Context for joining Behaviour Hubs
Rivermead School is part of the Rivermead Inclusive Trust and is a community special school for young people aged 11 to 19 years with a range of complex needs. Our specialism is in Autistic Spectrum Conditions and Speech & Language needs. Years 7 to 11 are based at our Forge Lane site in Gillingham, Kent. There are two additional provisions: the Rivermead Post 16 Provision (based at Mid Kent College and the Entry Level Partnership at Long Catlis Road) and Rivermead Routes for Reintegration, our provision for learners with complex SEMH needs, many of whom have been hospitalised or at risk of hospitalisation due to severe mental health difficulties.
At Rivermead School, there are currently 124 learners on roll. At post-16 we have a total of 58 learners. All our learners have been issued an Education, Health and Care Plan, as this is a prerequisite for joining the school. Most learners arrive in Year 7, with a diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Conditions and underlying speech, language and communication difficulties which are often comorbid with anxiety, social and emotional difficulties and/or specific learning difficulties. Some learners come to us later in their school lives, often after a lengthy period of school refusal. A small number of students are physically disabled.
The school is situated in the middle of an area of deprivation, a housing estate in Gillingham, Medway. The school location deprivation indicator is in quintile 5 (most deprived) of all schools. The learner base is in quintile 4 (more deprived) of all schools in terms of deprivation. Medway ranks the 103rd most deprived local authority for income deprivation. In the 2019 IoD, 13.4% of the Medway population was estimated to be experiencing income-related issues, and unemployment is high. Learners arrive at school in transport from all areas of Medway and some from Kent.
Our intake reflects the local community: we have a few highly aspirant families however most learners come from families where high levels of unemployment, special needs and low aspirations are common. Several learners experience aspects of domestic and financial abuse and neglect at home which is a key issue in Gillingham. Drug and gangs/county lines are a concern in Medway, and although currently our school cohort does not reflect either, we are mindful that this is a contextual safeguarding concern which we pay careful attention to.
Behaviour challenges and goals
Through completing the behaviour audit with staff across the whole setting, assessing behaviour data and ongoing discussions with our Lead School, one of the key areas we decided to focus on was creating a behaviour strategy that clearly articulates what the behaviour strategy is and how to implement this throughout the school. Wider challenges and goals were:
- To map out the different strategies/interventions so that they are easily understood with deployment and threshold identifiers
- To ensure that the positive behaviour systems are high priority and consistently employed across the school as part of the graduated response to behaviour
- To review the behaviour rewards programme to ensure that KS4 pupils find value in the rewards/points and invest in the systems
- To create an induction programme that ensures that all staff understand the behaviour strategy
- There was a change in the Head of Behaviour 3 months before joining the programme
- Changes to the Senior Leadership Team, and Senior Leader absence
- Staff who have worked in the provision for several years were resistant to change and did not see behaviour as a form of communication
- We had a behaviour system that was confusing to both staff and learners.
Solutions to behaviour challenges
Several training sessions were conducted for staff members, aimed at enhancing their skills, addressing challenges, and fostering collaborative approaches to progress collectively in a positive direction. The training sessions covered:
- Behaviour and Values
- Behaviour Survey (Summer 2023)
- Behaviour for Learning
- Why behaviour happens, motivation and use of reinforcement
- Instructional Control
- Behaviour and the Polyvagal Theory
- Behaviour Survey (Spring 2024).
Discussions with our Lead School were highly supportive and insightful and helped guide and direct us in terms of how to approach this project. The visit from the Lead School identified areas that we were already aware of and their guidance throughout the programme has been welcomed.
Visits to Open Days and Network events helped us to see and hear about how other school settings supported learners. In addition, we were able to gain ideas around AM break and lunch time rotas to ensure staff are visible, and CPD sessions to maximise information sharing.
Engaging in the online learning sessions enabled us to introspect on our teaching methods and refine our perspectives regarding our behavioural vision and ethos, as well as strategies for cultivating these principles within our school community.
Following a visit from our Lead School, we formulated a comprehensive whole-school Behaviour Strategy. This strategy aims to offer clear guidance to staff regarding the stages of behaviour support and ensure that every learner is met with consistency. The document underwent review by the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) before being presented to all staff members for feedback and input. The strategy integrates various processes and fosters a coherent vision for our school community.
Impact on behaviour
Comments from staff on how they have been involved and included in the whole process:
“The behaviour packs in the classroom are easily accessible”.
“We have been consulted on the strategy and changes all the way through”.
“Learners are behaving better because they know staff will follow a process”.
“I know that SLT will back my decisions around behaviour consequences”.
“The system is much easier to follow and staff know what the expectations are”.
Comments from the Student Council on the Behaviour Ladder
“The behaviour ladder is on every classroom door; this makes it easier for us to refer to. The teacher always asks us if we need a movement break before telling us what we have done wrong, this is much better than being told to get on with our work as we will likely refuse as it will feel like we are being told off”.
Comments from the Student Council on Bullying
“Bullying does happen sometimes at school however staff will deal with this very quickly. They keep us up to date and let us know any actions they are taking and we get the chance to speak to the person being unkind so they know how we feel. There are not normally any repeats of behaviours and if there are then the staff will deal with this”.
Data
Following the implementation of the Behaviour Strategy and Relationships and Behaviour Policy in Term 1, the subsequent terms have gone from strength to strength with behaviour improvement.
Behaviour analysis shows that there has been a 22% reduction in reported high-level misbehaviours and the learner wellbeing survey has an average score of 8/10 which is a considerable increase from term 2. The has been a significant decrease in negatives issued on Class Charts.
Next steps on your behaviour journey
- Await the start of the new Head of School (April 2024) and continue to develop and implement behaviour strategies and finalise the draft version of the Relationships and Behaviour Policy
- Continue to gather learner voices through learner-led sessions
- Continue to work on an Implement, Do, Review Cycle to ensure staff are on the journey with us and it is not done to them
- Reinstate the schools’ trauma informed awareness and upskill staff through CPD (April 2024)
- Gather parent/carer and governors’ thoughts on the Relationships and Behaviour Policy to take this from draft to final.