Topic 1 Creating an ethos that meets the needs of

1 of 39 Creating an ethos that meets the needs of all pupils
National Programme for Specialist Leaders of Behaviour and Attendance
1. Creating an ethos that
meets the needs of all
pupils
The National Programme for Specialist Leaders
of Behaviour and Attendance
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2 of 39 Creating an ethos that meets the needs of all pupils
National Programme for Specialist Leaders of Behaviour and Attendance
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In these materials icons, logos, software products and websites are used for contextual and
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references where appropriate.
Note: For the sake of brevity, ‘child’ and ‘children’ will be used to refer to both children
and young people in this topic.
The term ‘setting’ will be used to refer to any institution that provides educational and
childcare provision e.g. PRU, school or Children’s Centre.
‘Parent’ refers to any adult with responsibility for caring for the child.
This topic was previously published with the title Creating an ethos for social inclusion.
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Contents
Session leader information
4
Aims
4
Aspects of leadership
4
Session outline
5
Preparatory reading and reflection
6
Preparatory reading Resource A: Useful reading
8
Activities
12
Activity 1: Examining and prioritising values
12
Activity 1 Resource A: Creating an ethos: interviews
14
Activity 1 Resource B: Diamond 9 sort
19
Activity 2: Values, beliefs and theory
20
Activity 2 Resource A: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
22
Activity 2 Resource B: Applying Maslow’s model
23
Activity 3: Leading change
24
Work-based activities
26
Work-based activity 1: What is the impact of your organisation’s mission statement?
26
Work-based activity 2: Using the Index for Inclusion to perform a SWOT analysis
28
Work-based activity 3: Using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to promote an ethos that
meets the needs of all pupils
30
Work-based activity 4: Values and beliefs
32
Work-based activity 5: Emotional well-being and the National Healthy School Standard
34
Work-based activity 6: The voice of children and young people
36
References
38
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Session leader information
Aims

To understand how a positive ethos meets the needs of all pupils is driven by values and
beliefs

To understand that an aim to meet the needs of all pupils is based upon a set of beliefs
about how we consider people should relate to each other

To understand the implications of an aim to meet the needs of all pupils upon the role of
leader in behaviour and attendance

To understand the key characteristics of an educational environment that meets the
needs of all pupils

To consider the implications for leadership styles within behaviour and attendance

To begin to address own leadership skills, attributes and development needs

To consider how to move colleagues, and own organisation, towards an approach that
aims to meet the needs of all pupils
Aspects of leadership
The study of this topic will help you reflect on how you:

support staff in developing an ethos of shared values, principles, beliefs and skills that
promote positive behaviour and full attendance

work together on values that underpin practice

lead staff development towards a shared vision and set of values

develop policy that arises from shared values and is embedded in practice

challenge stereotyped views and encouraging positive values in practice.
You will want to share this information with the group.
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Session outline
Previous session
Review of work-based activities
10 minutes
Overview
An ethos that meets the needs of all pupils
10 minutes
Activities
105 minutes
1. Examining and prioritising values
2. Values, beliefs and theory
3. Leading change
Reflective log
Selecting work-based activities
Forward look
20 minutes
5 minutes
Total: 150 minutes
You might want to adapt these activities or use alternative materials to help you meet the
particular needs of your group.
Overview
This topic provides an opportunity to consider those factors that are important in promoting
an ethos that meets the needs of all pupils. The preparatory reading presents some of the
beliefs and values that underpin that ethos and distinguishes between a ‘value’ and a ‘belief’.
Activity 1 provides an opportunity to consider personal values and beliefs, while the workbased activities provide opportunities to liaise with colleagues in the workplace to help them
identify beliefs and values relating to an approach that aims to meet the needs of all pupils.
Activity 2 gives the opportunity to discuss the ideas of Maslow and how his hierarchy of
needs is relevant in promoting an ethos that meets the needs of all pupils. Work-based
activity 3 provides the opportunity to apply this in an educational setting.
Activity 3 considers the implications for leadership in this area. The remaining work-based
activities provide further opportunities for embedding learning from the topic so that group
members develop the skills they need to help them create an ethos that meets the needs of
all pupils in their own workplaces.
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Preparatory reading and
reflection
Resources

Preparatory reading Resource A: Useful reading
Suggestions
Read carefully the preparatory reading, and then synthesise what, for you, are the key values
underpinning an approach that aims to meet the needs of all pupils.
Bring any notes you make to the session.
Questions for reflection and discussion

How are these values relevant to behaviour and attendance in a mainstream school
setting?

What, for you, are the most persuasive arguments contained within Resource A for the
inclusion of children and young people with more challenging behaviours within
mainstream educational settings?

