Low levels of bullying, but ESC is tackling bad behaviour

In response to a written question from Deputy Lester Queripel, who raised concerns about an apparent increase in bullying in recent years, Deputy Dudley-Owen said that, to date, inspections of almost all schools by Ofsted had found behaviour to be ‘good’.

Several inspection reports stating that bullying was rare, did not happen, or was ‘dealt with quickly and effectively’.

In the two schools where behaviour was not judged to be ‘good’, she said that both had made effective progress in addressing it after follow-up monitoring visits by Ofsted. She added that both schools would face a further full graded re-inspection later this year.

‘Addressing behaviour concerns is a top priority for school leadership teams where there are issues. In those cases schools are working relentlessly to improve,’ she said.

Education central office provides ‘substantial extra support’, including extra senior staff and officer support, for schools where development areas have been identified.

Deputy Dudley-Owen also referenced positive surveys from staff as evidence of strong school performance when it came to addressing bullying.

She said that, in one staff perception survey from October taken on a survey tool, States primary schools were rated well above average when compared with similar schools elsewhere in areas including low levels of lesson disruption, behaviour in corridors, low levels of physical aggression, levels of staff supervision and levels of staff contentment at work.

However, she said that the picture was more mixed in secondary schools.

Although they were still rated above-average, that obscured wide variations between schools.

‘There are a small number of children within our schools whose dysregulated behaviour can present challenges for staff and sometimes for their peers,’ she said.

A more flexible education provision for students in Years 10 and 11, which was introduced at the beginning of the current academic year, was cited by Deputy Dudley-Owen as a way in which the Secondary School Partnership – comprising the four States secondary schools and the Sixth Form Centre – supported students who were previously finding accessing education challenging.

Les Voies School continued to provide an education for children with the most significant social, emotional and mental health needs, with further staff training in order to help them meet children’s needs also expected to take place over a two-year period from September.

Deputy Dudley-Owen added that challenging behaviour was a symptom of multi-faceted cultural, societal and family-related issues, and that addressing root causes could be difficult without support from parents and carers.

‘Issues such as allowing children inappropriate access to social media, vapes or alcohol or drugs cannot be solved by schools alone,’ she said.

‘Schools are often the environment where these issues present as challenges, but it cannot be the job of government alone to deal with all these problems without the support of families and the wider community.’