Better behaviour from Fife's primary school pupils
The behaviour of pupils in Fife's primary schools is showing "significant improvements" according to a new, wide-ranging survey of teachers and other staff.
- By Bruce Fegen
- Published in the Courier : 08.11.10
- Published online : 08.11.10 @ 02.32pm
Regular studies into school staff perceptions of behaviour and discipline, a joint exercise between education services and the trades unions, have been carried out since 2000 and are seen as a vital tool in dealing with the matter.
The latest work was the largest scale survey of its type in the UK, seeking feedback from all staff in the region's 143 primary schools, and the findings have now been brought together in a report which will go before the council's education and children's services committee on Thursday.
In his report, head of service Bryan Kirkaldy says that as previous surveys have revealed, the vast majority of pupils are well behaved.
High-level indiscipline is rare, with persistent low-level misbehaviour remaining the main source of concern.
He concludes that "the overall trend from 2005 is that primary school staff report significant improvements on all measures relating to pupil behaviour and schools' responses to pupil behaviour."
Mr Kirkaldy says that the surveys have "informed progressively" the strategy for behaviour and discipline in Fife.
"They have demonstrated a relationship between staff welfare and pupil behaviour. They have provided pointers to effective professional development and training.
"They have helped to identify features of schools that have achieved notable success in improving discipline, attainment and staff welfare through a whole school strategy.
"In particular, they have confirmed a relationship between effective schools, good relationships and behaviour," he said.
Indiscipline
The survey found that the number of primary teachers who find indiscipline to be more of a problem now than a year ago has remained fairly level since 2005.
However, conversely 63% disagree that behaviour is more of a problem now than a year ago.
Mr Kirkaldy points out that this a very significant increase of 22% from the last survey in 2007 and 26% from the 2005 study and stresses, "This indicates a marked positive change."
All primary school staff reported a big improvement in their capacity to deal effectively with challenging behaviour, accelerating the trend from 2005.
"This is a very significant finding, reflecting a strong trend of improvement and a very high level in the confidence of teachers in managing pupil behaviour across Fife primary schools," states the report's author.
Almost all staff now consider that their school gives a suitable degree of priority to the promotion of good behaviour and are aware of procedures for managing indiscipline.
More than 60% reported that information on patterns of pupil behaviour is made available for discussion, a major increase from the 2007 survey.
Mr Kirkaldy said, "This finding is very welcome, indicating greater use of intelligence-led practice based on mentoring what works for pupils in promoting and managing positive behaviour."
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