come to my room at various times of the day to brag about the attack and how she got away with it. She incited other students (who I had never met) to kick my door and run into my classroom shouting abusive remarks. This happened several times a day. SLT did not want to know. I’m an experienced teacher yet all of the classes on my timetable were unteachable where I couldn’t get through a lesson without being verbally abused at least 5 times a lesson just for asking students to get their books out, listen etc. The response I had when I called for support from senior staff was ‘What are they doing that’s so bad?’ or the most ridiculous the staff high fiving the culprits and laughing about their behaviour. These students were never removed from class and were 10 times worse after there was no back up from senior staff. This experience affected me so much that I’m now looking to leave teaching altogether and I know many others are in the same boat. I dread to think what will happen if something isn’t done soon.

That’s awful! I do agree with very clear boundaries and consequences. My school still does the restorative approach but there are still consequences as part of that and part of the restorative approach is they understand very clear consequences for their behaviour. We don’t do the fluffy restorative approach where everything is accepted. We expect behaviour but we absolutely challenge and don’t accept it. I think unfortunately there are many schools where the behaviour is accepted as ‘normal’

@Foostit that's horrendous- please tell me you are job hunting for September!

@PumpkinPie2016 Yes I am. I made that decision by the end of last September. Still no luck yet but I’ll do supply if I have to until I find something.

Behaviour is definitely getting worse. That in itself is bad enough, but what gets to me most is the denial. SLT and regular staff not working together. Alert system does not work as most of those who are supposed to be on call do not respond. Pupils with poor mental health or ACEs are in the increase yet the level of support is diminishing. Time bomb.

Like the idea of a plain no nonsense approach re head.

@BCBird Yes, the denial is so clear in many schools and the no nonsense approach is incredibly empowering. My school has sent staff to help other schools struggling with behaviour, including myself and it's so frustrating when Headteachers just will not or can't see it. My current Head just has a straight down the line, no nonsense approach and it works an absolute treat. I have also worked in other schools, and now realise just how they were going wrong, now i am here.

Yes, we tell children off, voices are raised (only when the odd child pushes the boundaries and it shows the others bad behaviour will be strongly stopped), we absolutely insist on silence in the corridors, insist on hard work etc etc. SLT visit the classrooms, go into the corridors and yes they shout if our standards arn't being met. Children know they have to behave. Staff are empowered to force it through by whatever reasonable means. Yes, a few parents complain, but SLT tell parents to take their children elsewhere. This is how we do things here, like or lump it. 99% of the time, the parent back down when the Head is so steadfastly supportive of the staff and what we do. And so many parents come to realise, just what a claim place it is, and that their child is getting an education without disruption. It's so refreshing and empowering. We don't have golden time, nurseries, calming down rooms, fidget toys or anything like that. All of this just muddies the waters. Children are expected to behave, it's a place of learning - simple as that.

Other schools, increasing in number, just deal with badly behaved children like wet weekends. These kids are crying out for strong, clear direction. Instead, they get wishy washy excuses as to why they are behaving so badly. The children then just carry on. I despair at how badly behaved children are in so many schools, the violence staff are facing and so many good teachers leaving the profession because they don't want to be abused. Zero tolerance works. We do it AS WELL AS helping children who need help in their lives and help with their emotions. But they are told, that they MUST learn and that they MUST control themselves etc. It really works! So sad to witness and hear how it's going so wrong in so many schools and in society. Just get tough!

@PrimaryTeacherabc
That sounds great but unfortunately schools like that are few and far between where I am. I know of so many colleagues who would still be teaching if poor behaviour and lack of consequences hadn’t driven them out of the profession. I’d give teaching another go if I worked in a school like yours.

@Foostit You're absolutely right, that schools that deal with behaviour effectively, are few and far between and becoming increasingly rare. If it wasn't for the way we deal with behaviour, I would be out of teaching by now. We still have all of the other issues that teaching is suffering with such as workload, burnout, frustrations, effective marking and planning issues etc. It's still very tough as teaching is, but behaviour is dealt with so well. Unfortunately, SLT including the Head are in their 60's, and will be retiring soon.

Totally agree with you OP. Fashionable approaches like Pivotal ruin schools and ruin the life chances of children. I am lucky I work in a strict (and very caring) school but SLT are desperate to soften the rules because they paid Tom Dix a load of money to tell them to. I just don't get it. For now Middle Leaders are holding the line, but we can only do that without SLT support for so long.

not sure where they got the image in the article, as all the girls wear skirts so short their pants are nearly on show, HT too scared to address this issue.

I truly believe behaviour is getting worse. I've been teaching Primary for nearly 20 years now. Early on in my career we had the odd challenging child across the school, but now we have several in each class. Much of our daily time in class is spent dealing with behavioural issues rather than concentrating on learning.

I believe there are several factors that effect this. The main factors for me are:

• severe lack of funding - we now have fewer staff and fewer resources than ever.
• Covid - this just severely affected people's attitude towards learning - pupils and parents alike
• shift in parental attitude - we now have so many parents who excuse their child's poor behaviour and refuse to give boundaries. This year I have parent who has freely admitted that they have never said "no" to there child, they get what they want whenever they want.
• shift in children' attitude - I dread to think what it is like in secondary, but even in our primary school there seems to be a "mob" mentality in some groups. The children just don't seem to care, they only care what their friends think. I had a child last year (5 years old) who said he was in the "mean boys gang". We have several children in Year 2 who egg each other on, making knives out of sticks, trashing classrooms when they don't get their own way. Our assemblies are becoming a joke with children chattering all the way through, then when you remind them about the behaviour that is expected, they turn and giggle to each other. There is no respect any more.
• shifting to softer behaviour approaches - we changed our approach a couple of years ago but now there seems to be no consequences leading to a lack of respect. The children just keep doing the same thing as they have no real consequence. They are not learning from this softer approach and this is across the school. When they had clear expectations and clear consequences they knew where they stood and I feel that's all been lost.

I love teaching, I love seeing the children making progress but the day to day behaviour now is appalling and I completely understand why many teachers are now leaving the profession.

I have visited many schools on the DfE Behaviour Hubs programme, it’s truly fascinating. The Zero tolerance approach often works if you have parental buy in, the schools do become selective by parental choice then. The calm environments are a joy to see! But I don’t think you can be truly inclusive in these environments. Children with SENd, trauma and ACE’s can’t cope.

I understand why secondary kids who’ve got to year 10 With reading ages of 7 and processing issues ‘kick off’. A new national phenomena seems to be the on site truanting and the student remaining polite when challenged. If a child is politely saying ‘no I don’t want to go to Geography because I don’t understand the work and can’t read the text book, I’ll stay here in the loo’ what can actually be done? It’s defiance, but if you suspend or then exclude for that you run the risk, quite rightly, of being taken to court by parents for not meeting needs. Schools are meant to evidence an array of interventions and support before that stage and without funding that’s very difficult.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/student-rushed-hospital-hammer-attack-122724548.html

Hammers and stabbings growing by the day. The kids are running many of our schools in today's violent and lawless world, unfortunately.

This is very distressing to read. I used to teach not far from that school 😯

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/fewer-two-five-pupils-feel-123927585.html

Plus this. This really should be addressed. Students resorting to carrying weapons because they feel so unsafe in school.