The Question of Behaviour - Reloaded.

Our behaviour policy reflects our Christian values of friendship, trust, compassion, forgiveness, community and respect. We have worked incredibly hard to ensure that expectations are explicit and modeled at all levels of leadership and by the whole school community.

When the new senior leadership team started in April 2017, it was very clear that there were huge inconsistencies and misunderstandings of the fundamental expectations set out in the policy. This was at no fault of previous leadership, but a high staff turnover, pupil mobility and low parental engagement meant it was difficult to obtain stability in expectations. Therefore, the behaviour policy was rewritten and step-by-step guidance was set out in staff meetings, to diminish any ambiguity.

The policy was sent out to parents along with a home-school agreement, with a request that it be shared with their children and a consent form signed, to support any decisions the school would make in regard to behaviour management. This clarified the school’s standpoint and ensured that all parties were clear on the steps we would take to maintain the school as a calm, purposeful and nice place to learn, for staff and pupils alike.

We currently use a very simple ‘traffic light’ system of red, amber and green, alongside hand signals as non-verbal cues to support all our pupils, including SEN pupils. Our expectations in behaviour are the same for all pupils, and those that need support are given the tools, resources or strategies to support this. It was important from the get-go that we would maintain high standards for all children, not lowering them for identified groups. This has served us well in ensuring that fairness and consistency is the norm.

We introduced a system called ‘FUEL’ in response to low-level disruption across classrooms and a lack of engagement and responses from children when asked questions. We chose this to fit in with the schools context and locality. This stands for:

F - Face the speaker

U - Understand

E - Engage and respond

L - Listen carefully

Our FUEL poster is visible across the school, in classrooms, hallways and meeting rooms. At the beginning of each of the six terms per year, the behaviour policy and the FUEL system are revisited to ensure that we are explicit in our expectations at all times. Additionally, staff carry the policy with them at these times, reminding children if needed. The children will be asked if they have their ‘Learning FUEL’ if they need a quick reminder of the expectations.

Higher level incidents are dealt with swiftly and in the same way every time. Parents are called in immediately for a meeting with a member of SLT, the family liaison officer and the class teacher. The pupils are placed in isolation with appropriate work to ensure that their learning is not affected.
This process has reduced the number of serious incidents hugely in a relatively short space of time. Year-on-year comparisons show that high-level incidents have decreased by 95% according to our safeguarding and behaviour reporting system. High level incidents are now rare.

Exclusions of any type are probably the hardest part of running a school. I’m yet to meet a leader who finds this decision easy to make. But working in a dual role of Head of School and SENCo, I have to make decisions based both on the individual pupil level and the effect on the school community as a whole.

Fixed-term exclusions are a last resort and we follow a really robust reintegration process, supported by the local authority’s Attendance and Inclusion Office.

Our main driver for school improvement with regard to behaviour is positivity and positive reinforcement. However, there was a tendency initially for staff to reward children every time they did what was expected.

Short-term, this had a good impact, but now the children are seeing the benefit of expected behaviour, it has become an intrinsic reward. The children know that there are long- and short-term benefits to good behaviour and we use lots of role modelling to reinforce this throughout the school.

Children need to be ‘consistently green’ in the traffic light system in order to join an end-of-term celebration with their classmates, and we use a weekly assembly to celebrate those short-term achievements with a certificate. This ensures that everyone has an opportunity to achieve success and this has been a catalyst for change.

Using a weekly meeting between the SLT and ‘always green’ children, has also been an opportunity to empower those children that are role models for attitude and behaviour. The children are invited to share a drink, their work and what they think is working well or could be improved across the school.
The overarching goals for the school are that we can go about our day in a calm, purposeful and positive way. Everyone benefits and everyone can now see the school is a very different place compared to two years ago.

Feedback from our recent staff well-being survey suggests that they are more confident that they can teach free from disruption, and pupil feedback suggests that the children feel safe and secure to learn.
We are very firm with our expectations and our pastoral team work incredibly hard to ensure that this is done in a warm, nurturing and inclusive way. Our wrap-around care for families has been vital in ensuring that the children come into school ready to learn. The family liaison officer works tirelessly with our harder-to-reach families and we will provide any support necessary to make school a safe and supportive place to come to.

The new behaviour system had a hugely positive impact on the majority of pupils, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds and with SEN.

As a SENCo, I’ve had to really think about how we ensure our SEN pupils are supported in both strategies and interventions to reach their full potential. Previously, SEN students were taught outside of the classroom by untrained staff, with little-to-no interaction with their own class teacher. Not only was this upsetting, but also denied children access to quality-first teaching and went against the code of conduct for SEN pupils.

My Exec Head was been integral to the culture shift in regard to behaviour. I think I have been incredibly lucky that the SLT have had the same approach, moral outlook and a pupil-centred approach to the school improvement. There has been an amazing balance of allowing me to put structures and routines in place, and feel completely supported by those who have the final say and accountability.

