#OfstedSEFPlanner – Behaviour and Safety

This is one of a series of posts on producing an Ofsted Self Evaluation Form.  First of all, my disclaimer:

“I have no special insight beyond that gleaned from reading the School Inspection Handbook and Subsidiary Guidance.  This is not by way of a disclaimer, although maybe it should be, but it is also to invite others to add comments and suggestions to this work and help improve it for others.”

In evaluating Behaviour & Safety there are a number of different elements that need consideration:

• Attendance & Punctuality of students
• Behaviour for learning in class and general behaviour around the school in terms of disruption/inappropriate behaviour
• Learning behaviours in class linked to “a thirst for knowledge and a love of learning” which have a strong impact on progress
• How safe students feel particularly with respect to bullying and e-safety

Attendance & Punctuality of Students

This is about “impact not effort”.  Whilst this can be very frustrating for schools, particularly in challenging circumstances, who are quite literally doing everything they can, it is part of the increased demands of this framework.

Comparisons are made between the school’s data, taken from RAISE, and national averages – the median trend line for school’s FSM level doesn’t seem to get a look in.  Data from the last three year’s including on persistent absence is analysed including sub-groups.  The Subsidiary Guidance for 2013 gives a figure of 94.24% for primary schools and 92.61% for secondary schools as “consistently low” and anything below or approaching that should ring alarm bells (these are the figures below which a school would be in the bottom 10% of schools in terms of attendance).

Inspectors will be looking at whether any particular sub-group’s attendance – FSM Ever 6 (mostly your pupil premium students) and SEN in particular – is below national average and whether there is a link then to underachievement.  Important to cross reference sub-groups attendance, also behaviour in terms of exclusion data, with level of achievement in part one of your SEF.

Attendance data in RAISE is based on the first two terms and two and a half terms for special schools so may be different from any whole school data you hold.  During the inspection the team will want attendance data for the day and may look at the attendance so far that year compared to the same period the previous year.

Behaviour for Learning in Class and General Behaviour Around the School

This is all about preparing a positive climate for learning within the classroom and whether students behave appropriately and safely around the school at break, lunch and lesson change over.  The key data is again in RAISE and needs looking at both as a whole school and for sub-groups.  The data is a year behind in RAISE so inspectors won’t have access to the previous year’s exclusion data nor obviously the current year’s so you will need to include this in your analysis.  Over time I’ve looked at exclusions in various ways but these are the measures used by Ofsted.  The measures used mean that a lot of short term exclusions, a day or two, will produce a much higher figure for a school than fewer long term absences even though the total number of days of exclusion might be the same.  There doesn’t seem to be a test of “statistical significance” within RAISE so this might be worth looking at if your data is a bit higher than average.  This might be particularly so for permanent exclusions where one in an academic year would take you above the national average in a medium sized secondary school.

Exclusion Measure = (a/b) x 100

“High exclusion figures, and particularly for repeated exclusion of the same pupils, are not consistent with good behaviour … High exclusions, overall or of a particular group of pupils, are likely to indicate ineffective systems and structures to support pupils, including basic behaviour management to prevent low-level disruption.”

Ofsted Subsidiary Guidance

Whilst I have no particular angst or argument with the inference above, my concern is that, it is only one of a number of valid inferences that could be drawn from relatively high exclusion data.  What is your school’s response to a student hitting another student or swearing at a member of staff – exclusion in one school versus a detention in another?  If a school repeatedly exclude a student for unacceptable behaviour but kept going with them as opposed to another school that rather too quickly moved a difficult student on, should the former be penalised?  Whilst a balanced view from a lead inspector of one team may look at the nuances within the data another team may stick to the clear line taken in the Subsidiary Guidance.  It is best to be forewarned.

In addition to the data from RAISE inspectors will be looking for your analysis of rewards, detentions, on-call systems and internal exclusions.  They may also request data on students taken off role and reasons for them leaving.  I’ve included a “points lost per student” section as we, like many schools, use a points system to both log inappropriate behaviour and reward good alongside other aspects of a rewards programme.  It is useful to compare data for both Pupil Premium students and SEN against whole school data – is there a gap you need to close?

The inspectors will try to make a judgement on behaviour over time.  Staff, student & parent voice all play a strong part in coming to this decision so you need to include this supporting data in your SEF.

Learning Behaviours in Class

This is an element that often catches teachers, leaders and schools out.  What are the learning behaviours of your students in class like?  This is linked to their “thirst for knowledge and a love of learning” which has a strong impact on progress.  This judgement is taken across into the quality of teaching judgement.  If you look at the first couple of bullet points (note they are put first in the lists) in the outstanding and good descriptors for Behaviour & Safety below you can see that learning behaviours are differentiated from behaviour for learning and behaviour around school because they are different distinct elements.

Our school’s learning behaviours would be categorised under the 5Rs – Responsible, Resilient, Resourceful, Reasoning & Reflective learners but we are poor at collecting this data.  Inspectors will make this judgement as part of lesson observations and learning walks.  How would you describe the learning atmosphere in your classes – dynamic or passive?  Much has been said about inspectors not looking for a particular style of teaching, the descriptors mention independent, group and whole class work, but it is not too difficult to envisage:

• A teacher centric lesson being seen as passive and
• Recognising in group or independent work a student having to employ a greater range of different learning behaviours.

This is borne out in comments in a number of inspection reports around where they see outstanding teaching.

Schools and teachers need to think about including high quality collaborative work into the direct instruction framework and high quality challenge and clear direction into group and independent work irrespective of Ofsted.  These are a few of my favourite things that I will blog about another time.

How Safe Students Feel Particularly with Respect to Bullying and E-safety

Schools are expected to keep records of bullying incidents and their responses over time including adaptations to PSHE, additional training for staff and potentially changes to systems and processes,  Staff, parent and student voice in particular can be used to identify and address issues or evidence how safe students feel.

“This includes cyber-bullying and prejudice-based bullying related to special educational need, sexual orientation, sex, race, religion and belief, gender reassignment or disability.”

Ofsted Subsidiary Guidance

Spiritual, Moral, Social & Cultural

This section can be a rich source of data in so many ways for yourself, and inspectors, to gather evidence of the Spiritual, Moral, Social & Cultural development of the students.  You are far more able to gather data over time than an inspection team can in two days so make sure you highlight it in this section of the SEF.

Success Stories

As part of the gathering of data inspectors request a series of short written accounts about the successes of individual students who are a member of a sub-group.  Whilst these sit beyond the SEF it is important to have these ready.

Making Judgements

Taken from the School Inspection Handbook

Taken from The School Inspection Handbook

In coming to a decision it is helpful to justify to yourself, senior leaders, governors and staff, as objectively as possible:

• Why you have graded the school at a certain level?
• What would you need to do to secure this grading?
• Why is it not the grade above or below?

You Can Download Versions of the #Ofsted SEFPlanner – Behaviour & Safety below:

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Behaviour & Safety (Word Version)

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Behaviour & Safety (PDF Version)

Other posts in the #OfstedSEFPlanner series include:

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Achievement of Students

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Quality of Teaching

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Leadership & Management

If you are looking for more assistance on preparing for Ofsted the following might be useful:

#5MinOfstedPlan by @LeadingLearner and @TeacherToolkit (getting organised for Ofsted)

#5MinCallPlan by @LeadingLearner and @TeacherToolkit (getting organised once you have the call)

Pupil Premium Analyser and Tracker