DfE publishes report on poor behaviour in schools

The Department for Education (DfE) has released a survey which warns of worsening behavioural issues in students.

It found that schools are losing almost a quarter of lesson time to poor behaviour.

The findings have been published as part of the DfE's second national behaviour survey which asked school leaders, teachers and pupils for their views on behaviour in their schools in March and May 2023.

The survey found that leaders and teachers reported losing an average of seven minutes per half hour of lesson time to misbehaviour.

This is up from the 6.3 minutes reported in the previous survey. In May 2023, 76 per cent of teachers reported that misbehaviour “stopped or interrupted teaching” in at least some lessons in the past week, up from 64 per cent in June 2022.

The proportion of teachers reporting that more than 10 minutes of teaching time per half hour of lessons was lost to misbehaviour rose from 10 per cent in 2022, to 25 per cent last May. 

The report also found that around two in five pupils feel safe in school every day. This statistic comes after two teachers and one pupil were attached at Amman Valley School in South-west Wales. 

Sixty-four per cent of leaders and 74 per cent of teachers reported last May that pupil misbehaviour had had a negative impact on their health and wellbeing to any extent in the past week, up from 47 and 62 per cent respectively in June 2022.

Pepe Di'Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) said: “The vast majority of pupils are well-behaved, and schools remain overwhelmingly safe and positive environments. 

"However, there has been an increase in poor behaviour among a minority of pupils which is posing a challenge for school leaders and teachers. 

"A lack of support from some parents, many of whom are facing challenges themselves, in dealing with behavioural issues only adds to the scale of the challenge."

He added that ASCL would like to see the DfE carry out work to establish the reasons for the increase in poor behaviour, but suggested disruption caused by the pandemic and difficulties supporting children with SEN and poor mental health played a part. 

"Budget constraints have severely limited the amount of pastoral support schools are able to provide, and the fact that so many teachers and leaders surveyed report not being able to access timely external support services is particularly worrying," he said.