The decision was made (pretty rapidly!) that no interventions would take place during core subjects and no children would be taught outside the classroom. The expectation on all our pupils is the same, regardless of need. All staff attend our pupil progress meetings and devise strategies and support to ensure that, while making reasonable adjustments, all pupils are free from distraction and capable of being taught in an inclusive environment. We also encourage our staff to choose their own appraisal targets, which means the CPD they receive is of interest to them and the most qualified person can deliver the most up to date interventions. We have an HLTA who is our ASD champion and we currently have one member of staff going through CPD to become a mental health champion. All our staff have had phonics training (From EYFS to Year 6) which has given everyone a really good idea of those vital early stages of reading and the ability to support our older children, if required.

The parents are now fully informed of the purpose behind our behaviour policy, the consistent strategies and consequences we use. They previously would not engage with the school staff or approach staff to talk through any enquiries or provide feedback, whether positive or negative.
When realigning our expectations we asked for parent feedback, making it clear that we were not asking for their voice as a box-ticking exercise, but genuinely wanted their views and feed this into our changing ethos. This was achieved by informal discussions, forming a Parents and Friends Association, and changing the way parents’ evenings were conducted. They now use the format of ‘collaborative conversations’, in which the parents are asked three questions:

• What are your child’s strengths?
• What are your child’s weaknesses?
• What would you like your child to achieve?

This gives us a really clear indication of parental aspirations and builds stronger relationships between the teacher and the family, which empowers us to have more robust conversations about behaviour, if needed, in the future.


Update

We recently updated our school rules and changed them to 'expectations,' partly to remove the negative connotations related to undesirable behaviours and focus shifts to positive aspects that the staff expect.

To respect yourselves, others and the environment 
Using our school values of friendship and compassion - making sure you are looking after others and the school - keeping it tidy and helping each other to make good choices. Respecting themselves to make good choices and help each other to learn. 

To champion an inclusive learning environment
Using the school values of community & respect - That everyone has a right to learn free from disruption - that we all learn differently and some people need more help than others, but we all learn together and help each other to do our best. 

To listen, engage and follow instructions
Using the school values of Trust - We trust each other to have high expectations of each other, when working and playing. 
FUEL 
Face the speaker
Understand
Engage and respond
Listen carefully

To take pride in your own learning
Using our school value of forgiveness - we forgive ourselves when we want to give up, we forgive each other when we need encouragement to carry on. 

​Through hard work, NED Never give up, Encourage others, Do your best. 
Taking pride in your books, in your learning and in what work you produce. 

When we updated the Positive Behaviour Policy we again, attached the home-school agreement to a letter that we sent out to all families. A consent form where they needed to confirm that they had read, understood and shared the policy with their children. We ensured that everyone signed up – taking the time to chase up families who hadn’t got around to returning slips. The relentlessness of communication and setting out the expectations again and again has been really important in the pursuit of not only outstanding behaviour, but for the safety and welfare of all our pupils and staff. A warm/strict approach has been welcomed by our families. Through  clear boundaries, support through transitions and excellent learning procedures, the children feel safe, secure and valued as part of the community.

By having a really clear behaviour policy (and a strategies guide for teachers alongside) it also makes it easy for staff to see when they are following it and when they are not – and as a result we now have less confusion and clearer accountability too.

As a result of the growing reputation of the school, we are in the happy position whereby children are now joining us all year around. This presents a challenge, as it is one thing starting the school year with assemblies, etc. to remind everyone of how we do things, but now we have new pupils regularly, and they need to be inducted into how we do things.

We’ve done two main things to address this. All classes get an in-depth reminder of everything at the start of every half term – which is never a bad thing anyway – but also, the families of all new starters in-between receive and are talked through the key documents so that parents and their children can start on day one knowing how we operate.

Onboarding our pupils so they can make a smooth transition into the school is so important for both them and their classmates and teachers. It really is making a difference – and not just for the new pupils. The children in the class they’re joining benefit as it makes for less disruption.

I knew that in order to make a success of the higher expectations of everyone I needed to be able to take families with me. And the timing of the change was key. I had to have built good enough relationships with the community, and given everyone enough time to absorb what we were going to do, that when we made the change they would support it.

Feel-good hit of the summer

Education can a minefield or a roller coaster, or in a worst-case scenario, a roller coaster surrounded by a minefield. At times, it can feel like you've made a huge mistake and should have just worked in a safer, more predictable career. But educators are a special sort of human. They don't want money (clearly!), they don't want loads of spare time (ever) and they don't particularly need praise (no news is good news, right?). So what happens when the unpredictable happens and you have NO idea what to do? What happens when you map out the day in your head and everything goes a bit wonky? What happens when that bad day, becomes a bad week, a bad term and you're considering running away with the circus? 

