Stephen Morgan: DfE still ‘thinking through’ behaviour strategy

The government is still mulling over its strategy around school behaviour, education minister Stephen Morgan has admitted, amid rising concern from leaders and teachers.

Mr Morgan, whose ministerial brief includes behaviour, told Tes he shared these worries and had been meeting with advisers to “think through” a potential strategy.

He said: “I’m concerned about the increase in reports of behaviour in the classroom.

“I thank our dedicated school support staff and teachers for what they do to ensure calm and safe environments...as we think through what the behaviour strategy for the future looks like.”

Behaviour concerns

Poor pupil behaviour is now a bigger concern for primary school teachers than workload, according to recent polling, with teachers also reporting that pupil misbehaviour is interrupting their teaching and having a negative impact on their wellbeing.

The number of suspensions and permanent exclusions in the 2023-24 academic year rose by a third compared with the previous year, with school leaders warning that the system is “teetering on the brink of collapse”.

Meanwhile, school leaders have shared concerns with Tes that the national behaviour hubs programme is ending this month without another “lever” to support schools.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson could also not confirm, when asked by Tes on Friday at the Association of School and College Leaders’ annual conference, whether behaviour adviser Tom Bennett would stay after his contract finishes at the end of this month.

• Phillipson: Schools need ‘old-fashioned graft’ to stop absence ‘damage’
• Concerns: Behaviour hubs ‘disband’ with no replacement
• Belonging in schools: Can it fix attendance and behaviour?

When asked by Tes whether there was a lack of urgency for coming up with a strategy to tackle poor behaviour, Mr Morgan said he had been meeting with behaviour advisers to understand the challenges facing schools.

“We continue to work with the behaviour advisers, and I have been meeting with them to understand what the challenges are, and the intentions they made through the behaviour hubs,” he said.

The hubs scheme was launched by the government with £10 million in funding in 2021.

An official evaluation found that, according to pupils, the standard of behaviour in schools got worse during the programme, but teachers and leaders saw improvements, with “some positive change” observed in schools with high deprivation.

Attendance hubs’ future decided ‘in due course’

Mr Morgan has been speaking at a series of regional conferences this term on attendance, the most recent of which was held yesterday in the East of England.

Mr Morgan said in his speech that there was a need to “share good practice” between similar schools to “improve the national picture”.

It is expected that regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) teams will take on some of this work, although it is unclear to what extent this will involve attendance hubs.

Tes asked Mr Morgan about the future of attendance hubs and whether RISE teams will take over from them.

The minister said that the Department for Education will be “setting out more in due course” on hubs and that he wanted to see “a realistic approach to schools working closely with the RISE teams”.

While the most recent attendance data shows that the overall absence rate for the 2024-25 academic year so far is slightly lower compared with last year, a third of parents said their child had refused to go to school more than once in the past year.

Ms Phillipson also told the ASCL conference on Friday that schools need to “catch up fast” on tackling absence.

Parent and school relationship ‘frayed’

Mr Morgan called on leaders yesterday to have a “sharp and consistent focus” on attendance, including using school data to “design your strategy” and “target your support and interventions effectively”.

He emphasised the importance of “developing positive relationships with parents” and ”building trust before you need to draw down on it”.

Bigger absence fines for parents have been introduced this academic year, although experts have argued that ”punitive fines” are not the answer to the attendance crisis.

Mr Morgan acknowledged that the social contract between schools and parents has “frayed in recent years”.

‘Dangerous’ to see school as optional

“It’s easy to understand parents who struggle with a child who has complex anxiety. It’s harder to understand parents who think it’s no longer necessary for their child to be in school every day,” Mr Morgan told the conference.

He told leaders that attendance policy needs to be broad enough to acknowledge both, but said the government will “push back against the dangerous idea that going to school is optional”.

All parents have a ”fundamental responsibility” to send their children to school, he added.

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