Supporting students through behaviour improvement programmes

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How did schools and their staff benefit from working with other agencies?

Schools, teachers and learning support staff found it helpful to work with other professionals in a number of ways including:

helping them acquire skills and strategies for managing pupils with emotional/behavioural problems;
providing greater access to specialist support services;
increasing staff confidence in being able to tackle behaviour issues;
helping them gain a better understanding of emotional/behavioural difficulties;
raising the status of behaviour/pastoral issues within schools;
stimulating and supporting schools in changing their ethos, policies and practices to identify and tackle behavioural issues; and
freeing up staff time.

Behaviour professionals supported staff development through group interventions in school, modeling strategies in the classroom and/or direct training sessions. In the BIP training covered a number of areas including nurture groups, circle time, conflict resolution and teaching styles for specific needs e.g. Aspergers and ADHD, and anger management. Coaching was highly successful and valued by teachers and gave them confidence to admit to problems and to be open and reflective in finding solutions. NQTs particularly found the training helpful. The PBAP supported professional development through networking across schools, facilitated by lead teachers and LA behaviour professionals. By working together in clusters of schools teachers shared understandings and developed common approaches to tackling behaviour issues.

BEST practitioners regarded skill acquisition as most important; school staff regarded access to services as more important with BESTs acting as a resource for supporting students and, where the BEST was linking well to other agencies, for providing speedy access to other support. Many teachers had been aware that some children needed more support but they did not have the time, or the necessary skills to respond:

‘Teachers are being enabled to focus on teaching and learning with the range of support staff being able to look after very needy pupils.’
(Lead Behaviour Professional Secondary School)

In one LA a BEST family therapist helped Learning Mentors develop their own practice by providing them with theory, suggesting strategies and supporting them while they tried them out. In another LA a BEST Speech and Language Therapist trained learning support assistants (LSAs) to work with pupils, including training to assess language. The LSAs were able to work with students in between therapy visits, thereby creating another source of support.

Both the BIP and PBAP highlighted schools’ use of behaviour audits, to identify problems and help schools’ action plan to deal with them. The BPAP evaluation highlighted one LA in which a behaviour and attendance audit helped teachers reflect on what they were actually doing and the impact that might have on the children in their classrooms. This helped the school’s teacher coach and school leader create an action plan. In one school, over 100 staff and pupils were consulted. One part of the plan focused on professional development for teachers and governors. Other elements covered the way the school gave feedback, issues relating to communication within the school, relationships between teachers and children and the learning environment.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction How did the pupils benefit? How did schools and their staff benefit from working with other agencies? What impact did behaviour improvement programmes have on parents, families and the community? How did the location and structure of BESTs affect their work? How did behaviour improvement programmes support schools, students and parents? How was the evidence collected? What are the implications for practice? Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To find out more about collated digests click here Get Word Reader Supporting students through behaviour improvement programmes This digest found in Behaviour Send to a friend Word doc 90KB Printer friendly Collate for later How did schools and their staff benefit from working with other agencies? Schools, teachers and learning support staff found it helpful to work with other professionals in a number of ways including: helping them acquire skills and strategies for managing pupils with emotional/behavioural problems; providing greater access to specialist support services; increasing staff confidence in being able to tackle behaviour issues; helping them gain a better understanding of emotional/behavioural difficulties; raising the status of behaviour/pastoral issues within schools; stimulating and supporting schools in changing their ethos, policies and practices to identify and tackle behavioural issues; and freeing up staff time. Behaviour professionals supported staff development through group interventions in school, modeling strategies in the classroom and/or direct training sessions. In the BIP training covered a number of areas including nurture groups, circle time, conflict resolution and teaching styles for specific needs e.g. Aspergers and ADHD, and anger management. Coaching was highly successful and valued by teachers and gave them confidence to admit to problems and to be open and reflective in finding solutions. NQTs particularly found the training helpful. The PBAP supported professional development through networking across schools, facilitated by lead teachers and LA behaviour professionals. By working together in clusters of schools teachers shared understandings and developed common approaches to tackling behaviour issues. BEST practitioners regarded skill acquisition as most important; school staff regarded access to services as more important with BESTs acting as a resource for supporting students and, where the BEST was linking well to other agencies, for providing speedy access to other support. Many teachers had been aware that some children needed more support but they did not have the time, or the necessary skills to respond: ‘Teachers are being enabled to focus on teaching and learning with the range of support staff being able to look after very needy pupils.’ (Lead Behaviour Professional Secondary School) In one LA a BEST family therapist helped Learning Mentors develop their own practice by providing them with theory, suggesting strategies and supporting them while they tried them out. In another LA a BEST Speech and Language Therapist trained learning support assistants (LSAs) to work with pupils, including training to assess language. The LSAs were able to work with students in between therapy visits, thereby creating another source of support. Both the BIP and PBAP highlighted schools’ use of behaviour audits, to identify problems and help schools’ action plan to deal with them. The BPAP evaluation highlighted one LA in which a behaviour and attendance audit helped teachers reflect on what they were actually doing and the impact that might have on the children in their classrooms. This helped the school’s teacher coach and school leader create an action plan. In one school, over 100 staff and pupils were consulted. One part of the plan focused on professional development for teachers and governors. Other elements covered the way the school gave feedback, issues relating to communication within the school, relationships between teachers and children and the learning environment.