Anything from a Monday morning internet/printer/kettle explosion, a pupil who projectile vomits in your book corner in the middle of an inspection (yeah, it happened), a really tough class that you can't build a relationship with or a toxic colleague, who hides their horns and everyone seems to adore decides to make life uncomfortable?  

From someone that is a terrible worrier, over-analyser or a forever optimist… hopefully you'll find something useful. This isn't a fix-all, the debate and actions taken recently around wellbeing should still be high on the agenda. But what practical steps can you take, to support and control your own day? 

Find your personal and professional 'one'

You need someone out of your school, but in the same profession (retired and wise, or new and passionate helps) that you can talk to. Share your day with them, explain the good and the bad. Talk it through, they'll either laugh and say, ‘Yep, that's happened to me’ or listen and lend an empathetic ear. Sometimes talking outside of school gives a fresh perspective and allows you time to reflect that possibly something really small, has been magnified into a huge deal. Tiredness and stress play a huge part in this; be aware of how you feel, physically and mentally.

This is where your person outside of the profession can come into play. Find someone that knows you, really knows you. The one who can see when you're not right. The one who can see triggers that mean you need a break, or a gin, or a mahoosive bar of chocolate, or even… a run. But, you need to listen to them, they're saying it for a reason and your ‘I'm alright!’ act can only last for so long. 

Reach out to the most relaxed colleague

There is always one. 'The great unflappable'. This could be someone working in your office, in the kitchen, the Site Manager. Find them. Tell them your woes. Immediate relief. Guaranteed. Watch how they work, how they interact with others, how they remain calm in a crisis. Learn from them. 

You can't do it all and the list will never end

Someone once asked me to write down everything I did. I had a massive overwhelming surge of stress. The list started and I couldn't stop. It doesn't stop. Ever. The job is evolving, the expectations change, the DFE, OFSTED, the government will ensure that we are never done. But we can say no. The children are in school? They are being taught? You got a decent nights sleep? You feel prepared for the day? Enough. If you need to take it day by day until you're feeling better. Do it. Slowly increase to a few days at a time? Better. Tell your line manager, Tell your colleagues. Make it clear the reason behind it. 

Don't be afraid to talk 

Just say it. Honestly. Just speak. Holding negativity, stress, annoyance does awful things to you. It screws your face up. It gives you a stomach ache, it keeps you awake, it can make you really grumpy with people that are nice. Is it really worth it? 

No. 

I have learnt to be less blunt. Admittedly, I've been known to just speak without thinking. But, nothing truly awful has happened when I've said what I'm thinking. Yet. 

Ask for regular support

Anyone working with children, parents, people in general, carry all sorts with them. The highs, the lows, other people's problems, unanswered questions,  If it all gets overwhelming, ask for regular support. This could be through coaching, supervision, regular meet ups with your line manager or finding a colleague that you trust. 

Tip - Put a date in the diary! Don't just agree and then not do it. Plot out 3-4 weeks of meeting time that you can do and stick to it. Don't think your own well-being isn't a priority. You can't teach, support, or inspire others if you're not well. 

Laugh - Cry - Laugh

A child once projectile-vomited during an inspection; it was bloody awful at the time. I didn't quite know whether to remove the class, the child, or the precious books. The inspector didn't know where to look, while the kids jumped up in horror. Looking back – it took a good few months – I laughed. It got sorted, life didn't stop, and worse things have happened. It gives another great round the dinner tale to tell, or a way to appease a panicking NQT! 

If you need to cry, whether it’s on your own, with someone, or over a large gin and tonic – do it. To quote the great R.E.M., everybody hurts. 

Just remember to laugh as well. We have the BEST job in the world. 

Be brave and walk away 

If something really isn't working well, and it's been going on for months. It doesn't give you the enjoyment it used to, or you're feeling worse and worse, run out of positives, run out of motivation. You've talked to people, you've got support, you've tried different ways to work through it. 

Walk away.

Find the greener grass, find the place you belong, find the people that appreciate you, find your happiness again. 

We have one shot at this. Make it a happy one. 

Your mental health is precious.

This is just some practical advice. This is not a fix-all. Mental health is important, if you are feeling lost, here are some other contact details: 

Anxiety UK

Charity providing support if you've been diagnosed with an anxiety condition.

Phone: 03444 775 774 (Mon to Fri, 9.30am to 5.30pm)

Website: www.anxietyuk.org.uk

CALM

CALM is the Campaign Against Living Miserably, for men aged 15 to 35.

Phone: 0800 58 58 58 (daily, 5pm to midnight)

Website: www.thecalmzone.net

Men's Health Forum

24/7 stress support for men by text, chat and email.

Website: www.menshealthforum.org.uk

Mental Health Foundation

Provides information and support for anyone with mental health problems or learning disabilities.

