Schools are massaging behaviour figures, says advisor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33226044

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The man asked by the government to improve classroom behaviour has said some schools are "massaging figures".

Tom Bennett said schools feared that Ofsted inspectors might look badly on them if their records appeared to indicate bad behaviour by pupils.

He added that some schools allowed disruptive students to stay in the classroom, rather than exclude them.

The National Association of Head Teachers explained that exclusion "was always a last resort".

Mr Bennett told the Victoria Derbyshire programme that some schools were "designing systems" that aimed to obscure pupils' bad behaviour from Ofsted inspectors.

He explained that this could include a deliberate effort not to record instances of poor discipline, for instance by keeping pupils in school rather than excluding them.

"In the current climate, where the stakes are so high for schools and for head teachers - and where they're often judged so punitively on their external data - if they've got something obvious like a high exclusion rate, or a high rate of incidents and accidents, that can look really bad for them," Mr Bennett said.

'Last resort'

Ofsted inspectors are told to take behaviour statistics into consideration when reviewing schools.

Mr Bennett said this practice was reasonable, but that he was also "sympathetic to [school leaders] who feel they are under so much pressure" and choose to "massage" their figures in this way.

"Some schools panic a little bit and think '[these exclusions are] going to make me look terrible'," he argued.

Mr Bennett said his views came from years of running behaviour advice forums and liaising with hundreds of teachers across the country.

But he said "the vast majority of schools are very ethical".

The National Association of Head Teachers explained that exclusion was "a last resort" for school leaders, and said inspections "routinely miss the nuances of the challenges schools face in dealing with discipline".

'Patchy' teacher training

Mr Bennett said a primary focus for him would be to make teacher training more consistent.

"The present way we train teachers is very patchy," he said.

"I do not think teachers get enough training in extreme behaviours, or [how to deal with] children coming from very difficult and extreme spectrum backgrounds and behaviours.

"I know a lot of teachers do not get training in how to handle children with autism and special needs, for example, and that's something which needs to change."

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