DfEE Green Paper (22/10/1997) - Inclusion: effective behaviour policies

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8 Principles into practice: emotional and behavioural difficulties

Inclusion: effective behaviour policies

10. Applying to children with EBD the policies on inclusion in Chapter 4 will present mainstream schools with sharp challenges. But the factors which enable some schools to respond successfully to these challenges are becoming clear. Schools need to offer a setting where all children are valued and encouraged to behave well, where there are clear guidelines for behaviour, teaching is positive, and where damaged self-esteem can be rebuilt. Many are working towards whole school strategies designed to sustain this approach, encompassing pastoral systems, specific policies to promote achievement by boys, and explicit agreement about the role of support services. Such approaches need the support of all staff, and a strong lead from the school's management. The proposals in Excellence in schools to encourage the careful introduction of "assertive discipline", and for home-school contracts, will have a part to play in helping many schools to establish a basic approach. We shall consider how to promote good practice in providing for EBD in mainstream schools, drawing on a project being carried out by the University of Birmingham with DfEE funding.

11. This will be a developing process. The handling of exclusions will be central to it. The QCA is carrying out a project exploring curriculum factors leading to the exclusion of children with EBD. Too often, an excluded child (especially one labelled as having EBD) enters a cycle from which they never return to the mainstream. The direction in which we should move is clear: all schools should be helped to take responsibility for all their pupils. All should be taking positive action to reduce to a minimum the number of permanent exclusions. But to do so they need practical support from the LEA. In some cases, schools and LEAs should consider establishing (or re-establishing) in-school units which can address children's problems without breaking the link with mainstream schooling.

Case study - Langdon School, Newham
Langdon School, Newham, is an inclusive, mixed, multi-cultural school with over 1,800 students. It includes young people with a wide range of special educational needs including those with moderate or severe learning difficulties and emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The number of children with SEN at the school has increased in recent years. Yet fixed term exclusions have fallen significantly and there have been no permanent exclusions from the school for over two years. At the same time pupils' performance in GCSE examinations has improved.

These benefits have been achieved through:

a review of the school's policies and practices for behaviour management;

whole school staff training focusing on teaching and learning styles, including differentiation of the curriculum and strategies for behaviour management in the classroom;

development of a tightly networked pastoral system, using approaches such as peer mediation, mentoring and outreach work;

partnership with the LEA's Behavioural Support Service, working in the school to prevent exclusions; and

working with local primary schools well before children move to Langdon School.

12. From April 1998 LEAs will be required to prepare behaviour support plans setting out their arrangements for the education of children with behavioural difficulties, including those with special educational needs. These will provide a framework for all relevant services, from support for mainstream schools through to specialist provision. We will be consulting widely this autumn on guidance on the preparation of behaviour support plans. This will emphasise the importance of effective co-ordination between local agencies and of ensuring that behaviour support plans dovetail with Children's Services Plans and other relevant activities, such as the work of the proposed Youth Offender Teams on, for example, Final Warnings. We will also be consulting on whether greater use can be made of financial incentives to encourage schools to keep pupils at risk of exclusion and to admit pupils who have previously been excluded from other schools.

Case study - Effective behaviour policies

Newtown Primary School, Carlisle
Newtown Primary School is situated on an estate with a shifting population suffering from social deprivation and problem behaviour. The school has a high proportion of children on its SEN register. There had been a history of disruptive behaviour. The headteacher and staff saw the need for a clear and consistent behaviour policy, and decided that the key to improving behaviour was to address the children's low self-esteem.

Together the staff developed a merit system to celebrate pupils' achievements and good behaviour; pupils are rewarded with certificates, badges and stickers at a weekly assembly. Working alongside this is a 'traffic lights' system for unacceptable behaviour. Children start each session on green and move through amber and red if, following inappropriate behaviour, they fail to respond to teachers' verbal prompts. A child on red begins to build up time which has to be repaid at playtime or lunch before the child can return to green. The school has successfully applied its behaviour policy - backed up by clear and consistent explanations about why certain behaviour is inappropriate - and the number of exclusions has fallen. The school's OFSTED inspection report (March 1997) described Newtown as a school "characterised by good behaviour".

The school recognises the importance of parental support in motivating children to learn. Newtown encourages parents to become involved in their children's education by welcoming them to breakfast and homework clubs. The school is also running a trial parent support club which includes a family literacy programme.

Highfield Junior School, Plymouth
Over the past five years Highfield Junior School has introduced a new code of discipline to promote positive behaviour in the school. Initiatives like circle time underline the school's belief that pupils should be offered ownership of the system in which they work and a say in what goes on. During circle time, the children gather in a circle on the floor and concentrate their discussion on one specific idea or concept. They talk one at a time and listen carefully to each other.

Circle time is used regularly in classes in the following ways:

to build up group rapport and individuals' self-esteem;
to identify, as a class, the needs and strengths of all members;
to offer solutions, care support and strategies to the individual or group when a problem such as bullying arises;
to solve disputes through group discussion;
to accelerate a whole school approach to policy development in matters such as behaviour management and school rules.

Staff have been pleased with the way in which pupils apply a circle time approach to their personal problem solving and decision making; and are convinced that standards of learning and ability have improved as a result.

31/08/2000