Labour review of behaviour in schools must not ‘eradicate’ progress, say head teachers

Headteachers have warned Labour that a review of behaviour in schools must not “eradicate” progress made under the former Tory government’s discipline crackdown.

Ministers are examining Conservative policies put in place to tackle pupil misconduct after suspensions and exclusions hit a record high, senior Labour sources told The Telegraph.

It marks the latest education policy being scrutinised by Sir Keir Starmer’s Government after the announcement last week that it will review the national curriculum and make it mandatory in all schools, including academies.

But headteachers warned that tampering with policies in place could result in “more chaotic schools”, with Katharine Birbalsingh, known as Britain’s strictest head, saying disadvantaged children would pay the price of any about-turns.

Ms Birbalsingh, whose London school was ranked best in the country for pupil progress last year, wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I was never a Conservative. But I knew that what the Conservative Party was doing for kids was right. We are all about to find out what Labour policies are going to do instead.

“If Labour do what they say they will do to schools, disadvantaged kids will pay the price. The politicians will feel good about themselves and all the gains that have helped poorer kids over the last decade will be eradicated.”

Tom Bennett, the Government’s behaviour tsar, said exclusions helped prevent chaos in schools and urged Labour not to “press the panic button”.

In an article for The Telegraph, he wrote: “Schools can’t perform miracles, and some extreme behaviours can’t be managed by patience alone. As a last resort, schools need to be able to suspend, or more rarely exclude when they have to. If they didn’t, then we see classrooms and schools in chaos, victims and aggressors forced to share the same space.”

Commenting on the record suspension and exclusion figures, published last week, he added: “There’s no need to look at this data and press the panic button, because exclusions, when used legally and at the end of a long process of support, are a sign of a system working, not one that’s broken.”

Mr Bennett has not yet been involved in any discussions with the Government over plans to tackle pupil behaviour since Labour took power.

The Tories introduced measures aimed at tackling pupil disruption including behaviour hubs, a flagship scheme supporting schools that struggle with poor discipline.

Gillian Keegan, the former education secretary, also pledged to ban mobile phones from schools in England, which she said would “help improve behaviour” in classrooms. Labour has yet to say whether it would uphold the plans.

The Government has also declined to commit to keeping new sex education guidance for schools drawn up by the Tories, which urged schools not to teach contested gender ideology.

But reports suggested the new Government would overhaul measures introduced by the Tories to deal with disruptive pupils in favour of a more “inclusive” approach to poor behaviour.

The Observer reported that ministers are said to be planning to stop schools from repeatedly suspending children with special educational needs who fail to meet strict behaviour rules. It added that behaviour hubs could also be stripped of funding. Isolation booths, designated areas to which children are sent to calm down, may be scaled back.

Senior Labour sources denied the claims and insisted suspensions and exclusions would continue to play a vital role in tackling school behaviour, although they failed to rule out scaling them back. They also denied that Labour would remove funding for behaviour hubs, but said the party would look at policies to tackle deteriorating pupil conduct.

‘Powers to make sure there’s good behaviour’

Mouhssin Ismail, the principal of the top-performing Newham Collegiate Sixth Form in London, warned the Government against tampering with the current system.

“Headteachers need to have the powers to make sure that there’s good behaviour in schools. And any attempt to dilute that, despite all of the good intentions that may have on the grounds of inclusion, just creates more chaotic schools,” he told The Telegraph.

“You end up having children who are poorly behaved remaining in classes under this misguided view that them staying there does them well. But what it does is it destroys the fabric of the school for the 29 other students and [prevents] the teacher from teaching.”

Mr Ismail warned that any attempt to roll back on work done to support schools in managing behaviour would “disproportionately impact schools serving disadvantaged communities”. He also urged Labour not to place any targets on suspensions or exclusions, warning that could have “unintended consequences” for schools.

“[If] there are signals from Ofsted or comments from Government around what they want to see, then headteachers [might] guess that if they have high level suspensions then that’s going to cause problems for their school, they might get downgraded,” he said.

Behaviour in schools has deteriorated since the pandemic, with official statistics showing pupils in England were temporarily removed from school 787,000 times in the 2022/23 academic year – a 36 per cent jump in a single year and the highest suspension rate since records began.

In total, 304,000 pupils were suspended at some point over the year, meaning a large group received multiple suspensions.

‘Could have a very damaging impact’

Department for Education (DfE) figures, published earlier this week, also showed a record number of permanent exclusions last year, with 9,400 children expelled from schools in England, up from 6,500 in the 2021/22 academic year.

Children with complex needs were more likely to face punishment than their peers, the department said. Pupils eligible for free school meals were four times more likely to be suspended and five times more likely to be expelled.

The DfE said persistent disruptive behaviour was the main driver of sanctions on pupils last year, accounting for almost half of all suspensions and 39 per cent of expulsions.

