Working in challenging schools, alternative provision, PRUs and the like, I’ve seen my fair bit of problematic behaviour. And not just from the staff!

(That’s Training Day Statutory Joke No. 411. If I didn’t include it, I’d lose my licence to stand up in front of my colleagues and tell them where they’re going wrong. And I love doing that.)

But behaviour in FE is a tricky beast. On the whole, it’s not children that we’re teaching (although the sector’s remit is widening in some places) and this has to be taken into consideration. However, if I’m going to be 100 per cent truthful, during my time in FE, I have witnessed some behaviours that wouldn’t be out of place in a Year 9 class who like to make teachers cry for fun.

So although there is concern as to how the new Ofsted framework (and it’s suggestions in regards to behaviour) will be translated in an FE setting, I’m not 100 per cent sure that there is so much of a difference in what is desirable behaviour between sectors.

Universal positives

Granted, I’m not going to be telling Terry - the prospect for a Super League team who has to turn sideways to fit his shoulders down the corridor - to do up his top button (mostly for fear that he’d kick me for a conversion). I also won’t try to give detention to Pat, who after her English and maths upskill session has to dash to pick up her grandkids, because it’s not appropriate to treat adults that way.

But there are facets of behaviour that I think are desirable owing to their being universal positives across the sectors and being expected anywhere, whether in a classroom or the shop floor. For me, this means that when it comes to school and colleges, the two are possibly a tad closer than it seems. (Even though it’s perhaps a little difficult to admit. It’s these universals that are very much applicable to students who are learning to function in the world of work.)

Things like showing respect to staff and other learners (and the expectation of getting it in return), good timekeeping, ensuring organisation and readiness to work, not disrupting others - this stuff (should) apply everywhere, no matter what the sector. And if there are parallels between schools and colleges, it’s not “infantilisation” in regards to the concepts themselves, just in the danger that FE tries to appease the inspectorate by wholeheartedly copying what schools do.

There are things to do with behaviour that matter whether you’re 12, 20, or 62. These things don’t change whether you’re trying to get your kids to function in a school environment or whether you’re trying to prepare your learners for the world of work.

It’s just a matter of how you go about achieving them. I think there is sometimes a worry that anything to do with behaviour when it comes to FE is a step towards treating adults like schoolkids. But to disregard the subject entirely is putting our learners at a disadvantage given their chosen goals.

Tom Starkey teaches English at a college in the North of England