How do we reduce suspensions?
We’ve all seen the headlines this week about schools and trusts with staggering suspension rates.
Those schools who use a high number of suspensions as a short-term tactic to get control struggle to keep numbers low in the longer term. I’ve seen a lot of criticism of the zero-tolerance, high suspension approach, particularly on behalf of those students who struggle to access mainstream education as a result. I’ve posted about it myself on social media this week. I was always told to come with solutions not problems though so I’ve put together a few pointers for school leaders to think about that could help to reduce the number of students involved in the cycle of repeated sanctions.
I predominantly work with schools and alternative provisions trying to include these pupils but often at the ‘down river’ end of the process. When the pupils are already close to exclusion and struggling. It pushed me into trying to clarify some of my thoughts about how, as a school leadership you can practically work to improve inclusion and reduce the number of pupils that end up excluded. On a day-to-day basis how can behaviour improve, and the most challenging students be moved to a place where they can succeed? None of these are quick wins, they all take investment, effort and patience. I’ve also only picked 12 aspects. I haven’t addressed the curriculum or teaching and learning at all. It’s not an exhaustive list but hopefully one that will prompt some thinking.
1) Get the school culture right.
You’ll have heard the phrase; ‘culture eats strategy for breakfast’. It’s key to get the school culture right. This means continual reinforcement of messages to the whole school community. The culture needs to reflect that learners are important; they belong to the community and are valued. The school I used to lead in had the following words up on each entrance:
You have to want to improve inclusion. Making sure that your school is transformative for the most challenging pupils isn’t easy. It takes resource, it takes specialist staff, and it means putting individual students above headline figures. I’d argue though, that it is the right thing to do. In the last three years of my secondary leadership we (a secondary academy in inner-city Bradford) had no permanent exclusions. We still had an Ofsted ‘Good’ and progress to match. It can be done. Anyone who thinks that a zero-tolerance approach is the only one that works, check out Carr Manor’s Ofsted report last month, a secondary in Leeds, it excels in a restorative practice model of behaviour and it’s report begins with the phrase ‘exceptional does not do this school justice’.
https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50235958
Cultural change means making sure that a relational, inclusive agenda is understood by every staff member, by parents and that policy around this is reinforced by actions.
2) Prioritise positive relationships.
Zero tolerance behaviour policies are built on structures of sanctions and the presumption that students will comply to avoid those sanctions. They work for most pupils but for some pupils punishment holds no fear or dysregulation pushes them out of a place where rational approaches work. A successful behaviour culture for all students must be built on a foundation of positive relationships. This means all staff getting to know pupils well, showing them that you care, being prepared to mend relationships when they are broken and approaching every pupil, every time with an unconditional positive regard. Positive relationships are cemented by a concentration on rewards over punishment. Punishment doesn’t work for all; reward does so praise the behaviours you want to see and make sure positive behaviour is recognised more than negative.
3) Interrogate the data to understand the issue.
Data can help to understand exactly what problems need solving. Use behaviour data/pupil voice/staff voice etc. to help identify answers to the following questions:
· Which pupils need support and why?
· Which staff need support and why?
· Where are the trigger points for behaviour incidents (this may be staff, departments, times of day, places within school)?
· Debrief serious behaviour incidents every time they happen. Use a ‘lessons learnt’ process to unpick how they could be de-escalated earlier next time.
4) Formulate routines.
Use your analysis of the behaviour flashpoints in the data to create school routines that reduce the opportunities for poor behaviour as much as possible. Are most of your sanctions coming from unstructured time? Move duty points and duty staff, split lunch times or change timings. Are most coming from lesson changeover? Use line ups and staff collection to reduce the opportunity for these. Be proactive rather than reactive and shape the routines and environment to reduce poor behavioural habits as much as possible.
5) Intervene early.
Regularly review the students who are struggling the most. Make sure this review includes good information, safeguarding and pastoral teams and intervene early. This should involve really trying to understand what the causes are for the behaviours a student is showing. My experience with alternative provision has made it clear that lots of students who end up in provisions have had undiagnosed learning needs or issues going on under the surface that are only discovered when they start working in a smaller more therapeutic environment.
This student understanding comes from pastoral and classroom input but also having a strong safeguarding team with a proactive approach. Behaviour is communication, if a student is struggling then why is that? What is going on for them? How can we help?
6) Train staff
If you are to reduce suspensions then all the staff in your school community need to work in a consistent way. That needs investment in training time and resource. It means all staff being trained in non-confrontational behaviour management, to understand the root causes of behaviour. It needs all staff to understand the importance of trauma, how to recognise an unregulated pupil, how to promote safety and regulation and to regulate and relate before they reason.
Do staff understand that behaviour stems from root causes and what those causes might be? Do they understand that they don’t always have to be proved right but that maintaining connection is key?
7) Script behaviour interactions
As part of building consistency and training staff use scripts for behavioural interactions. Help staff practice these and make pupils and staff confident of a consistent approach.
8) Train students
As well as training and resourcing staff invest in training pupils. Use timetabled time to help teach pupils how to regulate their emotions, what positive social interactions look like and so on. How can we expect pupils to improve their behaviour and understand what appropriate behaviour looks like without teaching them this. As an example, in my work coaching leaders they often want to talk about how to deal with conflict situations. If experienced professionals want input around this, how can we expect young people to automatically approach these kinds of situations in the right way.
9) Restorative approach
Part of training young people around behaviour can come from restorative conversations after any incidents. Number one, they are key for restoring positive relationships which we know we need but also, they address some of the consequences of actions. They help students to understand the implications of their behaviours and so can bring change over time.
10) Meet basic needs.
Maslow’s hierarchy tells us that basic needs must be met before we can approach learning. We work with young people in poverty and with chaotic and sometimes unsafe home lives. How is your school set up to make sure pupils don’t arrive hungry and feel safe in the school community? Do you have a breakfast club? Is there someone at the gate greeting each pupil with a smile in the mornings? Does the consistent approach of your staff engender a feeling of security or are their responses unpredictable? For any student with a history of trauma or who has previously had bad experiences of school they can dysregulate at things we see as unthreatening. Their basic survival instincts of flight, fight or freeze can kick in and take over at inopportune moments. Do your staff community use techniques to reduce the level of threat, do they show positive body language, smiles, is shouting minimal?
11) Look after staff wellbeing.
“The adults who work with the most difficult behaviours are always in control of themselves before they attempt to take control of others.” Is a quote from Paul Dix. It’s true. The biggest issues I have had to unpick with students and staff are those in which staff have lost control of their emotions as well as the pupils. Working in schools and with difficult behaviours is hard, our patience buckets are often ready to tip over. It’s important as school leaders to recognise where that is happening, to promote staff wellbeing and make sure your staff are well supported not stretched so far they are ready to snap.
12) Use alternative approaches.
For some students a period of time at a good quality alternative provision can be life changing. Most placements in my experience come at the crisis point when students have been involved in incidents and suspended and schools are at the end of their tether. It’s also my experience though that AP’s are crying out for schools to use them before pupils get to that point, as a proactive tool to help get students back on track. The smaller more specialised environment of a good AP can give students the support they need to re-engage with education and allow a degree of specialised support that schools can’t always provide.
If you want to look at this in more depth I’d recommend three books, all address setting a positive behaviour culture and contain enough practical application for the school leader and the classroom practitioner:
When the Adults Change Everything Changes – Paul Dix
A School Without Sanctions – Steven Baker and Mick Simpson
Know Me To Teach Me – Louise Bomber
Do get in touch if you’d like any further support around this. The key aim of my consultancy is to help you support struggling young people – we’d love to help.
