Context for joining Behaviour Hubs
Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School was deemed Inadequate by Ofsted in March 2020. We converted to an Academy with the Our Lady Immaculate Catholic Academies Trust in January 2021.
Our school is situated in a deprived area in North Northamptonshire. We currently have 358 children on roll and are a two-form entry that is currently under roll. English as an additional language, poverty, lack of social mobility and high crime rates are daily challenges faced by our children.
26% of our children are eligible for Free School Meals.
42% of our children have English as an additional language.
11% of our children have identified Special Educational Needs.
20% of our children are on a Plan, Assess, Do and Review cycle to evidence SEND and meet the criteria for SEND assessment.
2.3 % of our children have finalised EHCPs
Our school puts the child at the centre of our school family, where positive relationships, based on mutual trust and respect are at the heart of everything we do. Our curriculum prepares children for the challenges and obstacles that they may face now or in the future by providing them with opportunities to be; Confident, Curious, Independent, Resilient and Ambitious in all areas of the Curriculum.
Behaviour challenges and goals
To review our Behaviour Policy and ensure it is consistently applied across the school.
To develop a robust process around recording behaviour, that can be analysed to ensure that support or preventative strategies can be put in place.
To ensure that lunchtime staff and support staff have adequate training to manage break and lunch times.
Having been appointed as the Substantive Headteacher in April 2022, we managed to secure our new Senior Leadership Team in September 2022. Many of the team were new to role and due to the scale of development and sheer range of inadequacies, there was a huge amount of work that required our attention in 2023, due to 2022-2023 being focused on staffing, policies, developing a culture of safeguarding and curriculum.
We began the Behaviour Hubs project in September 2023 and following a SEND review, the capacity to focus on implementing all of the elements of the Behaviour Hubs work was the main challenge and has resulted in a lack of consistent implementation in some routines.
Throughout the Autumn Term, we were also heavily supported by the Trust, which involved launching a new curriculum for some of our foundation subjects and writing. Although these were positive changes for our children as the new curriculum was much more engaging, it did take focus from our Behaviour Hubs journey.
During the Spring Term, having implemented a new robust Policy and formalised a consistent approach to recording behaviour, early data analysis demonstrated that children with identified SEND needs made up 65% of behaviour points. This became our focus as Headteacher and our new to role SENDCO, to:
- Build relationships with external agencies
- Provide training for all staff to meet our children’s needs
- Ensure that referrals were timely and effective
- Support staff in implementing specialist advice
- Reframe the view of SEND needs for all staff
Following the Ofsted inspection in the Spring Term, staff illness did see an increase especially for the Senior Team, mainly due to exhaustion. This did impede some of the progress during the end of the Spring Term and the beginning of the Summer Term. Although, staff are now looking forward and driving forward improvements with a clear focus on consistency and high expectations
Following the Ofsted inspection in the Spring Term, staff illness did see an increase especially for the Senior Team, mainly due to exhaustion. This did impede some of the progress during the end of the Spring Term and the beginning of the Summer Term. Although, staff are now looking forward and driving forward improvements with a clear focus on consistency and high expectations.
Solutions to behaviour challenges
Use of the new behaviour data analysis allowed us to identify that the development of our SEND provision was paramount to our vulnerable children, those with identified SEND and those with trauma, who were impacted by the result of individual’s needs that were left unmet. This became the focus during the Spring Term and resulted in a drop in Fixed Term suspensions and less ‘Tier 2 call outs’ for support. It has also resulted in 11 requests for EHCP assessment, which is a huge achievement and our work with Maplefields and Rowangate outreach services has been transformational.
Inputs during the online Behaviour Hubs webinars, especially from Tom Bennett, have really challenged our thinking as Senior Leaders.
Our visits to schools and from our Lead School have also been inspirational and have informed decisions around routines, staff accountability and expectations which has provided our next steps.
Impact on behaviour
During our most recent Ofsted visit, they recognised the impact of the work with the Behaviour Hubs had started and commented on the new Behaviour Policy and Principles, which had been launched in January.
Ofsted January/February 2024 stated that: “Most pupils understand and respond well to the new expectations for behaviour. For some, it has supported them to regulate their behaviour successfully. Where needed, the school seeks advice from external agencies to meet the needs of some pupils. Although there are early signs of improvement, further developments are required to ensure that all pupils, including the most disadvantaged, develop positive attitudes to learning and attendance.”
This was a positive step in the right direction and Ofsted staff surveys also recognised the changes we had made to support with behaviour. This resulted in a “Requires Improvement” judgement and safeguarding had been deemed effective as it had not been during the previous Inspection.
An external staff survey was conducted at the beginning and end of programme which highlighted the following improvements:
During the survey in September 2023, 57% of staff did not feel that the support they received from senior leaders helped them to effectively manage pupils with persistently disruptive behaviour.
In our recent survey, which was completed in June 2024, 86% of staff reported that they felt encouraged to ask senior leaders for support to deal with persistently disruptive pupils or classes. This demonstrates a shift in staff confidence and an open-door approach to support and guidance. We also undertook North Northamptonshire’s Safeguarding Audit and the Trust Wellbeing Audit, which demonstrated positive outcomes and a huge increase in staff wellbeing and their understanding safeguarding.
Following the launch of our new Behaviour Policy and Principles:
- 86% of staff believe that Pupils understand the behaviour rules and the consequences of not adhering to the policy.
- 86% of staff believe that the school approach to behaviour management shows an understanding of the factors that can affect pupil behaviour.
- All staff reported that there is a clear vision of what is expected and meant by good behaviour.
- 93% of staff report that the policy, rules and routines are easy to follow.
- 95% of staff believe that the school takes appropriate measures to support student and staff safety.
Behaviour incidents have seen a huge drop:
| Tier 1 | Tier 3 | Suspensions | |
| Autumn 1 2023 | 333 | 24 | 22 |
| Summer 2 2024 | 162 | 5 | 3 |
We also managed to secure €33,955 due to a successful funding bid with the Smurfit Kappa Foundation. This has enabled us to create a designated space to support children with additional needs, trauma responses and barriers to learning. This includes a bespoke Sensory Room, quiet group learning space and 2 workstation areas for children who have EHCPs. To facilitate the space within our current building, they also provided 15 laptops and 15 iPads so that the ICT equipment could be used across the curriculum.
Next steps on your behaviour journey
Our Ofsted report from February 2024 states, “The school must ensure that it fully implements the new systems for attendance, behaviour and attitudes so they impact positively on pupil outcomes.”
Clear plans are in place to ensure consistency and respond to the most recent Lead School visit. These include:
- Registering on the Healthy Schools Programme and ensuring this is an active part of school life.
- SLT to monitor in classes during ‘on call’ days ensuring routines and expectations are being upheld.
- Ensuring that our 4 new teachers (30% of our teachers) are inducted effectively.
- Jogo Behaviour Training for all support staff on Monday 1st September 2024 for 3 hours to empower them to lead break and lunch times.
Staff Training in September 2024 to include a focus on effective staff feedback and an open culture of holding staff members to account.