Discipline

5 Apr 2016

Conditions of Employment: Part Two

Teachwell Behaviour, Teaching and Learning Discipline, Primary School, Secondary School, Teachers, Unions 0

As far as I am concerned all the teaching unions ought to be ashamed of the fact that they have never once called a strike in response to the death of a teacher in the classroom, never mind classroom assaults.

The union leadership are personally entitled to feel concern for pupils, even more than teachers, but it is utterly unprofessional to let this view affect the working conditions of teachers. Teachers need to learn to put their foot down with union leaders who go off on one regularly too. It’s a union, not a petty fiefdom.

The NUT bangs on about the baseline assessment but is not outraged by the assaults that lead to teachers leaving the profession. Bousted can hang her head in shame as well. She downplayed her own union’s survey results . 40% of those surveyed have been attacked and yet, the strongest thing she could bring herself to say on the matter was:

“It is shocking that more than four in 10 (43%) education professionals have had to deal with physical violence from a pupil in the last year,”

Except it’s not shocking at all. We know that the number of assaults has grown steadily. What is the tipping point here? 50%, 60%, 90%? When do the unions call a strike over it? They won’t, is the answer. They have not gone on strike over teachers being killed by pupils so why would they bother with a minor thing like assault? The only positive thing I can say about the unions in this respect is that they have yet to imply teachers are ‘causing’ the physical and verbal acts, but it’s hardly a compliment.

We have the same right to feel safe in our classrooms as any worker in their place of work – end of story. I think all physical and verbal attacks on teachers should have to be reported to an independent body, much the same way that physical handling of children needs to be written up and reported. This, and the actions taken in response, will be on record, as will staff absence, resignations and turnover rate in teachers which teach particular children. (Damn near all the turnover in one school was the result of 6 children, and the only thing that was evident was that each of those leaving had indeed taken the message that it was their fault seriously and to heart, the children’s behaviour didn’t improve a jot).

The fines for not doing so would be heavy, involve a no-notice inspection of the school (no point in trying to hide it all like one does for Ofsted as they would be looking out for that in the first place), and could result in dismissal for the member of SLT who is in charge for false reporting. Even better make it a computerised system that teachers and SLT log onto separately. If SLT start moving against a teacher who has written up an assault, the independent body will be allowed to oversee processes so that teachers can’t be penalised for reporting what has happened. The governors would also be expected to get reports of this and the actions taken. They would be able to communicate with the board independently if they have concerns.

As for the children and parents, if there isn’t multi-agency involvement already then this should be triggered. A police officer should be involved in speaking to both parent and child. Which they are entitled to do. The fact is that the police can speak to any child (and detain if necessary) who is committing a criminal offence, regardless of age. Without a plan in place, agreed to by the parents and child, including that they have understood that any further assault will lead to expulsion, the child should not go back into the classroom.

What about children with disabilities, SEN such as autism, etc.? For a start I don’t associate SEN with physical or verbal assault because quite simply none of the children who would fit that category have had those issues. I don’t accept it is a ‘normal’ part of teaching those children. In the case of PRU’s, they may wish to give the children more chances but then they would need to justify why.

The fact is that teachers, like all other workers have the right to be safe and free from abuse/assault. We have trained to be teachers, not punching bags. If the unions can’t or won’t protect us then we need something else, that much is clear.

This post was originally published on the Labour Teachers website.

5 Apr 2016

Behaviour Management: Shying Away from the Issues?

Teachwell Behaviour, Political Parties Discipline, KS1, KS2, KS3, Methods, Primary School, Secondary School, SLT, Teachers, Teaching Assistants, Unions 0

On behaviour management, it is fair to say that the Labour Party has left the debate on discipline in schools to the Conservatives. We need to pull back and have a real discussion. Lucy Powell has a real opportunity here to tackle the issue of discipline in our schools and redefine Labour Policy on it. So what do I feel she needs to address?

The association of left-wing teachers with poor discipline.

The idea that left-wing thinking requires permissive discipline in schools needs to be rejected. This does not mean that the shadow secretary of state needs to ‘get tough’, but she does need to think of the real cost to teachers, pupils and schools. Call them reasons or excuses, but either way the education of thousands of pupils is affected on a daily basis by a doctrinal belief that children are not for responsible for their actions. How is it acceptable that working class children have their life chances affected by the ideological stances of their middle class teachers?

Personally I feel that a start would be to actually engage with teachers who support the Labour Party and find out, rather than assume, what they think and what their experiences have actually been. I can accept being in the minority in my views but I cannot accept a situation where no one in my party is even bothering to find out if I am in the minority!!

Poor discipline in the classroom

What is the impact of disruption on the poorest? How many lessons do they miss? How many classes have to be evacuated? What are the solutions that local authorities suggest and how effective are they?

If Labour want to transfer power back to the LEAs if they get elected ,then so be it. However, to pretend that the training and solutions provided to classroom teachers was adequate in the past is again to ignore reality. Only 3 months ago, I was told of the Head of the Behaviour Support Team telling a Head Teacher that her staff needed to become more resilient to the verbal and physical abuse they faced. Is this good enough? I do not claim that this is mirrored across LEAs in the country, but in my own experience LEA advisors have been hippy idealists still peddling theories and ideas from the 1970s, without revision or indeed any kind of analysis as to the weaknesses of their approach.