Website: www.mentalhealth.org.uk

Mind

Promotes the views and needs of people with mental health problems.

Phone: 0300 123 3393 (Mon to Fri, 9am to 6pm)

Website: www.mind.org.uk

No Panic

Voluntary charity offering support for sufferers of panic attacks and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Offers a course to help overcome your phobia/OCD. Includes a helpline.

Phone: 0844 967 4848 (daily, 10am to 10pm)

Website: www.nopanic.org.uk

Bringing your vision into focus

We really needed to take our time to create our vision statement. It was difficult to even think about getting to the end of the week without being unscathed, let alone a long-term vision for the school, pupils and community. To obtain a baseline of what people knew about the school values and vision, I started asking people (genius idea, i know!). There really wasn't a clear understanding of the vision for the school, but the values were quite prominent around the school.

The words 'Kindness, Trust, Compassion and Forgiveness' adorn the assembly hall walls, in 2ft high letters; although they were very visual, there was no deeper understanding of them within the community, and before I turned into John Cleese in 'The Life of Brian', I thought we'd better start working on something sharpish. The children had been told the Bible passages that formed them, yet struggled to demonstrate the values as they went about their day. When everything needed a focus in terms of school improvement, we used these as a starting point in collective worship, and still regularly re-visit the values, ensuring they underpin our purpose, practice and improvement.

Phase 1

I decided that the first step would be to get a ‘voice’ from our community about what they considered important about school and their own experiences.

We created this display in a location with the highest footfall of a range of people: parents, staff, pupils (on their way to and from Forest School) governors, visitors and clergy. It was designed to be changed regularly and kept up for the academic year 2016/17.
The display itself was a working wall with peg lines and the questions were changed regularly (every short term), as below:

The questions were pretty broad, such as:

'What experience do you remember from school the most?'
'Who was your most memorable teacher and why?'
'Which value is most important to you and why?'
'What lesson did you enjoy the most?'
'What did you learn from school that is still important now?

The first few questions were pretty easy to answer because I wanted the community to feel confident in answering and use the board regularly. They grew progressively more challenging to answer, so that they may have needed to go away and reflect/consider, before returning to answer. I wasn't going to be the only one to consider what makes a school great and set a vision that didn't have buy-in from everyone!

I also asked the mighty Twitter about how they created vision and values within their settings. I got an abundance of support, ideas, strategies and want to thank - @kitandrew1 @pdcornish76 @lindylouielou @_missieBee @blondebonce @mr_bmh1


Phase 2

Once the school felt a little less chaotic, the daily firefighting had started to plume smoke rather than the onslaught of back draft, I felt ready to ask visitors to give a sense of how they viewed the school. I always feel that fresh eyes allows you to have open and honest dialogue and people tend to pick out the good things to build on rather than all the negatives that keep you awake at night. When you’re living and breathing school improvement, it’s difficult to see cultural shifts or areas that needed immediate attention. We invited Liz Pettersen, a trust improvement partner, to visit and support our work within the SIAMS framework and SEF.

She looked at the SIAMS framework, took a tour, chatted to pupils and staff. Alongside giving us recommendations to improve further (always welcome and useful), she said, ‘You are clearly living your vision, you just need to name it.’

This was a real turning point. Suddenly, I realised that we had been heading towards something good, but had been so busy, we hadn't noticed. The school was calm, the children were being given wider opportunities (Forest school, more trips, visits to the church, learning to play musical instruments and working with the Royal Shakespeare company). I knew that the children needed these things, but the experiences themselves, were not the vision, the outcomes were.  The children were gaining confidence in new experiences, they were embracing challenges, taking risks and becoming more articulate.  By the staff pulling together, along with parents and stakeholders, the community was becoming more cohesive and we were inadvertently role modelling this respect and teamwork to the children.

Phase 3

We were getting a sense of the 'How' and the 'Why' being a Church of England school meant that our values and vision statement worked hand in hand with the guidance from The Church of England evaluation Schedule. It uses 7 useful strands to consider when creating the vision.
The full document is really useful in giving clear guidance and is something which we used when starting discussions and ensuring that the shift was towards 'leadership at all levels'. By actively seeking feedback, experiences and opinions to feed in to the vision and values work, it supported the work towards it in a non-threatening and natural way.

So, we helpfully had a criteria to work with that cut down the vastness of decisions. The values of the school: Kindness, Compassion, Forgiveness and Trust has always been a steadfast feature throughout the school turnaround. However bleak things got, the staff, parents and families always returned to these 4 values, almost like a haven. We used the values to set out expectations and we talked about them when behaviour issues cropped up. I was reluctant to change them, but knew that they had possibly run their course and needed refreshing. I decided to create a short questionnaire to ask parents their opinion and asked them which of the 15 values were most important to them. The results (with 35/45 families responding) said the 4 already established ones, plus 'community' and 'respect'.