But teachers warned that keeping poorly-behaving pupils in school would make it hard to tackle problems and put additional pressure on an already stretched workforce.

Gavin Williamson, a former Tory education secretary, told The Telegraph: “Any sort of rowback on this could have a very damaging impact in terms of the real momentum that has been gained in the education attainment for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.”

Nat Nabarro, the head teacher of Blaise High School in Bristol, said it was a “bizarre” approach, and Labour should instead focus on fixing “all the things that are causing more challenging behaviour in schools”, writing on X: “Hint, these are 99 per cent external to schools.”

Matt Jones, the principal of Ark Globe Academy and chair of head teacher organisation The Elephant Group, said that, while supposedly cruel, “behaviour rules that lead to suspensions are related to safeguarding, bullying, sexism, racism or physical assaults”. He added: “No child or adult should be expected to tolerate any of the above.”

A DfE spokesman said: “For children to learn, there should be high expectations around behaviour, and schools should expect parents to back them.

“We are determined to get to grips with the causes of poor behaviour – including through access to specialist mental health professionals in every secondary school – and have no plans to abolish behaviour hubs. But there will always be a need for exclusion and expulsion as a last resort, and this Government backs head teachers to make those decisions.”

Children need love and boundaries. They need schools that can give them both

By Tom Bennett, Department of Education Behaviour Advisor

The recent stats on exclusions from school made a few headlines this week because they had risen to the highest levels in a decade. But this might not be such a problem after all.

Good behaviour is behind everything we want from schools - safety for children, dignity, calm learning environments, as well as improved staff recruitment, retention, and job satisfaction.

I’ve spent the last ten years visiting over 1000 schools, learning from their leaders and staff what the best of them do to build cultures where everyone flourishes as human beings as well as learners, and it always comes back to behaviour.

The things that unite them are relatively straightforward: lots of clearly taught routines, high expectations, clear boundaries, support for children who need extra help, and consequences for students to help them understand that what they do matters.

It’s an ancient blend, but often easy to get wrong. But they boil down to two things: kids need to know we have high expectations of them, and they need to know that they matter.

But schools can’t perform miracles, and some extreme behaviours can’t be managed by patience alone. As a last resort, schools need to be able to suspend, or more rarely exclude when they have to. If they didn’t, then we see classrooms and schools in chaos, victims and aggressors forced to share the same space.

You have to work in a challenging school to really know what that feels like. These strategies must always be a last resort, but they must be used. And they are rare. The average primary school excludes once every 15 years.

Nationally the rate of permanent exclusion is 0.11 per cent - a tiny fraction of the cohort. It’s up from last year, but only up from the pre-Covid era when it was 0.1 per cent. So, a tiny increase in real terms. And remember, students are only excluded for assaults on staff or one another, sexual harassment, knives, drugs, and chronically chaotic behaviour.

They’re not excluded for forgetting a pen. None of us could work in an environment where people acted like that, so how can we expect children to cope with it? Anti-exclusion campaigners often forget the hell we abandon children to when we fail to exclude them properly.

But why might numbers be up, even slightly? Every (and I mean every) school I have visited since lockdown has reported that behaviour has worsened, and this might indicate that vulnerable cohorts of kids in particular slid backwards in their habits because of time away from the socialising influence of a school.

There has also probably been an increase in the number of school heads who feel empowered to exclude when they have to, in order to keep their schools safe.

For many years, heads were discouraged from doing any exclusions, because it was seen as not caring enough about the children. But the reverse was true. It led to many schools suffering from chaos, and schools where the behaviour is bad are the least inclusive of all. And ironically, schools with high standards, support, and clear boundaries often have the lowest rates of exclusion, because children understand how to be successful there, and they feel safer.

So, there’s no need to look at this data and press the panic button. Because exclusions, when used legally and at the end of a long process of support, are a sign of a system working, not one that’s broken.

The crucial thing is to make sure that children get the right support post-exclusion, and that means looking at ways we can increase the number of high-quality destinations like Pupil Referral Units or other forms of alternative provision. Because these environments are life-changing for children who need them.

Schools have to serve every child in the nation, and that includes children with the most challenging behaviours - and they can’t all flourish in a mainstream setting.

There have been some fantastic strategies developed to improve behaviour in schools, and we need to build on the best of what has already been done - new behaviour guidance, better training - and think about new ways we can continue to improve inclusive environments for all children.

Bridget Phillipson has rightly signalled that she wants to focus on inclusivity. And the most inclusive school environments are the ones that are safe, calm and dignified. Where support is given to children who need it, and where there are clear boundaries that keep everyone safe. No child flourishes in chaos, particularly children from disadvantaged circumstances. They need structured environments more than anyone else. We’ve done so much already, but there is still so much more to do.