What relevance do these issues have to attendance targets?
Introduction
This topic seeks to support you in asking reflective questions, both of yourself and of those
with whom you work, to help establish clear thinking in relation to certain issues surrounding
behaviour and attendance in schools. These issues relate to the implications for leadership in
those educational settings seeking to maintain or develop an ethos that meets the needs of
all their pupils. To do so within a positive and welcoming learning environment is an
important aim for all behaviour and attendance specialists. Positive and trusting
relationships, good behaviour and attendance and feelings of well-being are necessary
prerequisites for young people to succeed.
Schools are operating within a framework that has become consistently more challenging in
this respect. The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted)
framework for inspection of schools places the inclusion of all children and young people,
including the most challenging, firmly within the responsibility of mainstream establishments.
The inclusion of children and young people who have poorly developed social and emotional
awareness can present certain challenges for educators. The issues surrounding how ‘the
needs of the many’ can be met at the same time as meeting ‘the needs of the few’ is
particularly emotive when we are discussing difficult or challenging behaviour and emotional
distress. It becomes essential for us to debate and agree what we mean by ‘inclusion’ and
how our beliefs about inclusion relate to the values that drive our everyday practice.
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Building an environment that meets the needs of all pupils relies wholly upon the ability of the
community to have internalised a positive ethos built upon a solid system of values and
beliefs. It is the role of leaders to create an environment in which this ethos is known and
valued by all, understood by all and practised by all.
Initial questions that begin the process of identifying the individual values and beliefs that
constitute an organisation’s collective ethos are:

What do I believe?

What are the values by which people know me?

How does this relate to behaviour and attendance?
Livsey (with Palmer, 1999) 1 calls for teachers (for ‘teachers’, read all those who work with
children or young people) to revisit their moral purpose and to ask themselves:
Why did I become a teacher in the first place? What do I stand for as a teacher? What are
the gifts I bring to my work? What do I want my legacy to be? What can I do to ‘keep track
of myself’ to ‘remember my own heart’?
This tone may seem highly esoteric; it is not often, within the scope of our work in
educational settings, that we have an opportunity to ‘remember our own hearts’. It seems
vital, however, that, as leaders within the field of behaviour and attendance, we learn from
individuals who, through clear and evidenced values and beliefs (or ‘wearing their hearts on
their sleeves’), have successfully established inclusive practice in their settings.
Within any educational setting, there are often individuals and groups of children or young
people who find it difficult to feel a sense of belonging. This can be for a variety of reasons:
academic, social or emotional. An ethos that meets the needs of all pupils will have ongoing
processes that constantly seek to remove these barriers to emotional well-being, attendance
and learning for those children and young people. Through this commitment, educational
settings will have in place support systems integrated around the individuals or groups to
encourage them to participate and achieve, to give them the clear message: ‘we want you
here; you belong with us’.
There are many internationally and nationally agreed frameworks and concepts upon which
we can draw to help frame policies and, thereby, support children and young people in
learning to act responsibly, and to help establishments become progressively more able to
meet their various needs.
The selection of readings that follows outlines some of these key frameworks. Some of them
will be more familiar than others. Additional resources are referenced at the end of this topic,
to enable you to look at selected sections in more depth.
1
Livsey, R.C., & Palmer, P.J. (1999). The courage to teach: A guide for reflection and renewal, San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.
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Preparatory reading Resource A:
Useful reading
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs 2
Maslow believed that human beings are basically trustworthy, self-protecting, self-governing
and that they tend towards growth and love. He believed that human beings are motivated by
unsatisfied human need and that lower levels of such need must be satisfied before higher
levels can be.
The four levels are:

physiological needs – to satisfy hunger, thirst, warmth

safety – to be secure, safe

belonging – to find love, affiliation with others, acceptance

esteem – to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition.
Maslow later added the following higher levels:

