Context for joining Behaviour Hubs
Warrington St Ann’s CE Primary School is an average sized primary school with a strong Christian ethos. We serve a community with high deprivation, 53% Pupil Premium and with a number of families struggling with in work poverty. 70% of the school population live within Orford and these households live within the highest 10% deprived areas within the UK. The school IDACI average is 0.26 The number of pupils with EAL is 31% in school. This includes a growing number of the children in school (R – Y6) having come to the UK, as International New Arrivals 16 last academic year and 8 so far this year. There are 20 different first languages across school. Much of the housing around school is rented and consequently there is a high level of mobility with 7 children leaving and 25 children joining the school so far academic year, most due to movements of families in or out of the area.
The school has a Governor-led nursery with a 2-year provision for vulnerable children. Children also join the school in Reception from other settings. Attainment on entry is well below that seen nationally. Our number in Nursery has fallen this year and the number of children in reception is lower than expected. This is due to a combination of low birth rates and the school being judged as Requires Improvement by Ofsted.
The leadership team consists of the Headteacher, two substantive Assistant Headteachers who lead KS1/FS and KS2 and an experienced teacher with a TLR2 who leads on PE, PSHCE and Worship. Additionally, we have a seconded AHT, with expertise in writing, who joined the school in January when a vacancy arose. A TLR3 has also been awarded to a teacher who leads on the STEM curriculum. All teachers are subject leaders.
Behaviour challenges and goals
- To develop and further embed a positive behaviour culture
- To develop a behaviour curriculum that was applicable to all pupils
- To empower staff to lead behaviour
- For staff to believe that it is their responsibility to follow the routines in the behaviour policy consistently and not to just use rewards and sanctions as behaviour management tools
- To follow a graduated response to behaviour rather than expecting the SLT to deal with incidents
Solutions to behaviour challenges
- From the audit, we identified the when and where behaviour challenges were occurring
- Alongside staff we designed the routines that would be implemented at these times to reduce behaviour incidents
- Worked with the lead school to develop a graduated response for significant behaviour incidents and identified what provision should look like for those children
- Through an INSET day in January, we delivered training for staff on all of this
- Following this, further training was delivered alongside the lead school about the graduated response
- Expectations were shared with all stakeholders (staff, governors, children and parents)
- The leadership team ensured that they were in classrooms modelling and coaching staff on how to do this
- TEAM teach training including de-escalation strategies was provided for 12 members of staff including leaders
- Blink monitoring (short focussed regular monitoring) used by the leadership team over the term to ensure implementation was happening
- Individual one-to-one conversations were had, and expectations repeated whenever was needed
- Monitored by our Associate School Advisor, school improvement partner and governors on visits
Impact on behaviour
- All pupils in school can describe what good behaviour looks like
- All staff are very clear about routines
- All external behaviour monitoring has identified behaviour culture as a strength of the school and visiting experts describe the school as a calm, welcoming place
- New children very quickly learn the routines and fit into school life
- Children with significant SEMH are beginning to follow the routines
Next steps on your behaviour journey
- To plan for September induction for every class with a real focus on behaviour
- To continue the momentum, we have built and drive staff consistency
- To use some of the Behaviour Hub funding to purchase professional signage for our golden rules to be displayed around school