The Scottish government has announced a five-point plan to tackle worsening behaviour in Scottish schools.
The announcement follows the publication yesterday of official research showing an increase in low-level and more serious disruptive behaviours in Scottish schools, including physical violence and aggression.
Today, in a statement in the Scottish Parliament, education secretary Jenny Gilruth warned against demonising young people and said that Scotland’s “relational approach” to behaviour - which seeks to understand the reasons for poor behaviour - had been “confirmed by our school leaders as the right approach during the behaviour summits”. The latest summit was held yesterday.
Ms Gilruth said there would be no “return to punitive approaches”.
However, she described the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR) findings as “extremely concerning”, especially given physical aggression and violence were more common in P1 to 3.
Ms Gilruth said the “status quo is not an option” and she was setting out a five-point plan “to respond to the rallying cry for support” from school staff in the research.
The five points are:
- A national plan for action will be developed in partnership with key stakeholders and informed by headteachers. Ms Gilruth said it would “set out the parameters to improve behaviour and support better relationships in Scotland’s schools” and would include “a range of practical suggestions and solutions”.
- The new interim chief inspector of Education Scotland, Janie McManus, will ensure school inspections document an “accurate picture of behaviour in Scotland’s schools to help support improvement”.
- Funding of £900,000 for staff training to allow councils to support their teams.
- More accurate and consistent reporting of “all incidents of inappropriate, abusive or violent behaviour in our schools”.
- A dedicated approach to responding to issues surrounding misogyny. Ms Gilruth said a gender-based violence in schools framework would launch “in the coming weeks” and would “provide guidance on tackling this issue proactively and preventatively”.
Ms Gilruth said the research had identified a number of emerging trends in behaviour, including in-school truancy, vaping, disruptive use of mobile phones and misogyny.
She also said: “My former colleagues talk of the corrosive impact of social media influencers, poisoning everyday teaching with the type of intolerance towards women that we all thought long over. And this has wider implications for a workforce who are predominantly female.”
‘Plenty of talk but precious few solutions’
Conservative shadow education secretary Liam Kerr accused Ms Gilruth of “plenty of talk but precious few solutions”. He said there was still no specific guidance for school staff, “no review of exclusions policies” and “no plan for dealing with attendance issues”.
Pam Duncan-Glancy, Labour’s education spokesperson, questioned why the announcement was for the development of a plan “rather than a plan”. She also said the £900,000 for training was “unlikely to scratch the surface of the investment needed”; Mr Kerr pointed out this would amount to just £28,000 per local authority.
Liberal Democrat education spokesperson Willie Rennie said the education secretary’s statement missed the point. It was not more training that was needed, he said, but more support from staff such as educational psychologists.
Mobile phones in schools
The potential impact of stricter mobile phone rules was also raised in responses to Ms Gilruth’s statement, with the policy of an Edinburgh secondary school highlighted.
In yesterday’s report, “use of technology against policy” was one of the most commonly complained about forms of low-level disruptive behaviour in secondary schools.
Conservative Sue Webber, convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Education, Children and Young People Committee, pointed to The Royal High School’s ban on mobile phones during the school day.
She said the policy had resulted in “a marked improvement in pupil engagement” and asked Ms Gilruth if she agreed that restricting mobile phone use in school was “vital if we are serious about tackling behaviour problems”.
Ms Gilruth said it was an “important point” and that she was aware of the impact the policy was having on the learning and teaching at The Royal High School, where she used to work as a teacher before becoming an MSP.
However, she added it was “for individual headteachers” to make these decisions.
