The latest National Behaviour Survey (DfE, 2024) has revealed a mismatch between school leaders’ view of behaviour in their schools and that of teachers and students.
Surveyed in May 2023, 67% of secondary school leaders reported “good” or “very good” student behaviour in the past week. However, only 43% of teachers and 40% of students in years 7 to 11 agreed.
Furthermore, while 55% of secondary school leaders in May 2023 reported a “calm and orderly” school environment “every day or most days” in the last week, only 51% of teachers and 48% of students agreed.
In May 2023, 79% of secondary teachers reported that misbehaviour had stopped or interrupted teaching in at least some lessons in the past week.
When asked to estimate how much lesson time was lost every half-an-hour due to misbehaviour, the responses from primary and secondary teachers in the study put the figure at seven minutes – an increase from 6.3 minutes in June 2022.
However, 28% of the secondary respondents in May 2023 put the average lost learning time per half-an-hour at “more than 10 minutes”.
Students were also asked about how often misbehaviour stopped lessons. Of those in years 7 to 9, 36% said lessons were interrupted by misbehaviour, falling to 26% in years 10 to 11.
When asked how misbehaviour had stopped lessons, secondary teachers said that the most common reasons were talking (92%), students arriving late (80%), students challenging instructions or answering back (58%), the use of mobile phones (35%), or students throwing things (32%).
The research was carried out in three waves. The May 2023 secondary school figures cited above are based on responses from 333 secondary school leaders as well as 810 secondary teachers. The student data is based on responses from 2,521 secondary students in years 7 to 11 and 1,616 parents.
School leaders this week emphasised that the “vast majority” of students are well-behaved and that schools were “overwhelmingly safe and positive environments”. However, they also pointed to disruption caused by the pandemic and on-going difficulties supporting pupils with mental health and SEN, not least due to funding shortfalls.
The findings come after official figures revealed a sharp rise in the number of exclusions and suspensions. A total of 263,904 suspensions were handed out during the spring term 2022/23 – the highest number ever recorded and an average of 3.13 per 100 pupils.
The current rate of suspensions is notably higher than pre-Covid figures, which tended to stay around the 120,000 to 150,000 mark for the spring term. The rise in suspensions is being driven at secondary level and the most common reason was persistent disruptive behaviour followed by verbal abuse or threatening behaviour against an adult (see SecEd’s report on these figures, here).
The National Behaviour Survey finds that the most common interventions being used by all schools to manage behaviour were:
- Referrals to specialist services (89%)
- Targeted interventions such as mentoring and social/emotional learning (88%)
- Removal from the classroom as a restorative measure (80%).
- Involvement of specialised pastoral support staff (76%).
The survey also reveals that 76% of the secondary school leaders and teachers report a negative impact on their health and wellbeing due to pupil misbehaviour.
Meanwhile, of the secondary students in the survey, 26% said that they had been a victim of bullying face-to-face or online in the past year, with the three most common reasons being the way they looked, their sexual orientation, or a special need or disability.
When asked how often they felt safe at school, 38% of students in years 7 to 11 said that they had felt safe at school “every day” in the past week in May 2023.
Commenting on the research this week, Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that the “vast majority of students are well-behaved and that schools were overwhelmingly safe and positive environments”.
However, he acknowledged that there had been “an increase in poor behaviour among a minority of pupils” which he said is “posing a challenge for school leaders and teachers”.
He continued: “A lack of support from some parents, many of whom are facing challenges themselves, in dealing with behavioural issues only adds to the scale of the challenge.
“We would like to see the DfE carry out work to establish the reasons for this increase in poor behaviour, but the disruption caused by the pandemic and the on-going difficulties in supporting pupils with mental health and SEN are likely playing a part.
“Budget constraints have severely limited the amount of pastoral support schools are able to provide, and the fact that so many teachers and leaders surveyed report not being able to access timely external support services is particularly worrying.”
- DfE: Research and analysis: National behaviour survey reports, April 2024: www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-behaviour-survey-reports