Behaviour guidance for schools has been updated to include advice on “consequences”, education secretary Jenny Gilruth told the Scottish Parliament this afternoon.
The update came after behaviour guidance was published in June as part of the ongoing response to a November 2023 report showing worsening behaviour in Scottish schools.
However, the pace of the response has been criticised by opposition MSPs today while the behaviour guidance was dismissed as “incoherent”.
Exclusions update imminent
In her statement today, Ms Gilruth also said that risk-assessment guidance had been updated to help schools identify and manage challenging behaviour, while there are plans to update national guidance on exclusions and provide more detail on whole-school approaches to addressing racism.
She added that there would be a “national marketing campaign” around school attendance, starting “in the coming week”.
However, Scottish Labour education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy said the pace was too slow, with the November 2023 behaviour data published almost two years ago, and that there was not enough support for pupils with additional support needs.
Tory education spokesperson Miles Briggs said the Scottish government approach was “incoherent” and that today’s statement was “very much a repeat” of previous messages.
In June, Scottish government guidance on behaviour stated that consequences were “an important tool to help reinforce boundaries and expectations”, including “exclusion as a last resort”.
An appendix in the current version of the guidance gives “illustrative examples of consequences”, but advises that it “cannot prescribe specific consequences schools should use to respond to particular behaviours”.
It advises a “child-centred approach when determining an appropriate response”, adding that “understanding the specific needs of each young person is crucial”.
Various types of behaviour are listed, and for each there is a column on “underlying needs and functions of behaviour” and another giving “examples of responses”.
Exclusion an option
Exclusion is given as an option in cases of violent or unsafe behaviour. For both, the guidance states that one possibility is “exclusion from school (to allow matters to calm, time for planning, meeting with parents etc)”.
The education secretary has in recent times repeatedly underlined her support for exclusions in certain circumstances.
At the EIS annual general meeting in June, Ms Gilruth was asked if it was “going to take a teacher being murdered at work” before the government took “real action to protect staff”.
Addressing delegates in Aviemore, she emphasised that exclusion was a consequence at the disposal of schools and one they should be using.
“You should be able to use it and use your professional judgement to apply it,” she told the EIS AGM.
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