By Polly Ross
Polly Ross, Headteacher at
Shefford Lower school explains how the Behaviour Hubs programme
helped improve behaviour at their school.
Our School
Shefford Lower school is at the heart
of the local community of Shefford. We strive to instil core
values to support pupils to be happy, positive and contribute to
the community.
Two years ago, we began our journey to
further improve behaviour standards at our school. We were aiming
for the best possible behaviour standards. That’s why we signed
up to the Behaviour Hubs programme.
The programme provided training and
network opportunities to support us to develop a new approach to
learner engagement and behaviour which greatly improved behaviour
standards and wellbeing in our school.
Creating a
vision
We started our journey by writing a
behaviour vision statement, with input from our community. This
vision was displayed, referenced, and reflected upon regularly
throughout our journey to ensure commitment from everyone:
pupils, parents and staff. It created a sense of ownership in
moving towards shared goals and helped to align all staff with
the school’s culture and ethos.
Diagnosing
issues
Then, we captured views of community
members, staff, pupils, parents and governors to create a ‘warts
and all’ picture of behaviour at our school. We asked for views
on behavioural patterns and practices in our school,
including:
-
Do we have a strong
culture?
-
How clear is our behaviour policy to
pupils, staff and parents?
-
What are the behaviour patterns for
different pupils in different places and different
times?
-
What are priority
areas?
-
Where are pupils most
engaged?
This formed the foundation of our
discussions and next steps. We established patterns, identified
our strengths and established tangible actions to raise behaviour
standards in our school. We shared our findings with all members
of the community and informed staff and governors of priority
areas.
Engaging with the
community
One key to our success was
consistently getting behaviour ‘onto the agenda’. Behaviour was
discussed at all governor, senior leadership and staff meetings
and continuously noted within newsletters and briefings.
Behaviour was on everyone’s radar.
We also built strong networks through
the programme across local borders. This enabled us to share
practices with other schools and share
insights.
Training sessions
The leadership team took part in a
number of training sessions offered by the programme. Sessions
were led by behaviour advisers and included sessions on induction
training onto the programme, virtual modules, action planning
sessions, leadership training, improving relationships, and
supporting pupils. The training aligned
leaders’
thinking and supported us to shape
next steps on building sustainable behaviour
practices.
Building a culture of
positivity
Essential to our approach was building
positive relationships between pupils and staff, and between
pupils and pupils. This was a key area of staff Continuing
Professional Development (CPD) and was included in future staff
inductions.
Regular training was also given to
staff in practice throughout the year and coaching partnerships
offered development.
Outcomes
Following the programme, we developed
stronger behaviour standards. This was a result of consistently
re-enforcing the behaviour we wanted to see. Expectations were
high, communicated regularly and easy to understand. We ensured
this was progressed in a positive and supportive
environment.
We also reviewed and improved several
areas at our school to ensure everyone
benefitted:
-
CPD
-
induction and transition
processes
-
approach to pupil
leadership
-
deployment of
resources
-
access arrangements for pupils with
SEND
Although our journey with the
Behaviour Hubs programme has finished, our work in this area
hasn’t. We continue to put into practice what we learnt during
the programme and reflect on our initial vision - striving for
the best experience for our pupils.