After some discussion with our School Reverend, Chris and my boss, the decision was that we would keep our 4 values and add the other 2. This meant that we would have 6 values and could focus on 1 per term.

Phase 4

The next step was just gathering a snapshot of the schools strengths. I asked teachers and pupils to give 3 words to describe the school. The teachers were asked to describe the school in approximately 30 words.

The school Ambassadors came together and created a drawing of the school and everything we had to offer. Using these drawings, I cajoled one of the fathers, who happens to be an amazing children's illustrator, to use the original ideas and drawings to create a 'Brenzett Portrait'. We talked around using the tagline 'Journey to success', but this didn't feel 'big' enough for what we were trying to achieve. I was still unsure as to what 'success' would look like!


Phase 5

Pulling it all together. 

By this point, I had gathered viewpoints, opinions, ideas, thoughts, pictures and voices from everyone. We assumed that the hardest bit would be writing the vision statement, but actually, it came to us really easily and my Exec head found the words that we needed to encompass all that we do...

'Life in Abundance' 

John 10:10  New international version (NIV.) 

 'The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.'

This is exactly what we had been doing,and continue to do so;  giving our children a wide and varied education, while sticking to the fundamentals (reading, writing and maths) to ensure that once they left us, they could continue to embrace life and all is has to offer to the full.

The Vision statement .

'At Brenzett Church of England Primary School, we provide children with a purposeful, rich and holistic environment that puts community and family at its heart. We believe that children should be the aspirational champions of their own unique success, by providing them with life in abundance in the eyes of God.'

Some useful editing and a few adjustments (thanks Steve!) and our Brenzett backdrop was completed too...

Next Steps

We've kept our values and Bible stories pretty simply displayed. We asked our ambassadors to create hand gestures to accompany them (in photos above) but we would now like to develop our worship leaders in running collective worship and having a more prominent role within the school.

Creating 'Champions' within the school as part of our celebration sessions on a Friday. Champions would demonstrate part of our vision or values within the week, selected by other pupils in the school.

Continue to use our vision to promote the school to a wider audience.

How SEN friendly schools can benefit everyone

Working in a dual role as SENDCo and Head of School has always been interesting. Alongside changing a culture and ethos for the whole school community, my heart will always belong to empowering and supporting the SEN pupils within my care. Previously, it had been felt that these children were more of a hindrance than a fundamental need within a school community, and on arrival at my current school, all SEN children, particularly those with highly disruptive behavioral needs, were being taught separately in a room, by a (very patient and talented) teaching assistant.

Not only was this heartbreaking, but it angered me, somewhat. How on earth were we supposed to be a community school, whilst permitting this total exclusion of our most vulnerable pupils? Despite a mountainous job ahead, getting this group of pupils back into class was an urgent priority.

Alongside a really robust, consistent and simple behaviour policy, we made the decision that all children would be in class for all core subjects, no-one would be taught in the corridors, in other classrooms on their own, and no interventions would take place in the mornings. I strongly believe that all children are entitled to be taught by the most qualified person, in their classroom, with their peers. The school does not lower it's expectations, but gives pupils the tools, strategies and resources to allow them to flourish alongside their classmates.

One thing the school has worked incredibly hard at, over the last three years is being fully inclusive, particularly of children with ASC (Autistic Spectrum condition), PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) and attachment conditions. We have found that by making some simple changes across the whole school, and ensuring that all our staff are using the same techniques and strategies, it has led to a much calmer, lower arousal and nurturing environment. In such a small school, this is obviously much easier to achieve, but I hope that some of the ideas and strategies would be useful in any size or age range setting.

The first thing we really looked at was CPD opportunities for all staff. We don't have any money, so I had to really think of a way to get decent training, at a low cost, but of the highest quality. Due to our small school and beautifully spacious building, I decided to offer up a room to the local authority 'Specialist Teaching and Learning Services', so that they could have a satellite Nurture Provision. This meant that the local schools  could benefit from accessing support for their pupils and I could tap into some CPD as apposed to renting the space. This really ensured that the quality, time and support was all in the right places, and didn't cost the school a fortune.

ASC Champion 
This year, we were really lucky to be able to send one of our support staff to ASC training. This is comprised of seven sessions over a year-long course, which upskills one member of staff in order to cascade knowledge to the staff team and ensure we are doing everything we can to make school a better place for not only our ASC pupils, but the whole community. This person becomes and advocate and 'champion' for this identified group of pupils.

Non-verbal cues
We use lots of non-verbal cues within the school, for all children. The first is in the lower years, so children are reminded of certain items, reminders, or what/where things can be found around the classroom. This builds independence and routines from day one.

