A summary of the National Behaviour Survey and some useful questions for leaders to use in order to improve their school’s behaviour policy and procedure.

The National Behaviour Survey Report was published by the DfE on the 8th June 2023. Its findings come from June 2022. Below, each key finding is paired with reflective questions leaders can use to improve their behaviour policy and procedures.

1. School behaviour culture and policy

Largely positive: leaders, teachers and pupils mostly agree there is a shared policy and culture, with work to do on fairness, use of data and engaging parents and carers.

• Shared understanding. 82% of school leaders and teachers agreed staff shared an understanding of what “good behaviour” means; 91% of pupils knew how their school expected them to behave.
  • Ask: How do you know that everyone understands and follows your behaviour policy? What do staff, pupils and parents/carers say?
• Fairness. All school leaders (100%) and 98% of teachers said rules were applied fairly to all pupils at least some of the time, but only 42% of leaders and 23% of teachers said ‘all of the time’. 91% of pupils said at least some of the time; 19% said ‘all of the time’.
  • Ask: How do pupils feel about how they are treated? Do they feel they are treated fairly?
• Data. 90% of schools systematically recorded data on pupil behaviour and 83% used it to inform their approach.
  • Ask: Do you use the behaviour data you collect to inform policy and procedure, both for individual cases and for the school as a whole?
• Parents. 66% of school leaders and teachers agreed parents support the school’s behaviour rules (leaders 79%, teachers 65%). Asked directly, 89% of parents agreed “I am supportive of the school’s behaviour rules”.
  • Ask: What information do parents and carers get about your behaviour policy? Do they understand it, and how do you know? What do you communicate well and what needs to improve?

2. School environment and experience

Leaders see a calmer school than pupils do, and pupils’ sense of safety, enjoyment and motivation needs work.

• Calm and orderly. 92% of school leaders said their school had been calm and orderly ‘every day’ or ‘most days’ in the past week, against 70% of teachers and 55% of pupils. In secondary schools, 46% of leaders said ‘every day’, against 23% of teachers and 16% of pupils.
  • Ask: Is our learning environment calm, orderly and engaging? How do we know? What do staff, pupils, parents and carers say?
• Safety. 41% of pupils said they had felt safe at school ‘every day’ in the past week.
  • Ask: How do we ensure that pupils feel safe, and how do we know they do?
• Enjoyment and motivation. 49% of pupils enjoyed coming to school ‘every day’ or ‘most days’ in the past week, lowest in Year 9 at 41%. 73% felt motivated to learn (20% ‘very’, 53% ‘fairly’).
  • Ask: How do we know that our curriculum and learning environment are working well and suitable for all learners?

3. Prevalence and impact of misbehaviour

Leaders rate behaviour more highly than teachers and pupils. Misbehaviour costs learning time and harms the wellbeing of leaders, teachers, pupils and parents, and many pupils report bullying in school or online.

• Perceptions of behaviour. 90% of school leaders said behaviour had been ‘very good’ or ‘good’ in the past week, against 64% of teachers and 47% of pupils.
  • Ask: What do pupils, staff, leaders, parents and carers consider good behaviour, and do they agree on how good behaviour is in school?
• Lost learning. 62% of school leaders and teachers said misbehaviour interrupted teaching in at least some lessons in the past week; 67% of pupils said it interrupted their work. Teachers reported an average of 6.3 minutes lost per 30 minutes of lesson time, with 69% reporting between one and ten minutes, similar in primary and secondary.
  • Ask: How much learning time is lost, and what needs to improve as a result?
  • Ask: Are individual learners’ needs met, and how do you know? Do you need to plan differently for individual needs, for example through training on SEND and behaviour, specialist help or changes to the curriculum?
• Wellbeing. 60% of school leaders and teachers said pupil misbehaviour had harmed their health and wellbeing to some extent in the past week: 7% to ‘a great extent’, 23% to ‘some extent’ and 31% to ‘a small extent’.
  • Ask: How can the school look after the wellbeing of everyone involved, including pupils, staff, parents and carers?
• Bullying. 22% of pupils said they had been bullied for any reason in the past 12 months. The most common perceived reason was the way they looked (45% of those bullied in person; 52% of those bullied online).
  • Ask: Do pupils know what bullying is and how to report it? Do your strategies and procedures work?
  • Ask: Are pupils taught how to be safe online and in school?

4. Responding to behaviour

Staff feel confident managing misbehaviour but not always supported by leaders, and many cannot access further training. The survey does not say why: external pressures such as a lack of agencies to refer pupils to, how well leaders support teachers, time pressures and access to local specialists may all play a part. Schools have support in place, but external agencies are not always quick to respond.

• Confidence. 94% of school leaders and teachers felt at least fairly confident personally managing misbehaviour (46% ‘very confident’); 96% felt at least fairly confident supporting pupils to understand how to behave well (49% ‘very confident’).
  • Ask: Do staff, leaders, pupils and parents/carers know how to manage misbehaviour, and does the system work? How do you know?
• Support from leaders. 52% of teachers agreed that support from senior leaders helps them manage pupils with persistently disruptive behaviour effectively; 29% disagreed.
  • Ask: Do leaders support teachers with persistently disruptive behaviour? How do you know?
• Training. 27% of teachers and 20% of school leaders felt they could not personally access behaviour management training relevant to their experience and needs.
  • Ask: Are teachers and leaders trained in managing behaviour? If not, why not, and what training is needed and how will it be provided?
• Interventions. The most common were referrals to specialist services (92%) and targeted interventions such as mentoring and social/emotional learning (92%), followed by specialised pastoral support staff (79%) and removal as a restorative measure (77%).
  • Ask: Which interventions support pupils, do they work, and how often are they monitored?
• External support. 38% of school leaders and teachers felt external specialist support was at least somewhat timely; 41% said it was ‘not timely at all’.
  • Ask: Which external agencies are involved, and are there others who could provide support?