Outstanding-rated schools could be downgraded as inspections will focus more on children 'switching off' in class
Charlie Taylor, the government's adviser on pupil behaviour, talks to pupils at Bartley Green school in Birmingham. Photograph: Andrew Fox
Schools must do more to engage children who are passively "opting out" of lessons, the government's adviser on behaviour has warned.
While "chair-chucking boys" usually got the attention in class, schools needed to address pupils doing the minimum in lessons, said the adviser, Charlie Taylor.
Taylor, a headteacher who is reviewing the government's approach to pupil truancy, said magistrates were often too soft on the parents of persistent truants. Courts needed to take a tougher line in cases where schools had reached the "end of the road", he said.
From next year school inspections will focus more on children who are "switching off" in class, a move which, Taylor said, could lead to some schools rated as outstanding being downgraded.
Visiting a Birmingham school, Taylor said: "I think often these disengaged children are [those] who won't succeed academically." He said once schools addressed this, it would make a difference.
Schools will come under pressure to do more for pupils who sat back, he said, adding: "The behaviour that gets attention is the behaviour of boys who swear and throw stuff around, yes girls, but more often boys. Chair-chucking boys, that's the behaviour you notice. But often it can be girls who are expressing emotional distress in other ways."
The prime minister warned this week that schools in middle-class areas that "drift along" and fail to push pupils to their full potential, would be named and shamed in league tables.
David Cameron said the effort of concentrating on sorting out failing inner-city schools had masked a hidden crisis in more prosperous areas that needed exposing.
In a newspaper article, he wrote: "Why should we put up with a school content to let a child sit at the back of the class, swapping Facebook updates? Or one where pupils and staff count down the hours to the end of term without ever asking why B grades can't be turned into As?"
Taylor, who is the head of a special school in London, said courts were failing to punish the parents of children who were persistently missing school.
Ministry of Justice figures show that nearly 12,000 parents were prosecuted for their children's truancy last year, of whom more than 9,000 were convicted. Nearly 2,400 parents were given a conditional discharge, while 25 were jailed.
Taylor said the process needed to be streamlined so that magistrates knew that schools and councils had tried everything short of taking a family to court.
He said: "This is absolutely the end of the road, and when you do get to the end of the road there needs to be a consequence, and I think at the moment [there isn't].
"I was talking to an education welfare officer the other day and she said that when she takes a family to court, if it's one of the district judges she knows, after all the work and preparation [when] she walks through that door and sees that district judge – she knows the family will always get a conditional discharge.
"That just short-circuits the system, and it's a huge frustration. We get a lot of correspondence from education welfare officers and schools saying this is a frustration."
Families of truanting children knew how to manipulate the court system to escape punishment, he said.
"I talked to some magistrates, and they said to me, if you were a parent taken to court, entering the sanctions process, do 'three or four things' and your chances of getting off will be much higher."
Taylor said poor attendance should be tackled as early as nursery school. "I think it's [about] taking the whole thing back, working with families early on, challenging patterns of attendance. Being in nursery school every day really matters.
"At the other end of the spectrum we need an effective courts system [but] no one wants to be there. Where the real work gets done is early on, supporting families."
He made his comments during a visit to Bartley Green school, which is in one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in Birmingham but is now classed as an outstanding school.
Bartley's head, Chris Owen, said that when she arrived at the school 17 years ago "the kids owned the corridor". She made discipline the priority. Now Bartley Green has 59% of pupils getting five GCSE passes at A* to C, including English and maths.
During the visit Taylor spoke to two pupils who had entered via "managed moves" from another school, a step offered to children facing exclusion. The children praised the school for being focused on getting certain exam grades, respecting students, and being organised.
One of the pair, Jake Maguire, 15, said: "I wouldn't focus in the [previous] school, they would only shout at me and I don't respond to that. [Here] teachers sit down and talk to you."
Lornicka Sappleton, 16, told Taylor she had been moved from her old school: "I never really cared about anything, I never liked to listen to teachers." She said her new school had taught her differently: "You always have to follow rules. Even in jobs you have to follow rules."
Taylor has drawn up a behaviour checklist for schools, which urges head teachers to walk around the lunch hall and playground, and which encourages teachers to praise children's good behaviour more than they criticise those doing wrong.
He also backs the government's introduction of no-notice detentions, abolishing the , abandoning the requirement of at least 24 hours' notice before children can be kept in the school after hours.
He said: "Often, for kids with special needs, an element of summary justice is quite useful. If you commit the offence on Monday and don't have the detention till Wednesday, and you have a really good day [in between] - what lesson do you learn? The nearer the consequence is to the crime, the more effective it is from a behaviour management point of view."
/theguardian