This particular Head Teacher is now off with stress, the deputy has left and the school is in a state of low level chaos. Meanwhile, nothing has changed for the teachers and there are no solutions for them. Also remember there are vulnerable children in those classrooms who are not behaving poorly and they have to come into school and watch members of staff being abused. How is this an acceptable state of affairs?

We need fairness in our dealings with children – there is nothing left wing about assuming that the child with the greatest behaviour problems needs the most attention from the class teacher.

Research

An evaluation of current practices is needed and I believe it is the Labour Party who needs to do it. What works and what doesn’t? I am not interested in seeing a shadow secretary of state being the mouthpiece of ideologues or those with vested interests in particular modes of behaviour management. I want to see her create her own views based on the experiences of teachers and parents. Should we institute nurture groups in schools with the explicit goal of creating dependency (in order to create independence it would seem yet I have seen very little of the latter and a lot of the former) when the evidence from psychology points to developing better relationships between child and parent?

Another issue that troubles me greatly is that these groups are targeted at the most vulnerable and yet no long term study exists as to its impact. Intervening in emotional and mental health issues simply cannot be left to those with vested interests in particular types of behaviour management

The Way Forward?

Lucy Powell has a real opportunity to critique and revise Labour’s education policy and solutions to the issues of behaviour management. It would be a tragic waste if, yet again, assumptions trump experience and reality in our stated policy positions.

This post was originally published on the Labour Teachers website.

23 Mar 2016

Love, Actually

Teachwell Teaching and Learning, Traditional Education Discipline, KS3, Methods, Michaela, Secondary School, Teachers, Theory 6

I have wanted to go to Michaela for about a year now. Well, I was at the Michaela debate but that was sans children. Thanks to Naureen (@5N_Afzal), who arranged it all, I finally got to visit today.

We started the tour with a chat with Katharine in her office. I can imagine her detractors see her as a Cruella de Vil figure who spends her time concocting evil rules to make her pupils lives a misery. I can only say she did an excellent job of coming across as smart, funny, warm and incredibly passionate about the students and teachers.

I am still a bit shocked at the letter she showed us, which the teaching unions thought fit to write and hand out to the pupils at Michaela. I had not known the opposition to the school had extended to that. It’s another piece of evidence for the ‘teaching unions have lost the plot’ file.

We were then introduced to our two lovely guides. Like all the pupils at Michaela, they were polite, respectful and charming. They did an excellent job of answering all of our questions (and we did have a fair few!) They spoke honestly about their experiences and how different Michaela is compared to their respective primary schools, where behaviour, was an issue. One of the children had attended a school that was rated outstanding but recalls fights and disruption.

We saw parts of two lessons. First up was Barry Smith’s French lesson. Did they passively pay attention while Barry spoke? No. They were eating out of his hands while he did. Pacy and interactive, there was plenty of back and forth between him and the children. It didn’t phase them when he corrected them, and his praise meant something. It’s the kind of praise children know they are getting because what they have said or done is worthy of it, not a bunch of throw away words to pacify them. It makes them a little taller. There was even laughter, and it definitely came from the children.

We also caught the tail end of Olivia Dyer’s Science lesson. Again impeccable behaviour, instructions listened to and followed in silence. While the children stood behind their seats, waiting for the lunch bell, they were answering questions and it was clear that this is what happens. These weren’t ‘show’ lessons to impress. These are lessons taught for one purpose – which is to enable the children to learn as much, as well as possible.

The teacher in me couldn’t help but have a look at the open books in front of the children. The presentation was beautiful. The books with their knowledge organisers were looked after. These are books that the children care about. Its obviously part of how they show they are proud of and care about belonging to Michaela.

The behaviour of the children is not the result of brainwashing or fear. It’s the behaviour of children who know where they stand, who don’t have to guess, who don’t have to keep track of which boundaries have shifted today, who don’t have to question if it’s worth behaving.

Any inconsistency at home is not compounded by the school. They don’t have to work it out in each class or with each teacher. Therefore, the school is absent from the insecurity this causes, and which has its own dynamic. The expectations are clear and the teachers are on board. There isn’t a weak link among the teachers and there is no reason why there should be. It’s never struck me as responsible or adult to disagree with the behaviour policy by not implementing it.

The children look up to and emulate the teachers, who are positive role models. This is a school where the adults are adults and take their responsibility to their pupils seriously (as opposed to themselves!).

I remarked to Naureen on the way out that the Michaela teachers just are beautiful. I don’t just mean looks or how they dress. They smile, they want to be there, they want to teach, they want to impart what they know and give the best of themselves to their students.

Katharine has set up a school that lets these teachers do what they came into teaching to do. Why should they have to compromise this because of the background of the children? Because of received wisdom? Ideology? Because other schools do? They provide these children with the kind of education that middle-class children receive without question or controversy. She also gets that teaching is a tiring and demanding job and it’s her job as the Head to keep the stupid away from her teachers.

Michaela is not perfect, nothing is.

It’s actually about what’s possible.

It’s actually about the pupils.

It’s actually about their learning and their future.

It’s actually about the teachers who make it happen.

And yes, it is about love, actually.