Case Study 1

Over a period of recording data in sleuth, a pattern emerged which identified an inconsistency in the use of the referral system. Out of all the incidents entered into the system, 75% had taken place in the classroom. When this data was interrogated to identify what sanction had been used in response to these incidents a developmental issue was identified. 50% of incidents had been dealt with by classroom teachers and the other 50% had been referred up through the management system. The first line of referral for classroom incidents was the Head of Department yet in 95% of incidents, where an issue was referred onwards, it was incorrectly referred to the Head of Year.

Although it had been suspected that the referral system had not been running smoothly over a period of time there had been no firm data available to back this up.

In terms of behaviour management there were a number of attendant issues. It was identified that the status of the Heads of Year, in the eyes of both students and staff, was greater than curriculum Heads in responding to behavioural incidents with students.

An investigation into the sanctions open to Heads of Year and Heads of Department made it clear that there were more options available to Heads of Year. This had, in part, contributed to the over referral of students to the Heads of Year.

The early stages of the behaviour policy document were re-evaluated in teams and suggestions put forward as to how this issue might be remedied:

• Heads of Department drew up a list of sanctions so that, where possible, behaviours within individual subject areas could be contained within department areas
• Heads of Department agreed that they would benefit from mentoring training. The school had taken on a number of new staff across all curriculum areas over a short period of time. Heads of Department felt that the amount of inappropriate referrals could be reduced if they could better support members of their team.
• It was also proposed that the newer teachers, in particular, could be effectively supported to develop their classroom practice. A series of lesson observations with a core of classroom teachers resulted which contributed to the development of a series of classroom management training sessions.

Back to Case Studies Index

^{about us | sleuth} \ _{overview | behaviour | reduce | record | report | purchase | case studies} ^{services | news | support}