The 'have another go' card (I'll come up with a snappier title one day!)
All staff have this card on their lanyard. In order to cut down on the verbal exchanges, particular with our ASC children, the card can be held up so that children can 'have another go' at requesting or suggesting something in a better way. This means the adult has the opportunity to model full sentences, ask in a better way or ask for clearer information. This is used on all children, but particularly supports those with low literacy skills, auditory processing condition, ASC and PDA.

Visual timetables
All classes have a visual timetable. There is a great piece by Lynn McCann about the importance of them. They are pretty much the same throughout the school, changing in age appropriateness from KS1 to KS2,  but familiar enough for children year on year. Reception and KS1 create their day, every morning. explaining who is teaching them, where they will be located and what time things will happen. Any changes, absence or differences to the day are communicated to the pupils as soon as possible. This allows our SEN children time to adjust, ask questions or share anxieties with a familiar adult, they can support children with auditory processing to reduce the language load, aid memory recall and support movement across the school during the day: moving from studio, ICT suite, playground, etc. Transitions are communicated to pupils throughout the day in the same way.

The staff will explain:

• Where they are going ('We are going in to collective worship')
• How they are going to go ('We are going to line up in our places')
• What they are going to do ('We are going to be singing today, because it is Wednesday)
• How they will conduct themselves ('We are going to walk quietly to the hall, and then sit in our rows, ready for Mr. _____ to begin')

This means, there are no surprises, the expectations is set and keeps everyone calm and relaxed.

Break and lunchtimes

We know that unstructured time is always difficult for children, particularly those with anxiety or social communication difficulties. We recently changed our lunchtimes to reflect this and offer activities throughout this time, so that although the feeling of 'child initiated' is still there, but it gives enough structure to keep arousal and anxiety lower. We did this by offering multi skills activities run by a sports coach, scrap play (an area which is timetabled for each year group to enjoy on their own, building dens, making swings, team games etc.), football or an adult-led game, like skipping or tag.



Sensory boxes
Each class has a sensory box. This contains a range of sensory items that can be used by SEN children, if or when needed. All children know what it's for, how to use the items and how they may use them to reduce anxiety. Each box is the same in each class, and training for all staff has been given by our great ASC Champion, Julia (HLTA). The children do not access these freely, but adults will decide if necessary and part of an individual plan.

Social Stories
Julia also gave some training to our fantastic team of support staff on the use of social stories. A Social Story is a short story that describes social relevant cues in any given situation. It breaks down a social situation into understandable steps and by being highly-descriptive to help an individual with an ASC understand the entirety of a situation. We use this in very specific areas for pupils, when required.

Implied compliance / Reducing choices
This is a really great strategy for our PDA/ODD children. By changing the language from 'Do this...' to 'Could you, would you, thank you for, we are going to..' it cuts down the direct instruction and gives rise to implied compliance. An expectation that things will be done, not a demand. This works well for all children, and the whole staff understand the theory behind it, thanks to our great Educational Psychologist, Chris Clarke.

From Reception, in order to broaden vocabulary - we all ensure we are reducing choice - simple things like 'What fruit would you like?' is changed to 'Would you like an apple or an orange?' - This is not only opening up the vocabulary but is given two choices, rather than an 'unknown' - We have found that this keeps anxiety low and as children move up through the school, the options may increase, or decrease, depending on subject, need or age.


Behaviour strategies
Our behaviour policy applies to all children. In order to meet this, some children are given a bespoke behaviour plan - this means that they can access other resources or key workers to ensure that they stay on track. Some of these might be - traffic light indicators to go home, emotional check ins at set times, or non-verbal cue-cards that all staff have on their lanyards.

We also have a blanket routines when any sanctions are put in place. This means that ALL children are given their first warning in exactly the same way, every time.

• Say child's name
• Hand up as stop signal
• Child's name again
• This is your first warning for...'very clearly stating what the pupil has done'             


This mixes verbal and non-verbal cues so it is accessible to all pupils and has decreased low level disruption to a minimum.

When the team started, there was a real lack of basic communication norms. Eye contact, active listening, responding to questions and not asking for help. I think this was the thing that concerned us the most, and having small classes meant that engagement and passivity was accepted as the norm. In order to raise the expectations and ensure that we could empower children to speak up if they didn't understand or needed further support, we also introduced FUEL, this is used and refereed to in all classes. Again, a really simple idea, introduced in one of the first assemblies and practiced until it became the norm. It is revisited at the beginning of every term and has worked really well.

Routines of the day

All children are greeted at the day by the teacher (no high fives or hugs... bah humbug! )
We don't use alarms or bells to indicate ends of lessons, lunchtimes or breaks, to ensure there is no stress added to children who cannot cope with timed activities and to avoid anxiety between transitions. But, we do use a whistle at break. First whistle to indicate 'freeze', adults then give children time to move on to the playground (if in scrap play, trim trail or on the grass) the second whistle indicates that children walk to their place in the line.

