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Better Behaviour in Scottish Schools: Policy Update 2004
2. Engaging Pupils and Parents
- Schools and authorities have widely implemented dress codes by consulting with pupils and parents (Recommendation 9)
- Schools and authorities have also made significant progress on involving pupils in pupil councils and in peer support schemes such as buddying and mentoring. Evidence suggests that positive peer relationships among pupils, and a sense of belonging in school, are high in Scotland. Pupils feel that the climate for learning and the support from their teachers is good. The Scottish Executive is planning to share this practice later in 2004. (Recommendations 13 and 14)
- The Scottish Executive provided guidance on curricular flexibility in 2002. Education authorities and schools have some made progress in this regard. However, some evidence from pupils suggest that at times they feel bored and that as they grow older, they like school less. This may have an impact on behaviour in schools. The Scottish Executive is preparing a wide ranging review of the curriculum, to provide a framework in which schools can deliver learning programmes suitable for pupils diverse interests and needs (Recommendation 1)
- Schools and authorities should develop the involvement of parents in schools. The Scottish Executive is developing initiatives in parenting. Although there is some progress on involving parents and increasing development of the role of home-school link staff, the Executive is further encouraging good practice in this area and a working group is preparing a publication for release later in 2004 (Recommendations 15, 16 and 17)
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Education authority implementation of BB-BL recommendations 2003
2.1 Pupils views on behaviour in schools
A number of studies describe pupils' views on the positive aspects of school life, as well as their views on indiscipline. Some of these studies have taken place at an international level and allow some comparison of Scotland to other countries.
PISA 2000 examined data from a sample of 15 year olds from 99 representative Scottish schools on different aspects of the disciplinary climate in the classroom and the findings suggest that 15 year olds in Scotland were better disciplined than many OECD countries. Using an index for disciplinary climate based on student's responses to the questions listed in the table below, the disciplinary climate in Scotland is better than the OECD average and more positive than the UK as a whole.
A quarter of the sample of pupils described noise and disorder, and 42% described time to settle down to the lesson as taking a long time. Only 16% of pupils reported that generally, pupils cannot work well, and 19% that pupils do not listen to the teacher. Data from HMIE Pre-Inspection Surveys finds that 60% of primary pupils and 72% of secondary pupils feel that behaviour of pupils in school is good, but 15% of primary pupils and 36% of secondary pupils felt that they were not treated fairly.
In the PISA study, 26% of pupils also said that they did not want to go to school, and 56% said that they often feel bored. This is consistent with the UK average (28% and 54% respectively), lower than the OECD average for not wanting to go to school (28%) and a higher 'boredom factor' than the OECD average (48%).
Primary 5 pupils were also asked in the PIRLS study if they had experienced any incidents in the previous month. 47% of pupils said that there was an incident of stealing in their class and 48% said there had been an incident of bullying in their class. These figures are consistent with the average for the 35 countries involved. However, incidents of physical aggression (being hit or hurt by another pupil) were higher than the international average with 63% saying such an incident had occurred in their class.
Pupil-on-pupil verbal abuse and physical aggression was reported by many teachers in the 2004 Survey. Other studies provide a pupil perspective and international comparisons on this. The HBSC study reports that bullying in Scotland is well below the HBSC average of 35 countries, and among the 13 countries who reported the least bullying for all age groups.
2.1 Pupils veiws and experiences of pupil - on - pupil interaction in school
The HBSC study also explores the relationship between bullying, fighting and being a victim of bullying. Using the international data from over 163,000 young people, the study suggests that although there are groups who are only victims, bullies or fighters, there is a larger group of pupils who at different times are all three. The largest group is of pupils involved in no aggressive behaviour at all.
HMIE Pre-inspection questionnaire data finds that 14% of primary pupils and 26% of secondary pupils do not feel that staff in the school are good at dealing with bullies.
The complexities of pupils' involvement in, and experience of, aggressive behaviour perhaps contributes to the difficulties reported by teachers and headteachers in dealing with pupil-on-pupil verbal abuse and physical aggression in the 2004 Survey (see section 1.5).
The range of data available from the surveys reported here suggests that peer relationships in school are generally good among pupils, but that where there is conflict pupils have not found a way to resolve this peacefully. Pupil on pupil racist abuse appears to be at a very low level in the 2004 Survey, reported by 4% of primary teachers to occur weekly in class and 7% outside the class; and by 11% of secondary teachers in the classroom and 13% outside the classroom weekly. Sexist abuse between pupils is higher, with 12% of primary teachers reporting that this occurs in the classroom weekly, and 9% outside the classroom; 33% of secondary teachers report that this occurs in the classroom and 28% report this occurs outside the classroom weekly.
2.2 Pupils' positive behaviour - responsibility and citizenship
The 2004 Discipline survey did not ask teachers or headteachers to describe their perceptions of 'good' behaviour in pupils. A range of survey findings and reports from education authorities describe some of the positive aspects of school life and of children and young people. There is much here for Scotland to be proud of, if we can overcome the tendency to see only the problems. There is evidence that the focus of the National Priorities in Education on values and citizenship, equality and inclusion is ensuring that children are learning positive behaviour.
One positive measure is presented in the HBSC findings where more than half of pupils in all age groups find their peers kind and helpful. In the PISA study, a high proportion of pupils feel a sense of belonging and that their peers like them.
The participation of pupils in their schools, in terms of decision making and contributing to their school community, is increasing. Education authority reports to the Scottish Executive on implementation of Better Behaviour - Better learning, show that 2/3rds of authorities have well-established approaches or are progressing work on developing pupil-to-pupil buddying and mentoring schemes. More than 75% of authorities report well established and progressing work on developing pupil councils in their schools. HMIE pre-inspection questionnaires find that 91% of primary school pupils and 73% of secondary pupils feel that they are involved in school decision making processes.
However, the majority of pupils do not like school. The HBSC study shows that at 11, around a third of pupils say they like school a lot, consistent with the HBSC average. By 13, this has dropped to around a quarter of pupils, but is slightly higher than the HBSC average. By 15 years, only 12.7% of girls and 14.7% of boys report they like school a lot and this is slightly lower than the HBSC average (17.4% for girls and 14.8% for boys). HMIE pre-inspection questionnaires show that nearly half of primary pupils but only 1 in 5 secondary pupils really enjoy being at school.
2.3 Engaging parents
HMIE pre-inspection questionnaire data shows that parents are generally positive about the ways that schools treat their children in school, with only 6% of secondary parents and 4% of primary parents feeling that children are not treated fairly. Ninety-five percent of parents feel that there is mutual respect between parents and teachers in schools, and 93% of parents feel that their child's school is well led. However, evidence from HMIE inspections suggests schools could to more to involve parents.
Although the evidence is generally positive, it is widely understood that among the difficult issues schools may have to discuss with parents, behaviour is a challenging area. Many authorities have established mediation services to help resolve conflict between parents and schools, and many primary schools have begun to work proactively to involve parents in groups where behaviour strategies can be discussed. These are often developed through more informal contact in parent rooms, through drop-in sessions and so on.
However, further evidence is required exploring parents' views on how children learn positive behaviour and what they feel are effective school responses to indiscipline.
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