cognitive – to know, understand and explore

aesthetic – to appreciate symmetry, order and beauty

self-actualisation – to find self-fulfilment and realise one’s potential

transcendence – to help others find self-fulfilment and realise their potential.
If you treat people as they are,
you will be instrumental in
keeping them as they are. If
you treat them as they could
be, you will help them become
what they ought to be…
Goethe
2
Taken from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Maslow, A. (1973) The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. Reprinted
by permission of SLL/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. Copyright by Abraham Maslow. Used with kind permission.
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Values outlined in ‘Curriculum 2000’ – DfES (1999)
Four essential values were identified within ‘Curriculum 2000’. As changes occur in the
school curriculum, these values still underpin the delivery.
The self:
We value ourselves as unique human beings capable of spiritual, moral,
intellectual and physical growth and development.
Relationships:
We value others for themselves, not only for what they have or what
they can do for us. We value relationships as fundamental to the
development and fulfilment of others and ourselves and to the good of
the community.
Society:
We value truth, freedom, justice, human rights, the rule of law and
collective effort for the common good. In particular, we value families as
sources of love and support for all their members, and as a basis of a
society in which people care for others.
The environment: We value the environment, both natural and shaped by humanity, as the
basis of life and a source of wonder and inspiration.
Learning through human rights
Learning about human rights involves acquiring relevant knowledge about rights and
responsibilities, the people and organisations engaged in the struggles to ensure rights for
all, both in the past and the present.
Learning for human rights encourages children to develop the skills essential for
understanding the nature of rights and responsibilities and for taking appropriate action.
Learning through human rights enables children to experience the values of a community
in the school where the learning environment supports respect for individuals.
Children and young people are encouraged to listen to one another’s points of view and
can express opinions freely in ways that do not offend others.
Human rights education is about empowering tomorrow’s citizens. Schools have an
important role to play in contributing to that empowerment...
Lister, I. (1984), Teaching and Learning Through Human Rights,
Strasbourg: Council of Europe
Definitions of inclusion in education adapted from the
Index for Inclusion, CSIE 2002
Inclusion in education involves:

valuing all children, young people and staff equally

increasing the participation of the most vulnerable children and young people in, and
reducing their exclusion from, the cultures, curricula and communities of local schools

restructuring the cultures, policies and practices in schools so that they respond to the
diversity of children and young people in the locality
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
reducing barriers to learning and participation for all children and young people, not only
those with impairments or those who are categorised as ‘having special educational
needs’

learning from attempts to overcome barriers to the access and participation of particular
children and young people to make changes for the benefit of children and young people
more widely

viewing the difference between children and young people as resources to support
learning, rather than as problems to be overcome

acknowledging the right of children and young people to an education in their locality,
improving schools for staff as well as for pupils

emphasising the role of schools in building community and developing values, as well as
in increasing achievement

fostering mutually sustaining relationships between schools and communities

recognising that inclusion in education is one aspect of inclusion in society.
Inclusion – Ofsted guidance
The following is taken from: Ofsted, Evaluating Educational Inclusion: Guidance for
Inspectors and Schools, 30 November 2000 www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-
home/Publications-and-research
This guidance aims to help inspectors, and the governors and staff of schools, to identify
what it means to be an inclusive school, and to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of
a school’s practice in order to bring about improvements in this area. This requires
inspection reports to be more focused on the impact of the school’s strategies for
addressing inclusion issues and, particularly, for promoting racial equality.
Educational inclusion is more than a concern about any one group of children and young
people such as those who have been or are likely to be excluded from school. Its scope is
broad. It is about equal opportunities for all children and young people, whatever their
age, gender, ethnicity, attainment and background. It pays particular attention to the
provision made for and the achievement of different groups of children and young people
within a school. Throughout this guidance, whenever we use the term ‘different groups’ it
could apply to any or all of the following:

girls and boys;

minority ethnic and faith groups, travellers, asylum seekers and refugees;

children and young people who need support to learn English as an additional language
(EAL);

children and young people with special educational needs;

gifted and talented children and young people;

children ‘looked after’ by the local authority;

other children, such as sick children; young carers; those children from families under
stress; pregnant school girls and teenage mothers; and any children and young people
who are at risk of disaffection and exclusion.
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Inclusion as a right
The following is taken from the Centre for Studies into Inclusive Education (CSIE) website,
2002 www.csie.org.uk
Ten reasons for inclusion
Inclusive education is a human right, it is good education and it makes good social sense.
Human rights
1.
All children have the right to learn together.
2.
Children should not be devalued or discriminated against by being excluded or sent
away because of their disability or learning difficulty.
3.
Disabled adults, describing themselves as special school survivors, are demanding an
end to segregation.
4
There are no legitimate reasons to separate children for their education. Children
belong together, with advantages and benefits for everyone. They do not need to be
protected from each other.
Good education
5.
Research shows children do better, academically and socially, in integrated settings.
6.
There is no teaching or care in a segregated school which cannot take place in an
ordinary school.
7.
Given commitment and support, inclusive education is a more efficient use of
educational resources.
Social sense
8.
Segregation teaches children to be fearful, ignorant and breeds prejudice.
9.
All children need an education that will help them develop relationships and prepare
them for life in the mainstream.
10.
Only inclusion has the potential to reduce fear and to build friendship, respect and
understanding.
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Activities
Activity 1: Examining and prioritising values
(45 minutes)
Purpose

To help group members develop understanding of how an effective ethos that meets the
needs of all pupils is driven by values and beliefs

To understand that an aim to meet the needs of all pupils is based upon a set of beliefs
about how people should relate to each other

To encourage individual group members to discuss and prioritise both the personal and
group key values that underpin an approach that aims to meet the needs of all pupils
Resources