In most classes, children line up in a specific order, everyday. This reduces line up time, any disagreements between children and keeps routines the same, everyday.

When a child needs more

All our SEN children will have their own APDR (assess, plan, do, review) sheet. I devised a version specifically for our school, which is easily understood and used collectively by staff. These are updated at the end of a specific intervention or at the termly pupil progress meetings. This will feed into an EHCP assessment if deemed necessary further down the line.

Reflections

This is not perfect. There is still loads to be done, and of course, mistakes are made, and I and the team, learn from them. Sometimes changes are out of our control, and something or someone will change and we have to rethink why or how we are doing things. As a staff team, we are always sharing what is working and what isn't, there needs to be a constant drip feed of expectations and being open when routines or consistency slips. I'm lucky that my team are super effective and open minded in taking risks and being open to change, but ultimately, our children are calmer, anxiety is lowered and the community is a happier place to work and learn.

Next steps...

Thinking about how we use displays and visuals across the school...

Sharing our knowledge and strategies with the wider community, including families...

Continued work with secondary transition...



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All the world's a stage

What have I done? What on Earth made me think this was a good idea?

With our lovely Family Liaison Officer, Rebecca, at the wheel, we approached a brightly-lit building which seemed to tower over Canterbury. I had a wave of nausea and had to open the window. 

Rewind a year. One of my Governors made a passing comment that there was an associate schools programme with the Royal Shakespeare Company and The Marlow Theatre, and maybe this would benefit our pupils.

The idea of this totally threw me. I was busy working with the staff to build a school from the ground up. Looking closely at the fundamentals, the things that really ‘counted’ - reading, writing and maths - as well as ensuring that we had a robust behaviour policy, while trying to firefight the school's damned reputation and attempting to retain the families that were leaving in droves. Shakespeare really was at the bottom of the list.

But the Governor persisted. It would be a great experience. It would really raise aspirations and give the children an amazing experience, so why wouldn’t I want to do it?

And to be honest, I was reluctant for many reasons. I don’t ever want these children to feel they were being set up to fail; they had been failed on so many levels already. I wanted to play safe, secure and within my comfort zone and thought that this was the ‘right’ thing to do. Then I started looking at the wider curriculum. Previously, it came out of a box - a set of ‘creative’ topic-based schemes of work. It was easy, activity-based and with the high turnover of staff, it really suited the needs of our school. But, goodness, it was rubbish. It had to change, and sharpish. (I’ll write something in more depth one day!)

But the arts had a big gaping hole and actually, growing up, it was one of the only things that ever brought me pleasure. Learning the piano, the cello and being part of a drama group was my saviour in some pretty dark times. If we could offer that to some of our children, then really, we should just take the plunge. I wasn’t from a privileged background, I was a latchkey kid with parents that wanted us to just ‘have a bash’ at stuff that they didn’t get the chance to. If we liked it, we carried on, and if we didn’t, we weren’t berated. Simple, really.

"These children would be great on the stage!" said Ellie, the Director Mentor for Romeo and Juliet, with utter glee. The class teacher glanced over and could see the fear on my face. The children, all amazing individuals, had never done anything like this and the panic washed over me again.  The pupils absolutely jumped at the chance, half having absolutely no idea who Shakespeare was, the other half just liked the fact they had been chosen for something ‘special’. 

…and there we were. 

I was hyperventilating in the car, swearing profusely and thinking that I was the worst Head of School in the world.

Later that evening, there they were, performing Romeo and Juliet, in front of 1000 people. 

Word perfect. Beautiful. Confident.  Making me the proudest person on the planet.

Never underestimate children. They will never let you down.

You raise the bar and they’ll be there, one step ahead, waiting for the next challenge.

It's good to talk...

Talking to a room full children is wonderful. No worrying, no nerves, no expectation to get everything right and people that will question and ponder and tell you you've written the wrong date, again.

Being in this job role has meant I've had some wonderful opportunities to talk a bit more. Collective Worship, Church services, NPQH courses and then the fabulous New Voices event last year.  I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity that New Voices gave me, a chance to share the experiences of working in a Special Measures school and the journey that had taken place so far. Aside from that, it was amazing to listen to other people share their career  highs and lows, ideas, knowledge and humorous anecdotes.  The varied and wide-ranging topics was staggering and there was a natural ease when conversing with people during and after the event, meeting people that shared their opinions, free from judgement or reprisal. Being in a pretty remote part of the circuit, it felt like a real moment to relish.

Fast forward to this year and I was privileged to be asked to speak at BrewED Wimbledon. I admit, I wasn't sure what I was going to talk about. I wasn't sure I had a story worth telling, but knowing that I had an opportunity to spend time with some people I really admired and respected and some that just made me grin, I was looking forward to it.  The great thing about BrewED events are that they are laid back. Nothing corporate, no-one trying to sell you something, no speaker rooms or hierarchy. There truly is room within education for everything and everyone, however and whenever they want to engage with it.

