Context for joining Behaviour Hubs
Northstead Primary school is a local authority state funded school. In October 2021 we were Ofsted inspected and were judged as requires improvement in all areas. In our most recent inspection in February 2024, we were judged as requires improvement overall but had significant improvements including being judged as ‘Good’ in behaviour and attitudes, personal development and Early years. Safeguarding was also judged as effective.”
- Our school is the second largest in our town with over 600 children on roll and 3 form entry.
- The largest ethnic groups are: White – British (91%) Mix of other ethnic groups (8%)
- The school location deprivation indicator is in quintile 4 most deprived of all schools (IDSR 2021). The pupil base is in quintile 4 – more deprived of all schools in terms of deprivation (IDSR 2021).
- The school has 16% of children on SEND support (98 children) and SEND with EHC/statement Support (19 children) at 3.2% The schools Ever6 FSM percentage is 34%.
Although the 2021 Ofsted report did not directly mention behaviour it was graded as requires improvement. A new SLT team, including a new head teacher took over in September 2022, the Assistant Headteacher for behaviour made changes to the behaviour policy and introduce relational and restorative approaches but as a team we knew we needed to make further changes so joining of the Behaviour Hub was a proactive step from school leaders to implement positive behavioural culture change.
Our most recent Ofsted inspection in February 2023, showed the impact of the changes we have made due to joining the Behaviour Hub
Behaviour challenges and goals
Our main goals were to use the support from the behaviour Hub and our Lead school to develop our school culture, simplify systems and embed our school values.
Our CORE values – Community, Opportunities, Responsibility and Excellence, were introduced in September 2022 by the new Headteacher but were not embedded or remembered by pupils or staff. By embedding these values, we knew that we could create a unified community where every member feels a deep sense of belonging and purpose.
We also wanted to introduce clear and robust systems for our behaviour pathway to ensure consistency and understanding across school, stamp out low level behaviours and disruption in the classroom and in communal areas.
During the Ofsted inspection in 2021 some children expressed that they didn’t always feel safe in the playground due to rough play, we wanted to introduce new systems at playtime and lunchtime to ensure that children always feel safe in all areas of school.
During the academic year 2022-2023, we found that teachers were creating their own reward systems in class as they felt that our current system didn’t work. We wanted to create a new reward system so that all children got an equitable offer in terms of rewards and create consistency across school.
We wanted to get the behaviour and safeguarding right in school so
- Although we saw many improvements in behaviour and attitudes in the academic year 2022-2023 especially in the relative and restorative approaches, systems for giving out rewards and consequences were inconsistent and teachers were creating their own systems, which meant that children did not have an equitable offer across the classes.
- The CORE values were not embedded, meaning that our community was not unified in what out values stand for and what is expected.
In North Yorkshire, waiting lists for services and special school places are very high. When we put in consults on EHCP’s to request that a child moves to specialist provision we are often told that they are full or that they ‘can’t meet need’. The North Yorkshire SEND team are also not abiding by statutory time frames, with EHCPs taking a year or more to be finalised after we have submitted them. This obviously presents many challenges for us a mainstream school as we are seeing an increase in Children with SEND displaying violent and disruptive behaviour
Solutions to behaviour challenges
Being part of the Behaviour Hub Programme has given us the training, time to reflect and the opportunity to see outstanding practise.
We have had phenomenal support from our Lead School, Wansbeck who have helped us develop strategies to embed our CORE Values and to develop our SEND hub, which is opening in September. Many staff have visited Wansbeck and have the strategies in practise. Changing the culture in school and embedding the CORE Values has been achieved by changing the way we reward children. Children now receive rewards (dojos) for the CORE values and the school council were involved in choosing the criteria to gain a dojo. These were made into posters that have been displayed around school and in every classroom. This has helped the children and staff really understand what each value means and understand the expectations. We also give our star of the week certificates out to children for demonstrating one or all of the CORE values. We have developed a behaviour curriculum which will begin this September. On the first few days back after summer, the children will have lessons on each of the CORE values to embed this further.
After visiting many different schools, we looked at their behaviour policies and systems and re-wrote our own combining many of the systems and procedures we had seen in practise, as well using some of the CPD on simplifying language that we accessed earlier in the programme. In January, we introduced our new Behaviour Pathway. We changed the language to reminder, warning, consequence, this simplified language and script which we provided teachers with had a significant, positive impact as it is now much clearer for everyone to understand and the simple language states what each stage means. We have also developed the reward system for September as we were conscious of not introducing too many new systems at once. We conducted a pupil survey to ask the children how they would like to see their reward system work, this combined with our ideas and practise observed in other schools has enabled us to create a clear, simple system which will celebrate the children’s achievements as well as further embedding our CORE values.
