The bad behaviour bible

25th January 2002, 12:00am

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The bad behaviour bible

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/bad-behaviour-bible
The 36 recommendations in the Executive’s report are couched in the very words so many teachers have been muttering, says Bill Badger

HE Scottish Executive report, Better Learning - Better Behaviour, was published in June. In the months since, I have taken every opportunity to draw attention to it, and it has attracted respectable coverage in the media, not least The TES Scotland. With Jack McConnell’s move to higher things, however, I have a concern that it may fade away and be added to the “interesting and worthwhile pile”. It is worth far more than that.

I am no great fan of official reports in any sphere. There are often so many conflicting pressures and interests to reconcile or backs to be watched, but this report is impressive and seems truly to reflect the consultations and contributions which it aimed to take on board. I have heard nothing but praise across all levels of the profession.

Each one of its 36 recommendations is valid and many carry more than a hint of radicalism. I was struck by the way the tone of it was indicated on page one: “We take the view that if there was a straightforward answer to the problem of indiscipline in schools, someone would have discovered it by this stage.” What a welcome change from the official, simplistic analyses of attendance figures or exclusion rates and the unenlightened and equally simplistic “demise of corporal punishment, rise of single-parent family” philosophy.

I started out with my yellow magic marker and found myself covering whole pages in yellow - the magic marker dried up before I got to the end. This report is truly reflective of how things are on the ground and of the best thinking and practice on ways to deal with them.

The mere use of the terms “multidisciplinary or inter-agency” gets us nowhere and indeed their over-use with inadequate practical commitment or resourcing can lead to cynicism or, at best, irritation. But here is a report using the very words so many of us have muttered so many times. “The modern children’s agenda should seek to avoid the response from social workers or children’s reporter which dismisses an issue of behaviour in school as being an educational or school problem.” I have waited a long time indeed for that sentiment, which encapsulates so much that is needed to be worked with, to be enshrined in a parliamentary report.

There are plenty of details here, which, taken together, form a cohesive and - again I will use the term - realistic - analysis of behavioural issues. There is a full discussion of parenting - “Insufficient attention is attached to the personal suffering and social cost of dysfunctional families” - and a whole chapter which makes a clear analysis of the inextricable links between parenting skills and attitudes and classroom behaviours.

Guidance in secondary schools, an area I have real concerns for, is given a central emphasis. “Guidance staff increasingly carry a much greater caseload of pupils requiring intensive support . . . There must be a review of the role and purpose of guidance in secondary schools.”

The adults themselves, and this is as welcome as it is overdue, are recognised as having crucial needs of their own. “The negative impact that the problem behaviour of pupils have on the well-being of adults working with them can itself be serious”. There follow recommendations on enhanced provision, not only of training but of trained classroom assistants and trained learning support auxiliaries.

The penultimate page carries the benchmark comment: “We consider it to be inappropriate to set targets for the reduction of exclusions from school by one third, without giving schools the means to achieve this”. It also recommends “a significant commitment of resources to face the challenge of social inclusion”.

This report clearly, and remarkably, shows a better way. I cannot urge strongly enough for it to be taken forward.

Bill Badger was a head of middle school, depute head of an EBD school, a teacher research fellow and is currently an educational psychologist.

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