Pupils believe the standard of behaviour in schools got worse during the government’s national behaviour hubs programme, an official evaluation reveals.
In 2021 the Department for Education launched its £10 million behaviour hubs scheme, which involved high-performing schools and multi-academy trusts working with schools struggling with poor discipline, through peer mentoring, training and support.
However, in a delayed evaluation published today, survey data indicates that “pupil perceptions of behaviour have slightly worsened”.
Did behaviour hubs make a difference?
“Pupils do not report significant changes before and after the introduction of behaviour hubs,” the evaluation states.
The research also finds that schools with high deprivation levels benefitted more from the programme than schools in more affluent areas.
The evaluation used survey data from 13,923 school staff and 50,521 pupils. Participants were surveyed in the first and final terms of the programme.
Teachers and school senior leadership teams acknowledged the programme’s “importance in facilitating the development and consistent implementation of behaviour policies”, the evaluation says.
Staff also felt “more supported” after the behaviour hubs programme than before.
The findings come after government data, published today, showed that the number of suspensions and permanent exclusions rose by a third in a year.
While “some positive change” was observed in schools with high deprivation as a result of the behaviour hubs scheme, pupils in schools with low deprivation reported small negative changes in behaviour.
The staff-pupil divide
The researchers suggest that these findings may be a result of different perceptions of behaviour between staff and students.
“It is possible that during a period of behaviour rules and culture reforms these differences are exacerbated,” the researchers say.
The programme supported 650 schools to receive direct, in-person, peer-to-peer support and access the programme’s resources, the evaluation says.
At the time of the hubs’ launch, teaching leaders backed a petition calling for government funding for the programme to be spent on mental health support instead.
Behaviour policies used during the hub pilot scheme did succeed in shifting staff and leadership focus and actions, the researchers found.
This included moving from “punishment to rewarding good behaviour” and from “framing behaviour issues as separate from teaching and learning to adopting a holistic approach”.
Teachers were also encouraged to engage “more constructively”, improve the way they communicate with pupils, have more opportunities to discuss behaviour policy with senior leaders and to mentor colleagues on behaviour policy.
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