Despite the nerves, I was instantly put at ease by the smiling faces, some familiar and some not. A real mix of people was great, from many different sectors and all present for their own reasons. There was a feeling that people genuinely love their jobs - living and breathing opportunities to reflect and improve practice, or just to chat with a pint (or cuppa!) in an almost therapeutic way.
Twitter is great; it initially connects people in a unique way, sometimes harmoniously, often aggressively but always fleeting. The real richness is still in face-to-face connection. I think it's really important that we, as educators, are flying the flag for real, human connection, and BrewEd is one way that this is demonstrated beautifully.

Everyone who spoke had a deep connection with their topic, and that was made more personal with the message that nothing would be directly quoted on social media. This was really important for many of us, and allowed the speakers and audience to share, in more detail, and more emotion than they may have planned. One thing that really resonated was the common theme of improvement. How do we make things better? How do we move forward? How do we support our children more? It was comforting and reassuring that, despite being from all over the country, teaching or working with all ages and having differing agendas, views or insights... everything was underpinned by making things better for the young people in our care.

Thank you to all those people giving up their time to arrange, attend and speak at these events.

"We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep."  W.James.

School Improvement Plan

I've been asked to share our schools improvement plan and thoughts behind it.

When myself and the Exec Head took up our positions, we knew that we had a task ahead. I don't think we realised how much of a task it was going to be. But, one thing we had to re-work and refine over and over again, was our School Improvement Plan. When literally every aspect of the school needed work, it had to be not only a useful document that wouldn't just be shoved in a drawer, but it was vital that is was a working document, with buy in from the whole school community.

It started off as a huge, cumbersome document, and we quickly realised that it was overwhelming (mainly for me!) and in the first year, the agenda (which was supposed to be just Autumn Term) ended up lasting an entire year. I kept my own copy and scribbled, added notes, put in milestones and used it as an action plan for English, Maths and SEN provision (we didn't have anyone leading any of these areas at the time). I still have the copy, mainly for posterity purposes, but also as a reminder of how far we've come and an indicator of how we are embedding good practice, rather than establishing.

Since then, after lots of discussion, reflection and looking around at the ways other schools use their School Development Plans, we have all our objectives on a one page overview. We decided to enlarge this and put it on display in the entrance hall; one of our fab academy schools had done this and I liked the idea that we could share it with a wider audience. It also gave us some ownership and accountability. I wanted to demonstrate our commitment to improvement.

The parents, pupils, staff, visitors, stakeholders can see what we're doing, why we are doing it and how it's going. I ask that anyone who does CPD, has visitors, visits anywhere, anything to do with the wider curriculum is put on a Post-It note, with the impact and places it on the SIP Board so that we have a truly 'living' board - this is later added to the RAG rated SIP each term.

We use the OFSTED headings, mainly because it allows us to ensure nothing is forgotten in a holistic view of the school. Underneath this, we have our action plans - who, what, when. It means the entirety of the staff can take ownership of their bit to move the school forward and can see what else is being done, which bits dovetail, keeping an eye on deadlines, or areas that haven't yet been completed and what we are doing about it. It bases discussions around the impact that we are directly having on our pupils, and if the areas are still 'red' we discuss whether its relevant, useful or needs an extended deadline.

Each member of the team have a copy of the SIP. They use this to base their appraisal targets (We use Coaching into Appraisal) so all members can choose their own targets, based on our SIP, their own areas of interest or development which they want to pursue, which means that people aren't wasting their time on things already working, in place or doesn't keep the fire in their belly. Each member of staff is assigned a coach and have between 3-6 coaching sessions a year, to choose, implement, talk about, organise and action their targets, which has had a huge impact on the quantity, quality and collaborative working that has taken place across the school. I strongly believe that there is power in knowledge, and teamwork is a catalyst for positivity.

Last year's Post-It notes became a memory book of the impact we have as a collective group of people, who care deeply about the education and well-being of our children. We continued to use it as our action plan for core subjects, being a small school, i'm very aware that workload can become unmanageable if  I am expecting separate action plans for every subject, when some teachers (we only have four, one an NQT) are wearing multiple hats it just becomes paperwork for paperwork's sake, and no-one needs that!

There are still things I'd like to change. We recently had our SEF completed with an outside HMI inspector, who used the new OFSTED framework headings. I haven't yet pulled both documents together, to pinpoint more specific targets in our English and Maths and I'd like  governor objectives added to the SIP, as they are currently doing a lot to support the school's development, in terms of challenge and monitoring visits.

It's been great looking at the range of ways this is done in other schools, and some really useful documents shared to support this ongoing work.

Thank you :)