Behaviour Timeline

Behaviour Timeline

1669 Petition to Parliament

A petition is presented to Parliament by a young boy on behalf of the nations children protesting against excessive school punishments. The petition suggests: "That [any] person, who by sweetness and gentleness, or by the gravity of their deportment and countenance, or else by prudence and contrivance, is not able to awe and keep a company of youth in obedience without violence… is not fit for that function."

1700s Eton rebellion

Pupil rebellion at school is nothing new. In the 18th century at Eton College, students at the school, led by prefects, walk out and refuse to return for two days.

1805 Monitorial System

Andrew Bell and Joseph Lancaster, a Quaker opposed to corporal punishment, start the Monitorial System of schooling. In this teaching method high ability students learn their lessons from an adult teacher and then transmit their knowledge to the less able students. Despite his innovations, Lancaster still has to resort to a range of punishments to deal with indiscipline. Offenders are given a written card detailing their misdemeanour; punishments included making pupils carry a heavy log on their shoulders or fixing rowdy pupils together at the neck with a wooden yoke.

References

From "The Deviant Pupil", 1970, Open University Press , by V.J Furlong ( now Professor John Furlong , Director of the University of Oxford Department of Educational Studies) reproduced with kind permission. ( 1985 Edition ISBN: 0335151264)

1818 Pupils riot

Do multi-agency approaches have a long history? In 1818, a riot at a leading school has to be put down with the help of two companies of foot soldiers and fixed bayonets.

1845 Juvenile depravity

An advertisement is placed in ten London newspapers offering a £100 prize for the best essay on the "fearful and growing prevalence of juvenile depravity". So if there was a golden age, this probably wasn't it.

1849 A Teacher’s diary

The Ragged School movement focused on the children of the "depraved and vicious" poor in the inner cities of the 1830s onwards. One new teacher writes after the first day’s teaching at Borough Free School in Southwark: "No school can possibly be worse than this... I had occasion to punish a boy slightly this morning: he swore most horribly and rushed from the school. I sat down calmly and was suddenly startled by a large stone passing my ear. I got out of reach of the stones thrown into the window and continued with the lesson. Several followed, half a dozen at least. He was ready in the court with a brick in his hand to take his revenge when I came out. With some difficulty I got out to the lane without being obliged to run." The teacher is then escorted to safety by the police.

References

1870 Schooling compulsory

The Victorians bring in the first compulsory schooling for all children with the Education Act of 1870. There is considerable resistance to the idea among some sections of society, partly for economic reasons. There is also a strong moral and religious agenda from the middle class towards improving the urban working class. Truancy is rife.

1883 Teachers blamed

A committee of the Privy Council is set up to consider education issues. It criticises corporal punishment, but like many senior figures through the years, blames the teachers themselves for the indiscipline: "The more thoroughly a teacher is qualified for the position by skill, character, and personal influence, the less necessary is it… to resort to corporal chastisement at all."

1938 Girls troublesome

Teachers interviewed in a study of pupils’ behaviour in English girls’ schools published complain about the number of difficult pupils they had to deal with, about persistent noise in the classroom and about teacher "fatigue".

1951 European Human Rights

In 1951, Britain signed up to the European Convention on Human Rights. It was to be over 30 years before a court ruling in 1982 used this to pose a legal challenge to corporal punishment.

1952 NFER

The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) published a large amount of research in 1952 called "A Survey of Rewards and Punishments in Schools". Common behaviour difficulties listed are indifference, laziness and apathy. Also highlighted are "unrestrained, boisterous, noisy, disorderly behaviour when not under direct supervision", "stubborn, sulky, resentful refusal to respond or to participate in class activities" and "rude, insolent and abusive" discourtesy to adults.

1970 London problems analysed

A trade union grouping, the London Joint Four, appoints a subcommittee of headteachers and assistant teachers to report on current discipline problems in secondary schools. The report provides a pithy analysis of the issues, much of which still applies today.

1972 The Cane

Corporal punishment was in routine use. "Caning offences" at a London boys’ comprehensive school include interruptions by talking, silliness, cheek, insolence, abusive behaviour, defiance, cutting lessons, fighting and smoking.

References

From "A Last Resort?" , an anti corporal punishment book published in 1972

1978 Punishment surveys

Research reveals that corporal punishment is still practiced in 80 per cent of secondary schools. In one 14-day period, a survey of 40 Scottish secondary schools revealed that more than one third of all the 12- to 15-year-old boys had been belted with the tawse (a punishment strap). In a major survey in England, caning was the usual punishment for flicking paper pellets, talking in assembly, lying and general misbehaviour.

