Wiltshire School Reduce Exclusions by Two-Thirds

A Wiltshire secondary school has taken an innovative approach to improving pupil behaviour by using computer software to monitor what is going on in and out of the classroom.

The software, called sleuth, provides a systematic method of recording when, where and who was involved in incidents of good and poor behaviour. Once recorded it is straightforward to analyse the information to see quickly what's going on in a particular subject, lesson or classroom for example, and also who was involved, what they did and the action taken as a consequence.

The information allows teaching staff to find patterns in positive and negative behaviour and to identify potential triggers so that they can develop strategies to deal with them. Over time they can monitor the impact of the strategies to see what is effective and what isn't.

Matravers School in Westbury, are now well into their third year of using sleuth and it has become a well established part of the school's approach to behaviour management. They introduced sleuth in April 2002 in response to an OFSTED action plan that suggested using a system to manage behaviour related data.

Deputy Headteacher, Steve Clark said, "sleuth has been key to monitoring our systems as we can see what is happening where. We have reduced our fixed term exclusions by 68% over the last two years. The behaviours that we use fixed-term exclusions to address have not changed at all during this time but our ability to proactively manage the context of these behaviours has, which is where sleuth has been so useful."

Initially Matravers used sleuth to monitor and manage what was deemed to be medium-level behaviour. The focus has now changed to address more low-level high-frequency behaviour.

Mr Clark said, "The onus is on classroom teachers to take responsibility for behaviour but, at the same time, teachers know they can expect support from the appropriate team. This support may be targeted based on information in sleuth that the teachers themselves have gathered. sleuth has allowed us to develop an approach to dealing with behaviour based on a collective responsibility and gives us a clear framework for monitoring and discussing behaviour.

"Each week we have a meeting concerning two tutor groups in the school attended by the Tutor, the Head of Year and a member of the SMT. We discuss both the academic and pastoral performance of the tutor group with sleuth providing information about the student's behaviour. Under-performers identified during the meeting are set behaviour and academic targets where appropriate. This is one way in which sleuth enables us to draw links between behaviour and learning so our focus is not just on the management of behaviour but also the management of learning."

It isn't just in addressing poor behaviour that sleuth has helped at Matravers, it has also played a key role in their reward system for positive behaviour.

"As well as negative behaviour, sleuth enables us to monitor positive behaviour. Recording good behaviour means we have a more balanced picture of behaviour to discuss at Tutor Group review meetings and with students and their parents. Sleuth supports our two reward systems, one for KS3 students and one for KS4 students so that the reward system is age appropriate.

"For us, sleuth is more than just monitoring, it is about finding opportunities to make the data work for us so we are proactive in managing behaviour."

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