The Research
There has been extensive research into the practice of improving behaviour in schools, including national studies by Ofsted and the Practitioners’ on School Behaviour and Discipline chaired by Sir Alan Steer. All research into improving behaviour advocates the use of behaviour tracking systems such as Sleuth to collect and analyse behaviour data as part of an evidence based approach to developing and monitoring behaviour management strategies.
Delivering the Behaviour Challenge - Our Commitment to Good Behaviour (DCSF 2009)
The government's action plan for improving behaviour in schools implements some of the recommendations of the Steer Report. This document highlights the need for school to have an effective behaviour policy and use systems to support early intervention. Systematic monitoring of intervention strategies leads to an evidence-based approach to behaviour management identifying clearly and objectively what works and what doesn't.
- Tackling Behaviour Issues Early - "Sir Alan recommended that a key focus for Behaviour and Attendance Partnerships should be improving the capacity of schools to carry out effective early intervention work. Through monitoring and reviewing schools’ data, partnerships can identify, for instance, where particular groups of children are over-represented among those excluded or with poor attendance. Schools will want to work together to improve their strategies for identifying and meeting underlying learning needs in order to prevent challenging behaviour from escalating and eventually resulting in exclusion."
- Withdrawal - "We will expect every secondary school to have access, through its Behaviour and Attendance Partnership, to a withdrawal facility to use if necessary. We also recognise that weak behaviour management systems often rely on the frequent removal of pupils from classrooms which leads to neither pupils nor teachers learning to manage behaviour properly. We are therefore encouraging schools to monitor the effects of pupil withdrawal from the classroom in order to inform and improve practice."
Learning behaviour - The Report of The Practitioners' Group on School Behaviour and Discipline (DfES 2005)
Recommendation 2.1.1 : Schools should review their behaviour, learning and teaching policies and undertake an audit of pupil behaviour.
All schools should:
- collect data on pupils' behaviour and learning and use it, for example, to plan future groupings and to target support on areas where pupils have the greatest difficulty
- ensure that planning about behaviour improvement is informed by statistical information about the use of rewards and sanctions for example, how many pupils in a given period have received rewards for completion of homework on time, and how many have had a detention for failing to do so
- effective policy and practice is based on accurate information. School staff should use pupil tracking systems to identify positive and negative behaviour;
- monitor the effectiveness of the behaviour management techniques used by the school as part of the school performance management system;
Recommendation 3.1.2 : all schools should make regular use of self evaluation tools for behaviour and attendance, such as those provided by the National Strategies and commercially available pupil tracking systems.
Learning Behaviour Principles and Practice – What Works in Schools(DfES 2006)
Section 2 of the report of the Practitioners’ on School Behaviour and Discipline chaired by Alan Steer.
What works in improving behaviour: the ten key principles identified by the Practitioners Group:
Securing Good Behaviour in Secondary Schools(DCSF 2009)
National Challenge Stronger Management Systems (SMS) – Element 4 Annex B: Securing good behaviour in secondary schools.
Guidance for the School Evaluation Framework. What the school must do in relation to behaviour management to secure a Good for behaviour.
Sustaining improvement: the journey from special measures (Ofsted 2008)
An Ofsted survey identified one of the most important actions leading to continuous improvement was honest and accurate self-assessment.
"All the schools in the survey identified assessment and the careful tracking of pupils' and students' progress as key factors in raising standards. Refining rigorous assessment and tracking systems enabled appropriate interventions to be used for individuals and groups. The critical point for sustaining improvement was the degree to which the schools ensured that staff understood the data they had, knew how to apply in the classroom what the data showed them, and expected to be held to account for outcomes."
Managing Challenging Behaviour (Ofsted 2005):
"The most effective pastoral support systems are those in which there is careful and regular tracking of pupils’ learning and behaviour."
"When information over time is collated well and senior staff act decisively on the analysis of the information, remarkable change can be brought about."
Improving Behaviour(Ofsted 2006)
An Ofsted survey reporting on the 'Lessons learned from HMI monitoring of secondary schools where behaviour had been judged unsatisfactory'.
"The schools that made the best progress tackled the improvement of behaviour as part of a whole-school improvement programme.
"They rigorously monitored and evaluated how staff implemented the agreed behaviour policies and procedures, and maintained high-profile monitoring of behaviour throughout the school day. They analysed incidents of unacceptable behaviour to establish where, when and why they were happening."
"Improvements in learning, the curriculum and relationships were not always enough. The schools’ firmer management, and better monitoring, of behaviour pinpointed the behaviours that staff found most challenging. It also provided information about which students had the greatest difficulty in conforming to the expectations of the school’s code of conduct, and when they struggled most.
"This analysis of serious incidents enabled conflict to be pre-empted. For example, targeted support was provided for particular lessons, or students spent some lessons supervised by senior staff in a different classroom or 'time-out' facility. The most successful schools recognised that these strategies were not long-term solutions but a first step to focusing on ways forward, rather than using precious time dealing with the fallout from behavioural issues after the event."
Research and Evaluation of the Behaviour Improvement Programme (DfES 2005)
"One LEA implemented, SLEUTH, a data tracking programme for monitoring positive and negative behaviour. This was used to analyse pupil behaviour and identify pupils 'at risk'. For those at risk of exclusion there was an on-site centre staffed by a full time behaviour mentor and an LEA person from the BIP management team. The centre supported 12 pupils who were placed on a flexible timetable spending some time in mainstream school and some in the behaviour support suite. BIP provided the funding to make this possible and those pupils identified had made considerable progress."
National Behaviour and Attendance Review - Interim Report (Welsh Assembly Government 2008)
The Steering Group responsible for undertaking the National Review of Behaviour and Attendance (NBAR) in Wales identified among their core values:
- "Evidence-based interventions with the highest research quality and rigour should be considered first for funding.
- Interventions should be preventative-focused rather that curative."
There was an optimistic view of the range of things that could and are being done. One factor for this optimism is that "Many schools now have effective recording and reporting systems."
It was also stated that "effective multi-agency working requires the use of consistent jargon free communication and the sharing of information and data."
The Elton Report - Enquiry into Discipline in Schools (HMSO 1989)
Although technology has changed dramatically since The Elton Report was published in 1989 the recommendations are still relevant now
"Our evidence from LEAs indicates that, in most of them, the ’hard’ information available about pupils' behaviour in their schools is very limited." .. "we recommend that all LEAs should maintain detailed records of serious incidents in and exclusions from their schools. Such records should help them target consultancy and support on the schools that need them most. "
The report also recommended, "all LEAs should establish serious incidents reporting systems and should monitor and act upon the information that these systems provide."
