Disruptive students can have a huge effect on learning environments and the wellbeing of their classmates and teachers.
To gain a clearer view of what’s happening in schools, the Department for Education has published its findings from the National Behaviour Survey for the 2023–24 school year. The results give us insights into the behaviour patterns in England’s schools, and they also show some interesting differences in the perceptions of leaders, teachers and students.
What the survey looked at
Researchers spoke to school leaders, teachers, students, parents and carers to find out how behaviour is affecting day-to-day education. They asked about school policies, the pupil experience, how often lessons are disrupted, and how schools deal with poor behaviour when it happens.
The report illustrates how much learning time is lost through disruption, how safe students feel at school and whether they believe their classrooms are calm and orderly places to learn.
Bullying
Bullying remains a key concern. Around a quarter of KS3 and KS4 students (24%) said they had been bullied by others at their school in the past year. The good news is that this fell sharply to just 9% in KS5. Appearance was the most common reason given, with nearly half of students who had been bullied saying this was why (46%). Worryingly though, that’s up from a third the previous year. More than a quarter of students (27%) said they weren’t sure why they had been picked on.
Other findings
The survey also revealed the toll behaviour can take on teachers and learning. More than three quarters of teachers said poor behaviour had a negative impact on their health and wellbeing in the last academic year. On average, they reported losing around seven minutes of every half-hour lesson to behaviour disruption.
When it came to assessing overall behaviour, views varied widely. Just under half of students described behaviour in their school as ‘very good’ or ‘good’. Among staff though, the picture was more positive, with over half of teachers and more than four in five school leaders rating behaviour favourably.
