Context for joining Behaviour Hubs
Viking Primary School has 196 pupils on roll across reception to Year 6. We also have a nursery on site which caters for up to 39 children during a morning session. A large number of our children progress from our nursery into Reception which supports our transition.
Our school sits within an area of significant deprivation and a high level of social housing. Our Pupil Premium numbers have always been high but have increased since the pandemic and cost of living crisis.
We have an increasing number of pupils with significant additional needs. Currently 5 EHCPs = 3% but we also have an additional 8 children awaiting EHCPs = 4%. We also have 32 children at SEN support = 16%. Supporting all of these children effectively with a small staff team can be challenging.
Behaviour challenges and goals
- Ensuring there is a shared language for behaviour management used to develop greater consistency and a communal ownership of behaviour management amongst everyone in school
- Over reliance on SLT to manage behaviour meant that children didn’t respond to all adults in the same way
- Inconsistent behaviour management during lunchtimes which results in lost learning time as teachers need to resolve issues carried over from lunch
- Inconsistent communication with parents about behaviour concerns results in a small group of parents complaining
- The high percentage of pupils at the school with SEN is also a challenge, particularly in ensuring that the children with high level needs are supported appropriately. We try to provide as much TA support as possible for our pupils but this is becoming increasingly difficult with budget constraints
- The impact of Covid is unsettling pupils, impacting on attendance and continuity as well as undoing some habits that had been learnt during the period of partial school closure.
Solutions to behaviour challenges
- Engaging in the Behaviour Hubs programme and by visiting our Lead School, we were able to identify good practice and then shape this to meet the needs of our setting. Disseminating the information that we learnt into our behaviour policy and staff training meant that this had an impact at all levels
- By reviewing the behaviour policy as a school and introducing a shared language of behaviour management (reminder, warning and consequence). Shared language allows greater consistency and supports with transition between staff. Bespoke posters have been produced for school and shared with parents via teacher meetings to ensure everyone is on the same page
- Embedding the use of CPOMs across the school to ensure there is consistent reporting and recording. Providing staff training on parental communication has reduced parental complaints and allowed school and home to work more closely together for the benefit of the pupils
- By providing a good training process we supported our staff in understanding our behaviour expectations. This initially featured a launch of our revised behaviour policy which was collaboratively written. In September 2023, we held a session on our INSET day where we refreshed everyone’s knowledge of the behaviour policy, our shared language and our consequences pathway. We then followed this up with regular support for staff around behaviour and provided positive handling training to 14 members of staff so that staff became aware of de-escalation pathways, risk assessments and proactive strategies to reduce behaviour incidents.
“Pupils are well looked after in this school. Leaders and staff know their pupils and families well. Pupils receive effective pastoral support which helps them to feel happy and safe at school.”
Impact on behaviour
- Staff have reported an improvement with behaviour and there is less lost learning time
- Parent surveys have reported positive behaviour.
- Evidence of good behaviour reported during our OFSTED inspection in March 2023:
“Pupils are well looked after in this school. Leaders and staff know their pupils and families well. Pupils receive effective pastoral support which helps them to feel happy and safe at school.”
“Leaders aim for every pupil in this school to be the ‘best that they can be’. They have high expectations of pupils. Pupils work hard in lessons. Typically, they are learning the curriculum well across a wide range of subjects.”
“Pupils treat adults and each other with respect. Every year, pupils sign up to a charter which sets out how they are expected to behave in school. Pupils try very hard to adhere to this. On any rare occasions when bullying occurs, leaders deal with it promptly and effectively.”
Next steps on your behaviour journey
- Ensure our induction pack fully replicates the training staff have received so when new staff join the school there continues to be a consistent approach
- Ensure that approaches to improving attendance are identified and embedded and that parents are held to account for ensuring their child attends school every day.