'No excuses' behaviour policies, what's happening with staff mental health and are mug thefts on the decline? This, and more...

1. ‘No Excuses’ Behaviour Policy

It is often argued that positive behaviour needs to be taught, particularly to pupils who don’t necessarily have many positive role-models in their personal lives 😔 So last week we asked to what extent you agreed with the statement ‘I’m a believer in a ‘no excuses’ behaviour policy’ ❌

We found that 66% of secondary teachers agreed with this statement to the varying degrees, compared to 43% of primary teachers.

I'm a believer in a 'no excuses' behaviour policy. Bar chart split by phase.

We analysed the results based upon seniority and discovered that only 35% of headteachers believe in a ‘no excuses’ behaviour policy compared to 58% of middle leaders 😧

Is it that a ‘no excuses’ behaviour policy is liked by middle leaders because they have to implement it? Surely that must be challenging in itself 🤔 Perhaps headteachers are less favourable because they’re the ones that have to ‘sell’ the idea to their staff, pupils and community.

Food for thought there!

I'm a believer in a 'no excuses' behaviour policy. Bar chart split by seniority.

2. Staff Mental Health

There seems to have been a lot of positive conversations regarding staff mental health over the past few years and we wanted to know if things have changed for the better in schools. Last week we asked if your school has a mental health/wellbeing policy in place, which includes the mental wellbeing of staff, a question we first asked in 2018.

The results came in and pleasantly surprised us 🙌

63% of you said YES, that’s up 24 percentage points.

This certainly feels like a step in the right direction 👏

In my school, we have a mental health/wellbeing policy in place, which includes the mental wellbeing of staff. Bar chart 2018 vs 2022

But wait… ⏱

There’s more good news…

In 2018 we also asked if the mental wellbeing of staff is measured and monitored at your school so we reasked this question too!

We found an 18 percentage point increase 🥳

In my school, the mental wellbeing of staff is measured and monitored. Bar chart 2018 vs 2022

We analysed the results based upon seniority and found some interesting disparities…

Only 22% of classroom teachers and 25% of middle leaders said that the mental wellbeing is measured and monitored 😯 Compared to 54% of headteachers 🤔

Maybe classroom teachers and middle leaders are less aware that this is happening and it’s more of a SLT and headteacher agenda rather than a ‘whole-school’ agenda. Or could it be that the wellbeing policies that are being put into place aren’t being felt too strongly by classroom teachers and middle leaders? 🧐

Let us know your thoughts on Twitter.

In my school, the mental wellbeing of staff is measured and monitored. Bar chart split by seniority

It would appear that positive steps are being made on the staff wellbeing front, although there’s still work to be done many of you are in a slightly better position that in 2018 😊

Nonetheless, there will always be those times where you’re feeling stressed or worried at work so we asked who you’d most likely seek help from.

There’s been some positive changes here too since 2018. 38% of you would most likely seek help from your line manager which is up from 31% in 2018. Likewise, 26% of you would turn to your senior leadership team which is 6 percentage points more than in 2018.

If I felt stressed or worried at work I would most likely seek help from. Bar chart 2018 vs 2022 with 'line manager' and 'senior leadership team' highlighted

3. EAL Learners

Last week we asked if in the past week, you’d had a pupil struggle to access learning because they didn’t speak English. We received some lovely Tweets and messages thanking us for these questions, if you were one of them know that this has been noted 🥰

50% of teachers in schools with the highest levels of deprivation reported that they’d experienced a pupil struggling to access learning because of their proficiency in English. This number decreased by 23 percentage points for the most affluent schools.

We speculated that Q1 and Q2 schools are more likely to have higher numbers of second or third generation EAL learners in their classrooms. These pupils are more likely to have a better proficiency in English so can access learning more readily than new-to-English learners who tend to be more prevalent in Q3 or Q4 schools.

Is this a relatable hypothesis? 🧐

In the past week, have you had a pupil struggle to access learning because they didn't speak English? Bar chart split by FSM quintile

Regardless of FSM quintile, many of you reported that you had experienced a pupil struggle to access learning because of their proficiency in English. We were expecting that this would be the case, although we didn’t know to what extent.

So we asked how confident you feel in supporting EAL learners to access learning.

Few of you felt confident 😔

Primary teachers reported being slightly more confident than secondary teachers but either way, given the number of EAL learners in classrooms this finding may have highlighted future CPD needs. In the meantime, if you’d like some resources Dominic Brassington has created a useful thread on Twitter with resources that can help you to further support the EAL learners in your classroom, you can find it here.

I feel confident supporting pupils who have English as an additional language to access learning. Bar chart split by phase.

School isn’t just about learning though, there’s the social aspect too. So we asked how confident you feel in supporting EAL pupils with social skills.

We found that you’re more confident supporting social skills than accessing learning 😊

I feel confident supporting pupils who have English as an additional language with social skills. Bar chart split by phase.

4. Mug Thieves ☕️ (no mug emoji 😔)

As you’re probably aware, we like to ask about weird and wonderful aspects of teaching so last week we asked if you’ve ever had a mug stolen.

Although the results aren’t going to change the world, these Tweets are certainly worth sharing 😂

In case you were wondering, mug thefts seem to be on the decline but for those mugs that do go AWOL you were more likely to find the culprit in 2022 compared to 2018 and 2019!

Have you ever had your mug stole in school? Bar chart comparing 2018 vs 2019 vs 2022

5. Who does the most duties? 🎾

Last week we asked how many times you are ‘on duty’ in a normal week including supervising pupils either before school, during playtime, at lunchtime or after school. The question prompted some interesting Twitter threads.

61% of primary headteachers and 78% of secondary heads said that they do four or more duties a week. Second to the heads were SLT with 46% of primary SLT staff and 75% of secondary SLT also doing four or more duties a week.

It would be interesting to know what types of duties are done, for example are headteachers reporting more than 4 a week because they do morning and after school gate duty? Keep an eye out for further questions about duties over the coming weeks 👀

6. Marking & Feedback ✅

Marking is often cited as a contributing factor to heavy teacher workload, so last week we asked you how often you’d looked at books/written work of the students you teach.

There are clear differences between how primary and secondary teachers mark and look at books/written work.

82% of primary Tappers had looked at all their students books/written work more than once! In comparison, only 32% of secondary teachers had done the same.

Is it that secondary teachers build towards a piece of written work with more students over a longer period than primary teachers or is it simply down to the fact that primary teachers teach most/all subjects everyday?