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Better Behaviour in Scottish Schools: Policy Update 2004
5. Strategic Development and Communication
- The Executive, education authorities and HMIE are taking a strategic approach to supporting implementation and regularly reviewing progress (Recommendation 36)
- The Scottish Executive is disseminating good practice through teacher magazines, the Connect Report and a website. Work is continuing on developing information and evidence to inform new approaches, for example with research into the links between emotional wellbeing and behaviour in schools (Recommendation 8)
- The National Priorities Action Fund is continuing to support authorities to promote positive behaviour (10m a year) and alternatives to exclusion (11m a year) and there is increasing flexibility for authorities in their overall management of the funding streams within NPAF, which include 20m a year for inclusion, 8m for support for parents, 9.6m for support for teachers and 16.4m for the roll out of integrated community schools (Recommendation 35)
- The evaluation of the pilot phase of integrated community schools shows that further progress must be made to ensure education authorities and schools, and partner agencies, work effectively together to deliver services to meet the needs of pupils. There are examples of excellent multi-disciplinary team working through clusters and at school level, but training for multi-disciplinary working is less well developed than other areas of continuing professional development. Education authorities and partner agencies will improve their approach to joint working as integrated children's services planning develops (Recommendations 26 and 29)
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5.1 Authority responses to support schools
It is clear from education authority reports to the Executive that progress on implementation differs from area to area. This is to be expected, local priorities should inform authorities' strategic development. However, where authorities have established local committees or working groups, where there is a designated development officer or a small team which has discipline within its remit, then progress is good. In these authorities, there is also clearer information on authority-wide and school level work to promote positive behaviour.
In the 2004 survey, nearly all headteachers said that they found Better Behaviour - Better Learning helpful. However, half of primary teachers and over a third of secondary teachers are unaware of Better Behaviour - Better Learning. There were many teachers and headteachers who did not know whether funding allocated to their education authorities for implementation of Better Behaviour - Better Learning had been used in certain ways. This signifies that communication between the Executive, authorities and schools needs to be improved. In 2001 the Scottish Executive distributed summary documents of Better Behaviour - Better Learning to all schools for their staff, and recently distributed a magazine 'Better Behaviour Scotland' to all teachers, describing some of the current pilots and practices being developed around Scotland.
Information from headteachers around the country at Round Table events, and in the national network of managers of pupil support services, shows that where authorities take a robust approach to continuing professional development, by embedding discipline within learning and teaching development and promotion of inclusion, staff feel more supported and have a clearer vision of how schools can work in ways that promote positive behaviour.
The Scottish Executive is further developing the role of education authorities, by supporting those that are developing new approaches to disseminate their work nationally, for the benefit of other local authority areas. This approach first developed when East Ayrshire Council became the national lead authority for Staged Intervention (FFI). The initiatives that will be promoted using this model include:
- Cool in School (Fife) - a teaching resource to develop learning positive behaviour
- The Motivated School (Glasgow) - developing an assessment framework for pupils within a whole school ethos of motivation and positive learning environment
- Solution - Oriented School (Moray) - a whole school approach which supports headteachers to work with their staff teams to develop their approaches in the class and throughout the school
- Teacher Resources for Inclusion (East Renfrewshire) - helping teachers to work effectively with children with additional support needs
- Restorative Practices in Schools (Highland, Fife, North Lanarkshire) - developing whole school approaches to preventing and resolving conflict
- Teacher Empathy (Edinburgh) - helping teachers to build positive relationships with pupils
Initial funding for Better Behaviour - Better Learning was directed towards implementation of specific recommendations. It is now for authorities to decide on the most appropriate allocation of resources for their circumstances. Authorities will continue to report to the Scottish Executive on their plans for progress within the National Priorities Action Fund.
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