Bitterne Park School

Context for joining Behaviour Hubs

Bitterne Park School & Sixth Form (BPS) is a member of the Reach Cooperative Trust. Our inspection in January 2023 (Section 8 Inspection of Good Schools) deemed the school remained good, but suggested it could be judged differently if the inspection had been a Section 5 Graded Inspection.

BPS is a large, mixed comprehensive school serving the Bitterne area of Southampton. We have 2020 students on roll, including 140 students in our sixth form and 49 in The ARB, – a local authority funded resource base for students with autism as their primary need. Our PAN ranges from 360 to 395 in Years 7 to 11.

Southampton has significant challenge which affects many of the students who attend BPS, many of which have evolved since the Covid pandemic.

Suspensions and permanent exclusions are high, across both primary and secondary phases.

BPS is a highly inclusive school and is considered a magnet school for SEND and inclusion in the city and beyond. We currently cater for a wide range of abilities, with some students entering in Year 7 working at Year R and Year 1 levels. The percentage of students with SEND, or considered to be disadvantaged, is:

• Overall SEND: 24.1% (National Av 14.8%)
• SEND EHCP: 6.2% (National Av 2.7%)
• SEND K: 18.4% (National Average state funded secondary as of June 2024 12.9%)

• PP: 30% (11-16)
• LAC: 23 students PLAC: 15 students

The school intake is predominantly white British but is becoming increasingly multicultural through admissions each year.

The January 2023 Ofsted report set us the following areas for improvement:

1. ‘’There are some inconsistencies in the application of the behaviour policy within lessons. This means that some lateness to lessons and off-task behaviours that disrupt learning are not managed effectively.

As a result, some pupils miss important learning time. Leaders must ensure that all staff are well supported to follow clear and well communicated processes to reduce low-level disruptive behaviour and lateness that interrupt learning.’’

2. ‘’Some pupils shared concerns about poor behaviour during social times. Leaders are taking action to reduce these concerns but not all pupils are yet confident that this behaviour is well managed.’’

Impact of COVID

With high levels of SEND need and disadvantage within the school, some of our students were disproportionately affected by the Covid pandemic. This resulted in some very challenging behaviour being displayed upon our return from lockdown, which previously had not been experienced by the school. Return from lockdown coincided with a change of Headteacher (3rd Headteacher in 3 years) and the growth of the school by 300 students and the recent relocation into a new school build. All of these factors contributed to the unsettled nature of our return from Covid, which particularly affected certain cohorts

 

Behaviour challenges and goals

In applying for the Behaviour Hub programme, we were keen to ensure that we were outward facing and exposed to the most up-to-date research and guidance, relating to improving the behaviour culture of the school. We were also keen to identify schools with a similar profile and scale, to learn from.

Within school we had already begun our behaviour improvement initiatives aimed at:

• Reducing high tariff overt behaviours.
• Reducing lesson avoidance and improving attendance to lessons.
• Ensuring we had an appropriate and effective AP curriculum to engage students and meet the need of our most vulnerable learners.
• Improving punctuality to school and to individual lessons.
• Improving behaviour standards both in classrooms and as students moved around the site, as well as at social times.
• Providing support for staff and developing a ‘behaviour is everyone’s responsibility’ culture within the school.

There were significant challenges which we had to consider in our action plan. These were:

• Significant numbers of students were avoiding lessons and refusing to attend lessons. They were overtly truanting and causing significant disruption within the building.
• In line with many schools nationally, students displayed increased levels of anxiety, which created a capacity issue for our pastoral and support teams.
• A significant reduction in school attendance, which had previously been in line with the national average

Anti-social behaviour and a developing gang culture within the city created some additional challenges, where significant issues from the community were carried into school. This included serious violence, which resulted in a double stabbing within the community.

• Due to our success with supporting students with SEND needs and being a wholly inclusive comprehensive school, the school is considered a ‘magnet’ school for children with complex SEND need.

As detailed above, the percentage of students with need is significantly above the national average.

• The physical design of the school intensified the behaviour challenges.

The school is designed on a relatively small footprint, with 4 floors laid out as a figure of eight with a central atrium which doubles as the main canteen area. This makes the building seem very busy and any issues are highly visible

Solutions to behaviour challenges

In order to overcome the challenges, our approach included a wide range of initiatives and additional resourcing, including:

• We were very keen to become more outward facing in our approach.
• Historically the school had been a capacity giver, supporting other schools with school improvement, particularly having been a teaching school hub. Our intention was to seek out up-to-date research focussing on pedagogy and behaviour management, as well as rigorously quality assuring our school improvement initiatives to ensure that they had impact. We participated in a range of school visits and applied to be part of the Behaviour Hub programme (which opened access to up-to-date research and opportunities to engage with schools who had successfully developed a positive behaviour culture within their school).
• We also sought further exposure to best practice through Challenge Partners. This enabled us to access high quality assurance and the ability to be exposed to more best practice opportunities by visiting high performance schools across the country. A number of the initiatives that we have implemented were picked up from involvement in quality assuring other schools.
• We allocated significant resource to redesigning the school building to support the development of a positive behaviour culture. This included:
• Building an additional staircase to improve the movement of students and staff around the building at lesson changeover time.
• Closing off areas of the school which had historically been areas that students used to truant lessons.
• Creating visual markers in the corridors with our values which supported the calm and purposeful movement between lessons, around the school building.
• Limiting areas within the building during break time, to support the management of the central atrium.
• Closing off areas of the corridors at break time to assist the management of the central
• Refurbishing the toilets to prevent inappropriate behaviour.
• SLT members supervising entry at all times.
• Increasing the number of individual toilet facilities in the school building.
• Closing communal toilets during lesson time.
• Redesigning the alternative provision space within the school to provide an appropriate, high-quality, area for students to learn and to socialise.
• We invested in additional staffing and resources within our alternative
• provision, including a forest school area.
• We increased ELSA and Mental Health Nurse capacity within school
• We increased the size of each pastoral team in each year group from 3 to 4.
• We appointed additional corridor support capacity to improve lesson punctuality and reduce lesson avoidance.
• We created more leadership capacity within the SLT with the addition of a pastorally focused extended leader.
• We reviewed and relaunched the new school values of Respect, Believe and Achieve.
• We adapted the vocational curriculum to include extended work experience and 14-16 vocational courses.
• The Behaviour Hubs programme supported us by providing challenge, access to research and highly effective practice through:
• Attending Open Days which allowed us to witness a range of best practice.
• Attend webinars which enabled us to explore the most effective research.
• Support from Worthing High School through face-to-face visits.
• Opportunities to visit additional schools with similar challenges to those we were working to overcome.

