Context for joining Behaviour Hubs
Manor Leas Junior is a stand-alone academy located in the south of Lincoln. The school is a fairly large junior school with a three-form entry, teaching 300 pupils. Most pupils are from White British backgrounds; the proportions of pupils from other ethnicities or who have English as an additional language are well below the national average. The school has a mixed catchment area taking two thirds from its neighbouring feeder infant school with the other children from an infant school towards the city centre with a higher level of deprivation. The school has a higher than national average percentage of pupil premium children (33%) and pupils with SEND (19%).
Manor Leas Junior Academy is an ‘outward-facing’ school where staff and leaders explore initiatives and use evidence-based research to inform pedagogical decisions. The school was judged as a good school in 2022.
Behaviour challenges and goals
While the behaviour at Manor Leas has been judged as good, the Behaviour Hubs programme has provided the opportunity to create a behaviour curriculum that provides clarity to all stake holders and that sets out a hierarchy of the school’s expectations linked to the school’s vision, mission and values. Our goals and challenges were:
- To revisit the school’s core vision and values. Ensuring that these were reflected and fully embedded in the school’s systems, structures and language
- Create a clear set of expectations for both staff and children to ensure the approach to behaviour was consistent across the school. Create a behaviour curriculum supported by a timetable of planned assemblies, lessons and events
- To look at what ‘reasonable adjustments’ are and consider how we can meet the needs of students with more complex behavioural issues
- To upskill and equip staff with the skills to support more challenging behaviour
- To ensure that the expectations are shared with new pupils and new staff to maintain consistency
- Develop further opportunities for parental interaction with the school
- To have a clear system where behaviour could be tracked and evaluated.
- We had a behaviour policy that was overly complex and was not always implemented consistently
- To have a reliable data system that can track behaviour across the school
- We had a small group of children with SEND / SEMH needs who were not responding to our usual behaviour strategies
- Gaps in provision (TA’s) for SEND / SEMH.
Solutions to behaviour challenges
Manor Leas Junior Academy is a school where behaviour is good; however, when striving for excellence, it was clear that there were pockets where attitudes and behaviours were inconsistent. Also, a small number of children with SEND/SEMH needs were requiring a significant amount of support. It was evident through the discussions with our Behaviour Hubs Lead School that the consistency that we wanted would be supported through a re-design of the school’s vision and values and the creation of a behaviour curriculum.
Visiting Wansbeck Primary in Hull showed how a school can provide a more bespoke SEND provision. The values of respect, responsibility and resilience were consistent across the school community. A response to this was to think about how we can adapt the spaces in our school to cater for different needs and to train staff to provide opportunities for a more bespoke curriculum for specific individuals. Along side this, it was also useful to see how The Duston School used their Positive Impact Centre specifically for how they supported children with their wellbeing and mental health.
The children at Manor Leas now have weekly lessons as part of the My Happy Mind programme. Also, as a response to the increased need with emotional support, many of the support staff are now fully ELSA trained (emotional literacy support assistants). When thinking about ‘Creating a Culture’, the school’s vision and values were at the heart.
Through discussions in several staff meetings and through wider consultations with stakeholders, a new vision and set of values was developed. Visiting Dixons Trinity Academy helped to solidify the need for simplicity when developing values – the complexity can come underneath the core principles. In Dixons Trinity these were: work hard, be good, be nice. At Manor Leas our vision is that ‘Every child can be happy, successful and choose and extraordinary life.’ This is underpinned through the values of ‘Be unusually brave. Be big hearted. Push the limits. Discover what’s possible.’
To support behaviour at break and lunch times, play resources have been purchased and the playground has been zoned with activities which are led by staff.
In addition to the development of the school’s values, there has also been a focus on codifying classroom routines. Hand signals are now used more consistently for stopping, listening, partner talk and lining up. Alongside this, STAR and the Listening Ladder are also used to support children in making the correct behaviour choices.
To better track and analyse behaviour the school has purchased Class Charts which the school will be fully utilising in the next academic year.
Impact on behaviour
On our journey from good to excellent behaviour, it is clear from the end of year survey that staff feel confident that the core principles are in place:
- ‘100% said that our school behaviour rules and procedures help make the school a safe and happy place.’
- ‘100% said that it is clear how I should apply the behaviour rules consistently and fairly across the school environment, including making reasonable adjustments.’
- ‘100% said that there is a culture of recognising and celebrating positive behaviour at our school.’
- ‘’66% responded that their confidence has improved in how well behaviour is managed at our school changed in the past 12 months. The other 33% felt that it had stayed the same or greater.’
The overall picture of the ongoing impact of the of the Behaviour Hubs programme is an ongoing upward trajectory. The leadership team in collaboration with stakeholders has ensured that along with improved systems and structures, the wider aspects of developing a culture based on mutual respect continues to be a focus. The development of more embedded values will in the future further solidify an excellent behaviour culture.
Improved behaviour tracking systems will also play an important role in ensuring the tracking and monitoring of behaviour by leaders, teachers and support staff.
Next steps on your behaviour journey
Manor Leas Junior Academy understands that their behaviour journey is ongoing, and the school has the following plans to ensure that their progress remains embedded going forward:
- Fully embedding the school’s vision, mission and values across the school community
- Staff training to fully utilise ‘Class Charts’ to record and monitor/analyse behaviour
- Further development of zoned outside play areas. Training for lunchtime and support staff to lead activities
- Additional staff CPD to look at what ‘reasonable adjustments’ are and consider how we can meet the needs of students with more complex behavioural issues
- Induction of the of the year 3 children to the school’s values, systems and structures
- Embedding and then reviewing of the school’s behaviour curriculum.