{"id":6267,"date":"2017-03-24T21:47:01","date_gmt":"2017-03-24T21:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/?p=6267"},"modified":"2023-05-30T23:58:19","modified_gmt":"2023-05-30T22:58:19","slug":"behaviour-is-a-national-problem-in-schools-in-england-review-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/2017\/03\/24\/behaviour-is-a-national-problem-in-schools-in-england-review-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"Behaviour is a national problem in schools in England, review finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Headteachers have \u2018perverse incentives\u2019 to hold back on poor conduct in their schools for better Ofsted ratings, government adviser says in his report.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><!-- GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2017\/mar\/24\/behaviour-is-a-national-problem-in-schools-in-england-review-finds\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/image.guardian.co.uk\/sys-images\/Guardian\/Pix\/pictures\/2010\/03\/01\/poweredbyguardian.png\" alt=\"Powered by Guardian.co.uk\" width=\"140\" height=\"45\" \/>This article titled &#8220;Behaviour is a national problem in schools in England, review finds&#8221; was written by Jamie Grierson, for The Guardian on Friday 24th March 2017 16.15 UTC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Schools have a national behaviour problem and there are \u201cperverse incentives\u201d for headteachers to paint their school in the best light, according to the government\u2019s behaviour tsar.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/pupilbehaviour\">Poor conduct remains a significant issue<\/a> for many schools in England, and there needs to be better ways available to help tackle the problem, Tom Bennett, who advises the government on behaviour issues, said in a report.<\/p>\n<p>In his review, Bennett also suggested there was a striking contrast between data gathered by Ofsted and school leaders on behaviour, and the experiences of classroom teachers. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs there a national problem with behaviour? The evidence suggests that there is. Just as importantly, though, there are many schools that demonstrate it is possible to improve in even the most beleaguered of circumstances,\u201d the report concludes. <\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail\">\n<p> <span>Related: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/education\/2017\/mar\/27\/could-kindness-not-lateness-be-the-key-to-improving-pupils-behaviour\">Could kindness, not lateness, be the key to improving pupils\u2019 behaviour? | Letters<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Bennett said he would hesitate to say school leaders were deliberately holding back on behaviour in their schools. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sure that in some circumstances yes, there probably are some headteachers who are perhaps a bit more conscious of the fact of putting spin on data,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>But he added: \u201cI think the vast majority of headteachers try to be as honest and straightforward and play a straight bat as they can.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Giving an example of differences between schools, he said he had seen some where lateness is not recorded as misbehaviour, and other schools where it is. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, if you don\u2019t record lateness as a misbehaviour, and you\u2019ve got lots of lateness, then your behaviour will look much better in formal external data, than it will be if you\u2019re a slightly more, shall we say, upfront school which does record that kind of data,\u201d Bennett said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo there\u2019s a lot of variety in practices which can lead to rather misleading data. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not suggesting that it\u2019s corrupt, I\u2019m suggesting that it\u2019s human beings reacting as human beings to slightly perverse incentives.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report \u2013 Creating A Culture: How School Leaders Can Optimise Behaviour \u2013 concludes that there is no silver bullet to tackling disruptive conduct. <\/p>\n<p>But it says there are a number of approaches that can be used to deal with the issue, and that good school leadership is key to creating the right culture in a school. <\/p>\n<p>The report also notes: \u201cThere is a striking contrast between data gathered from school leaders or school inspectors, and the experiences of frontline teachers and students. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is partly understandable. School leaders are held to account by their ability to demonstrate they have secured a safe, calm school environment. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cStakes for leaders are high. It is natural for the most positive interpretation of one\u2019s school to be presented publicly, especially in circumstances of external inspection.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>An Ofsted spokeswoman said: \u201cWe will discuss with the Department for Education matters identified for government which are relevant to Ofsted and consider in detail the recommendations for inspection.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>guardian.co.uk &#169; Guardian News &amp; Media Limited 2010<\/p>\n<p>Published via the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/open-platform\/news-feed-wordpress-plugin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Guardian plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">Guardian News Feed<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/wordpress.org\/extend\/plugins\/the-guardian-news-feed\/\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Wordress plugin page\" rel=\"noopener\">plugin<\/a> for WordPress.<\/p>\n<p><!-- END GUARDIAN WATERMARK --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Headteachers have \u2018perverse incentives\u2019 to hold back on poor conduct in their schools for better Ofsted ratings, government adviser says in his report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10220698900476085_349663338397715":"","twitter_1370559253_1370559253":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[61,29,109,64,5,386,385,145,350,63,66,65],"class_list":["post-6267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-article","tag-education","tag-jamie-grierson","tag-main-section","tag-news","tag-ofsted","tag-pupil-behaviour","tag-schools","tag-students","tag-the-guardian","tag-uk-home-news","tag-uk-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bcpdt.org.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}