School behaviour tsar appointed to tackle classroom disruption

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/16/school-behaviour-tsar-classroom-disruption

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A new school behaviour tsar will be tasked with stopping low-level disruption in the classroom such as children making silly comments, passing notes to each other and swinging on their chairs, the education secretary, Nicky Morgan, will announce on Tuesday.

In a speech at an academy school in London, she will announce the appointment of Tom Bennett, a teacher and behaviour expert, as part of a push to help teachers deal better with minor misdemeanours that cost pupils on average 38 days of learning a year.

Bennett is the latest in a string of behaviour gurus brought in by governments, following in the footsteps of Sir Alan Steer under Gordon Brown and Charlie Taylor under the coalition.

His specific remit will be working out how to train teachers to tackle low-level distractions, which were highlighted as a serious problem in a report by Ofsted in September last year.

Morgan will say that the battle against low-level disruption is part of the government’s “commitment to social justice … [ensuring] every single person in the country has access to the best opportunities Britain has to offer”.

At the same time, Morgan will confirm that the Conservatives intend to press ahead with a manifesto pledge to make every pupil starting secondary school this September study English, maths, science, a language and history or geography at GCSE.

She will also confirm that the new grading scale of 1 to 9 for GCSEs will require pupils to achieve a 5 or better to get a “good pass”, which will be used to rank the performance of schools.

The Department for Education said a grade 5 would be comparable to a low B or high C under the old grading system, raising the bar for a “good pass” from the previous level of C.

“This means ensuring children study key subjects that provide them with the knowledge they need to reach their potential – while setting a higher bar at GCSE so young people, their parents and teachers can be sure that the grades they achieve will help them get on in life,” Morgan will say.

Bennett will lead a group to develop better training for teachers, who Morgan said were “never trained to deal with this low-level disruption”

The DfE said that although misdemeanours such as swinging on chairs, passing notes and making silly comments were “minor in themselves, they create a stream of disruption that can make teaching impossible and stop those young people who want to get on and learn”.

It said the aim was for all schools to be able to replicate the work done by many heads and teachers across the country to tackle the problem.

Bennett, director of the researchED project, said behaviour had been “the elephant in the classroom for too long, and the amount of learning time lost because of disruption is a tragedy”.

He said: “At present training teachers to anticipate, deal with and respond to misbehaviour is far too hit and miss – great in some schools and training providers, terrible in others. Parents and children deserve safe, calm learning spaces, and teachers deserve to be equipped with sensible strategies that maximise learning, safety and flourishing. I’m delighted to lead a group which will offer advice on doing just that.”