By Bill Heaney
Violent and disruptive behaviour in schools is getting worse. A small minority of pupils prevent the majority from learning in peace and in safety. Some teachers feel unsafe and many feel unsupported. The Scottish National Party’s naive and weak approach fails absolutely everyone, Russell Findlay, leader of the Scottish Conservatives told the Holyrood parliament yesterday.
Findlay then made an excoriating attack on a new report on disruptive behaviour in schools.
He told MSPs: “The Scottish Government has just published new guidance on behaviour in schools. That document is exactly what we might expect from this ineffective Government: 49 pages of tedious, hand-wringing nonsense—it is complicated and confusing.
“When John Swinney was education secretary, teachers said that he issued too much guidance, which made their jobs even harder, so why is he now repeating the same mistake?”
First Minister John Swinney and Conservative leader Russell Findlay at loggerheads over violence and disruptive behaviour in schools.
“The guidance is founded on an important point that Mr Findlay made in his question, which is that disruption and disruptive behaviour in schools are the product of a minority of pupils. The challenge, which the guidance is focused on, is to put in place the necessary steps and measures to ensure that any disruptive behaviour is addressed, so that the overwhelming majority of young people who behave perfectly well and engage well in their schools are able to prosper in their education.”
“What does the guidance say should happen if a pupil commits an act of violence? It tells teachers to give violent pupils a laminated paper with a set of bullet points that tell them to think about their behaviour. It also suggests that a way to tackle unsafe behaviour is to have a ‘conversation to jointly problem solve with the child’.
“It also says that disruptive pupils should be allowed to leave class two minutes early, which to me sounds like a reward rather than a punishment.
“The new guidance ends with 94 questions that teachers are supposed to ask themselves—94 questions; as if they have the time. So, on behalf of Scotland’s teachers, I have just one question for John Swinney: is this for real?”
“We have to ensure that every young person who engages with our education system is able to be well supported to fulfil their potential. For some young people that involves addressing disruptive behaviour, and that is precisely what the guidance assists the teaching profession to try to do, with the assistance of other resources that the Government has put in place in our schools to address the underlying causes of unacceptable behaviour by young people.
“The guidance is designed to de-escalate situations in our schools to ensure that young people can participate in their education. If young people are unable to participate in their education, they are unlikely to go on to good outcomes in our society, which will mean that we will simply repeat the difficulties that we have seen for many years in relation to young people who do not go on to positive destinations. Of course, I note that, this week, we saw that another very high level of positive destinations has been achieved by young people in Scotland.”
“My party has long argued that a stricter approach is necessary to restore discipline in schools. We believe in exclusions for violence because they protect staff and pupils and because they work. The new SNP guidance says that exclusions should be considered only ‘as a last resort’ and that, when they are considered, teachers still need to follow the guidance that was introduced by none other than John Swinney in 2017. That guidance has a 66-item checklist for teachers to consider while they are going through an exclusion process.
“Where does the SNP actually stand on this? Has it U-turned? Does it now support exclusions to tackle bad behaviour or does the SNP not know where it stands?”
“Russell Findlay says that exclusions work. However, if a young person is excluded from school, they are not in the safe environment of school and are therefore likely to be out on the streets and, potentially, able to become involved in some of the criminal activity that Mr Findlay has put to me—in the past fortnight at First Minister’s question time—as being a risk to which young people are exposed.
“I simply point out to Parliament the inherent contradiction in what has been put to me. Two weeks ago, Mr Findlay said that we must make sure that young people are not exposed to criminal activity and, today, he is demanding that we exclude more young people from schools and put them at risk of being exposed to that criminal activity.
“The most recent figure that I have available is for 2022-23, when 11,676 exclusions were recorded in Scottish education. I accept that that figure is lower than it was in 2018-19, but it is still a very high level of exclusion of young people from our schools. We have to consider the implications of not getting our approach to inclusion correct in our schools, because there can be long-term damage to young people and our society as a consequence.”
“People in the real world know how to sort out the problem. We need a tougher approach, not laminated cards and inclusive chats. If pupils are violent or serially disruptive, we should exclude them. Will John Swinney end the barrage of guidance and—please—empower teachers to take a stricter approach?”
But the First Minister said that Mr Findlay’s allegations against him and the government were “palpably false”
“What we are getting from Russell Findlay today is a demonisation of young people and a failure to address the mechanisms and interventions that are required to solve a difficult issue in our society. It is simplistic nonsense and Parliament should ignore it.”