Research School Network: Is Behaviour really getting worse? Consistency is key. Sadie Thompson, shares insights from the EEF Improving Behaviour in Schools Guidance Report.

Recently, in preparation for a module I was delivering for the HISP Research School as part of the Effective Learning Behaviours programme, I delved into my copy of the EEF’s Improving Behaviour in Schools Guidance Report, (accessible here https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfr… ) to swot up a little. Anecdotally at least, behaviour issues in school are a seemingly ongoing concern, with staff rooms up and down the country full of moans and groans about how it just seems to be getting worse year on year. But is that really the case? And if so, what can we do about it?

Interestingly, data from TeacherTapp, the daily teacher survey app which targets teachers across the country with 3 questions every day at 3:30pm, seems to suggest that this is not entirely true. In their most recent blog post summary on behaviour from November 2022, (accessible here https://teachertapp.co.uk/arti… ) although instances of behaviour that stopped teaching and learning during the course of a lesson had gotten marginally worse in September and October, by November it was back to similar numbers.

So, we can surmise that it is our perceptions of behaviour that might be slightly skewed in the reality of an increasingly demanding job. The team at TeacherTapp draw their own conclusions, hypothesising that expectations around pupil behaviour are getting higher, behaviour incidents are more common out of lessons than in and that the poor behaviours that we are witnessing are more extreme.

However, we know that the implications of poor behaviour are many, from the additional workload demanded of logging incidents on various systems and scheduling sanctions such as detentions, to a negative effect on morale and teacher wellbeing. But what can we do to realistically address low level disruption to support classroom practitioners and hopefully steer off a huge recruitment and retention crisis?

The EEF’s Improving Behaviour in Schools guidance report is divided up in to 6 evidence informed recommendations. The first four cover proactive strategies that seek to reduce behaviour incidents in the first instance, the fifth looks at reactive approaches for when behaviour has caused a disruption and how best to manage those occurrences, whilst the final recommendation, which we will look at here deals with implementation at a whole school level. In their report ​‘Below the Radar: low level disruption in the country’s classrooms’ from 2014, Ofsted note that from those teachers they surveyed, just half of primary school teachers and only a quarter of secondary school teachers believe

that their school’s behaviour policy is applied consistently. It is the implementation of the policies wherein lies the problem.

​‘School leaders can support their teachers and middle leaders to achieve better consistency between the classrooms in their school, and any new strategies should aim towards this.’

Improving Behaviour in Schools Guidance Report, EEF. Page 32.

School leaders need to ensure that everyone is on the same page when it comes to expectations of behaviour and have clear systems in place for when pupils do not meet those expectations. When the behaviour policy does not make it clear to pupils and staff alike what is and is not acceptable in terms of behaviour for learning and therefore the escalation of sanctions for not adhering to those expectations, it is open to interpretation from staff members who may choose to ignore smaller contraventions, knowing that any escalation will lead to an increase in their own workload. That is then in turn exploited by pupils who have an upper hand, aware that their teachers across the school are themselves unclear as to where they stand.

Clear, accessible behaviour for learning policies need to be reviewed and then shared with staff frequently, and school leaders should not be apologetic about revisiting expectations to ensure that all staff in school are clear on what to accept and how to deal with incidents of disruption. A simpler policy that seeks to address school specific concerns versus a more generic version borrowed and tweaked from another school or context will likely be easier to implement. The guidance report also suggests that intensive teacher training may be appropriate, in the region of 20 hours, and that alongside other strategies suggested in the report which seek to proactively prevent poor behaviour such as building and maintaining positive relationships, this will in turn lead to effective behaviour outcomes. The added benefit of improved behaviour is of course not only on the attainment of pupils, but also an improvement in pupil and staff wellbeing and attendance.