Last week I met with groups of students at an all-through school in the East End. It is always a privilege to be able to speak with students about their learning, and in this instance as the groups had been selected at random this led to more unscripted conversations than is sometimes the case. With one group I needed to draw on my admittedly slightly rusty behaviour management skills to keep the conversation on track. Whilst it was very interesting to hear the varying views from these pupils it reminded me of the challenges that teachers face every day in delivering a planned curriculum to students who are hot, tired, or pre-occupied by events outside of school.

A report from a national behaviour survey published last week highlights the disparity in perceptions of behaviour in schools between school leaders, teachers and pupils themselves, with school leaders tending to give more positive responses than teachers, who tended to give more positive responses than pupils. In this survey, 90% of school leaders said that behaviour was either ‘very good’ or ‘good’ in the past week (versus 64% of teachers). For pupils, 47% said that behaviour had been ‘very good’ or ‘good’ despite 91% of pupils agreeing that they knew how their school expected them to behave.

Alongside an engaging well delivered curriculum and nurturing adult pupil relationships, ensuring students are heard has always been important in managing pupil attitudes and conduct. In September Camden Learning will be running an NPQ in leading behaviour & culture particularly aimed at middle and pastoral leaders including phase and year leaders but also any member of teaching staff with an interest in this aspect. We will be ensuring that the delivery and content is relevant to our local context. There are more details of the application process and a forthcoming online briefing below. Also below, details of the senior leaders’ breakfast briefing at Haverstock school next Friday from 8 -10am with a theme of behaviour and inclusion.

Sometimes of course even the best offer is not enough. The statutory guidance on exclusions was updated last week giving Headteachers the route to withdraw or rescind exclusions at any point up to a panel and further guidance on the practice of involving pupils so that any excluded pupil is enabled and encouraged to participate at all stages of the suspension or permanent exclusion process. Be sure to update behaviour policies accordingly.

It was great to meet with Secondary Heads this week, and our Primary Headteacher meeting is next Thursday 22 June at 5PS. This term can feel like a long one for both pupils and staff. Make sure you pace yourself and allow time to step out even if only for a couple of hours.

Stephen Hall

Chief Executive Officer, Camden Learning