1980 Discipline or disorder?

Another union response to bad behaviour, raises the key issue of teacher time: "Pupils who pose disciplinary problems make great demands on the pastoral system of the school and this has obvious implications for deployment of staff time. Unless appropriate allowance is made in the staffing of schools, the demand can only be met at the expense… of other pupils. This factor is often overlooked, perhaps deliberately, by many Education Authorities who determine staffing standards to a strictly mathematical and financial formula."

1980 Daily Mail survey

In an NOP survey into education carried out on behalf of the Daily Mail, 67 per cent of the pupils questioned feel that their work is being harmed as a result of lack of discipline in the classroom.

1981 STOPP

The Society of Teachers Opposed to Physical Punishments (STOPP) estimates that corporal punishment in schools is running at a rate of one beating every 20 seconds, or a quarter of a million beatings per school year. This averages out at about five beatings per year per 100 pupils.

1982 European court judgement

The European Court of Human Rights passes judgement in a case brought by two Scottish mothers. The ruling applies to the whole of the UK. It says that beating schoolchildren against their parents' wishes is a violation of the Human Rights Convention because parents should have their children taught "in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions".

1987 Hitting banned

Corporal punishment is finally banned in British schools.

1989 Elton Report

Amidst much publicity and media attention on examples of "classroom chaos", a Committee of Enquiry is set up to look at discipline in schools. It finds that the problems of most concern to teachers are pupils talking out of turn, calculated idleness and work avoidance, pupils who make unnecessary non-verbal noises, and pupils who were not punctual. The report places heavy emphasis on the "group management skills" of the individual classroom teacher.

1992 Turning a blind eye

Academics comment that "Teachers’ legitimate concerns about discipline are consistently ignored by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate, local education authorities and teacher trainers alike." Also that "what we need from the The Department for Education and Schools (DfES) is not another committee but action to implement what is already clearly and reliably known about how to deal with problems of classroom order and control…."

1997 Force permitted

In an amendment to the 1996 Education Act, a clause is added to permit the use of reasonable force by teachers. It is later weakened by advice issued by the Department for Education and Schools (DfES).

References

Included in the 1997 Amendment to the Education Act of 1996 (scroll down to section 4)

2002 Behaviour Improvement Programmes

The Department for Education and Schools (DfES) allocates funds to improve behaviour standards in 700 schools in 34 LEAs with high levels of truancy and street crime. This is known as the Behaviour Improvement Programme (BIP).

2003 Respect and Responsibility*7

A white paper from the government and an "Anti-Social Behaviour Act" from Parliament introduce Parenting Orders and fixed-penalty fines for certain school-related offences. Meanwhile a Cutting Edge programme entitled Bad Behaviour airs on prime-time television, showing Warwick Dyer of the Tower Hamlets School Support Team carrying out face-to-face intervention work.

References

White Paper: Respect and Responsibility - taking a stand against anti-social behaviour

2004 National Behaviour and Attendance Strategy

The government introduces a National Behaviour and Attendance Strategy. All secondary schools are entitled to access behaviour audit and training materials and have the support of an LEA appointed behaviour consultant, delivered through the Key Stage 3 strategy. Behaviour and Education Support Teams (BESTs) are formed in the most needy areas, taking a multi-disciplinary approach.

2004 Children Act

With the Children Act 2004 and the publication of several documents entitled Every Child Matters, sweeping changes are made to the handling of children’s issues. A new approach to children’s services is launched, combining health, education, social services, youth crime, and other agencies.

References

Every Child Matters: aims and outcomes

Children Act 2004: Chapter 31

DfES: First meeting of expert group on pupil behaviour
A reasonably brief outline of the thinking behind the Every Child Matters agenda.

2005 Ofsted critical*10

Reports from Ofsted inspections show that in the past five years, the proportion of schools with good behaviour has shrunk from three-quarters to only two-thirds of all schools.

References

Ofsted: Managing challenging behaviour
A report from OFSTED published in March 2005 but relating to 2003/4 academic year. 'Managing Challenging Behaviour', presents the national picture. Quotes the Elton Report as saying that "80% of disruption in schools" is "directly attributable to poor classroom organisation, planning and teaching".

2005 Political football*11

Behaviour in schools becomes a hot political issue on all sides. One party promises two words: "school discipline". Another talks of "zero tolerance".

References

BBC News: Voters 'back school discipline'
Article from the BBC Election coverage.

2005 NUT's Behaviour Charter

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) publishes a "Behaviour Charter" calling for a tougher line on misbehaviour in schools and stronger backing for teachers.

2005 Expert enquiry

The government appoints a panel of experts to report on the issue of discipline in schools, chaired by Sir Alan Steer, headteacher of Seven Kings High School in Essex. Report due in October 2005.