Impact on behaviour

All of the initiatives mentioned above have contributed towards the significant improvement seen in the behaviour culture of the school. The initial Behaviour Hub questionnaire was completed when we were at least 4 months into our post Ofsted improvement work, centred on developing our behaviour culture. The evidence provided by the questionnaire demonstrated the positive impact seen by staff and students (at that point).

This was further supported by the feedback provided to Ofsted in May 2024 where students, staff and parents/carers communicated the significant improvement that had been achieved since the last inspection in January 2023.

The following outcomes were evident:

• In re-setting our expectations, our suspension rate increased significantly for suspensions of half a day and one day, in comparison to our geographical neighbours and the national average. However, our suspension rate for suspensions of longer duration was below our geographical neighbours. These changes were a necessary consequence of shifting the behaviour culture within the school and we have detailed plans in place, that will significantly reduce the number of suspensions from September 2024.
• Pre Covid there had been some years where there were no permanent exclusions. Post Covid these have increased and, unfortunately, we had to permanently exclude 10 students during the 2022-2023 academic year. To date we have successfully reduced this number by 40% during the 2023-2024 academic year.
• Individual lesson attendance for targeted students who had become lesson avoiders post covid and were internally truanting on a significant basis, are reduced due to the number of initiatives instigated.

Specifically, the increased capacity for pastoral teams, the additional corridor support and the enhancement of our alternative provision, with appropriate curriculum offers to match students need. Specifically: the increased capacity for pastoral teams, the additional corridor support and the enhancement of our alternative provision, with appropriate curriculum offers to match students need.

Improved learning/attainment for targeted students. Due to the improvements in AP, students who were accessing very little of the core curriculum are now participating and completing excellent work – particularly in the core subjects. Some students are now transitioning back nto the mainstream as their re-engagement with education has been so successful.

• Quality assurance highlighted that punctuality to school in the morning

was a significant issue. Please see the table below.

Pre-Initiative	339
	Before 08.50	After 08.50
Week 1	163	25
Week 2	148	15
Week 3	104	13
Week 4	42	2

Numbers have continued to remain low throughout the academic year.

In order to improve punctuality to school we undertook the following steps:

• Communicated expectations clearly to parents and students.
• Soft launched the processes in September 2023, prior to launching the re-vamped consequence system for lateness.

Closed the school doors at 08.30am and directed all late students to the Sports Hall, where students’ mobile phones were collected, and uniform issues resolved. Students were set a 15-minute detention at the end of the day and collected their phone at the end of the detention. This led to a significant decline in the number of students who were late and ensured that detention attendance was high.

In addition, we have seen the school become calmer throughout the day and a reduction in physical and verbal altercations, whilst maintaining and developing a strong and respectful culture of interaction between students and staff.

Our most recent Section 5 inspection report carried out in May 2024,provides an independent validation of the work we have undertaken and the impact it has had on the school. I have included a selection below:

‘The schools culture shift in attitudes and behaviours is a real success story.’

HMI (May 2024)

‘BPS has successfully shifted behaviour culture. Significant changes have had a strong impact.’

Ofsted (2024)

‘Classrooms are calm, supportive learning environments.’

Ofsted (2024)

Pupils, including those in the sixth form, describe the school as a ‘close community’ where ‘teachers really care for us’. Pupils feel happy and safe because they know that staff listen and help when they have concerns.

Ofsted (May 2024)

Pupils typically behave and communicate respectfully in lessons, at social times and as they move around the school. This is testament to staff’s hard work to embed the school’s high expectations for pupils’ behaviour. Bullying is not common and any instances are dealt with well.

Ofsted May (2024)

Since the last inspection, the school has successfully made improvements to pupils’ behaviour. Pupils appreciate that their views were taken into consideration as changes were made to how the school operates.

Ofsted May (2024)

 

Next steps on your behaviour journey

Whilst significant impact has been created, we are still striving for further improvement. Our focus for this year will be:

• Reducing suspensions and exclusions through effective intervention strategies.
• Introducing a revised Behaviour Policy & Procedure which will include:
• Enhanced restorative conversations.
• Script guidance for staff.
• A centralised detention system.
• A points threshold approach for dealing with low level disruption.
• Resetting the staff view of consequences to include a shift from an
• over-reliance on setting detentions.
• Continuation of our working relationship with Worthing High School,
• our Lead Behaviour Hub school.