We have used our time with the SENCO and Headteacher at Wansbeck to develop our own SEND provision with their support around timetabling and curriculum development and our own staff’s knowledge in the thrive approach, Boxall Profiling, OT training and knowledge of what the children need from their EHCP’s, we are confident that we are now providing the SEND children who are awaiting specialist placement with the curriculum that they need.
Impact on behaviour
Taking part in the Behaviour Hub has transformed the behaviour and culture in our school.
We have been very lucky to have a very supportive Lead School who we have visited on numerous occasions as well as them visiting us. We have travelled across the country visiting schools and have observed some outstanding practise which has enabled us to evaluate our own systems and behaviour policy, which has had an amazing impact.
Below are the outcomes:
- We achieved a ‘Good’ from Ofsted for behaviour and attitudes.
Inspectors commented that ‘Behaviour is a strength of the school’.
Direct quotes from the report ‘Pupils at Northstead are happy and well cared for. They are proud to attend the school. They are polite, friendly and eloquent. The relationships that pupils have with adults in the school are very positive. Pupil leaders, such as the school councillors, carry out their roles with pride. Pupils strive to embody the school’s mission: ‘To be the best we can be’. Leaders have high expectations for behaviour and attitudes. They have overseen a significant improvement in behaviour across the school. Pupils now understand what it means to be a pupil at Northstead. They are respectful and courteous to each other. Bullying is rare. Staff deal with any incidents of bullying quickly. A team of well-trained staff ensure pupils are safe. Pupils understand the behaviour system in school. When behaviour does not meet the school’s high expectations, leaders take a clear and consistent approach to behaviour management.’
- Our CORE Values are embedded across school, all children, staff and governors know the values and everything we do in school is centred around them.
- We now have a staff behaviour manual, which states all of the expectations for staff and is clear for all staff to understand.
- Through the introduction of corridor and cloakroom expectations posters and scripts, corridors and cloakrooms are silent and calm.
- The development of a range of scripts throughout the day for staff to build consistency and confidence when using our new behaviour pathway
- The introduction of an amended behaviour policy, including a new behaviour pathway and reward system, which is working effectively and improving behaviour and consistency.
- Careful systems for monitoring are in place for behaviour and further systems are set up for September. Children will be monitored after receiving 5 consequences and then will go onto a behaviour plan if necessary.
- We are opening ‘The Hub’ in September, an additional classroom for 4-5 SEND children, who are awaiting special school places. This will allow us to give these children the tailored curriculum that they need and deserve until they get a place in the school named on their EHCP.
Staff end survey (key questions related to goals).
How would you rate pupil behaviour in school? 4 = 4% 5=23% 6=71%
(1-very poor / 4- acceptable/ 7 – excellent)
There is a clear vision of what is expected and meant by good behaviour
Agree = 28% Strongly agree= 71%
The policy, rules and routines are easy to follow
Agree = 23% Strongly agree= 76%
Leaders monitor and analyse behaviour data and take swift, reasonable actions to address issues.
Pupils understand the rules and consequences of not adhering to the behaviour policy
Agree = 38% Strongly agree= 61%
70% of staff on the survey think behaviour has improved in the last year (scored 7) and a further 20% scored 6.
89% of staff on the survey think that children’s knowledge of the rules and consequences have improved in the last 12 months.
Following engagement in the Behaviour Hub programme:
- We received a ‘good’ from Ofsted for behaviour and attitudes’
- 98% of teachers now rate behaviour as better than acceptable.
- There was 34.6% improvement in the number of teachers that believe staff apply the behaviour rules and procedures as set out in our vision and policy.
- 100% of teachers now think there is a culture of recognising and celebrating positive behaviour at our school. This improved by 28.9% over the duration of the programme.
- Pupil voice showed that all pupils believe that behaviour has improved this year.
- Pupil voice showed that 100% of children feel safe in school.
Next steps on your behaviour journey
- To continue to improve consistency through monitoring
- To continue to offer and deliver high quality, personalised CPD for staff
- To reduce the numbers of students being suspended
- To introduce the reward system in September