Activity 1 Resource A: Creating an ethos: interviews

Activity 1 Resource B: Diamond 9 sort

Three blank postcards for each participant (or three large sticky notes)
In the interviews, the following people talked about their vision for behaviour and
attendance:

Moyra Healey, government adviser on learning support units (2004–2006)

Janet Sommers, headteacher, Friars Primary Foundation School, Southwark, London

Colin Bell, headteacher, South Leeds High School, Leeds.
Suggestions
In preparation for this activity, it is suggested that the session leader should send copies of
the transcript to three members of the cluster group, asking them to familiarise themselves
with the comments of a specified interviewee and to be prepared to read them at the cluster
session.
Before the reading, the session leader should emphasise to group members that the
interviews provide a stimulus for the topic and do not offer a definitive view of what an
effective vision should be for behaviour and attendance.
As they read together through the transcript, group members should jot down what they find
interesting in relation to creating an ethos that meets the needs of all pupils.
The session leader should take brief feedback of the group’s initial or immediate thoughts.
After this, participants should discuss with a partner how the values and beliefs expressed
relate to their own values and beliefs or those of the organisation in which they work.
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They should consider what questions, related to the practicalities of enshrining values and
beliefs in practice, they would have liked to ask the interviewees. (These instructions are
given again under the heading Reflection on the interviews after the interview transcript at
the end of Resource A.)
The session leader should take key points and note them on a flipchart for display.
Group members should be invited to think back to the key values underpinning social
inclusion that they identified through the preparatory reading and activity. (15 minutes)
The session leader should then give each group member three blank postcards and invite
them to work alone to identify the three most important values they identified as underpinning
an approach that aims to meet the needs of all pupils in relation to their behaviour and
attendance (their ‘Desert island’ values). They should write one on each of the three
postcards.
They should follow the suggestions (on Resource B) for the Diamond 9 sort activity.
The session leader should divide the group into sets of four or five and invite them to
prioritise their collective ‘Desert island’ values onto the Diamond 9 grid.
If there are a number of groups, after 10 minutes one person in each group should act as
spokesperson. The spokesperson stays with their Diamond 9 grid and the remainder of their
group visits another group’s Diamond 9 grid. The spokesperson explains the group’s
priorities to the visitors.
This activity links to Work-based activity 4.
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Activity 1 Resource A:
Creating an ethos: interviews
The following is the transcript of interviews originally held in 2004.
Moyra Healy, previously government adviser on learning support units: I think that I
have to remember what schools are for. That, for me, is a very fundamental thing in what I
do. Who is the school for? It is not for the headteacher; it is not for the teachers and adults
who are paid to be there. It is for the pupils.
Janet Sommers, headteacher, Friars Primary Foundation School, Southwark, London:
Well of course we try and look at where the trouble is coming from – why the child is angry –
but we cannot legislate for the poverty or bad housing that is out there at the end of the
street. We need to take the child into the school and give them the very best access to the
curriculum that we can possibly give.
Colin Bell, headteacher, South Leeds High School, Leeds: We are dealing with precious
cargo. A lot of these children come into school with difficulties, disadvantages, and low
aspirations. What we have to do as schools is to ensure that they are given the opportunities
to fulfil their dreams. There are adults up and down the country who have been told by
teachers somewhere along the line that they will not be able to do something. What we have
got to move to – and move to fairly quickly – is a culture of ‘you can’.
Moyra Healy: When I started teaching in 1972 I was very aware, because I taught in a very
tough inner-city school, that children actually do want to learn. They don’t always fit into a
classroom very well and they don’t quite know how to put themselves into a classroom very
well. Learning is about everything we do and behaviour is what we do.
Colin Bell: I think it started with the core belief that everybody matters. Every child – and
every adult – who is involved in the school situation needs to know that they have a value to
the school. They must be made aware of that. It is a basic principle in terms of creating an
ethos of support and care and trust right the way through the organisation. That leads to
ensuring that some basic principles are put in place in terms of common standards of
uniform, attendance and punctuality. Then, on top of that, the children are entitled to know
that the people in front of them can do the job, can do it efficiently, and can engage with
them.
Moyra Healy: If I exclude you from mainstream and I tell you that you do not belong any
more in the mainstream, then those really powerful feelings that every human being has in
their spirit – of needing to belong to something – get channelled in a negative way instead of
a positive way. So I will go and join a gang or group of people who will say, ‘Come and join
us. You belong with us.’ If the raison d’etre for that group is to say to society, ‘You have
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rejected me and I am going to hurt you for doing that’, then we have a society where we all
say, ‘How did that happen?’
Colin Bell: It is about creating within them first of all their identity within the school. That can
be created by simple basic things such as uniform, attention to detail and allowing the
children to see that you do care about them; that you are able to spend time with them; that
you are prepared to encourage and motivate them. Schools spend a lot of time dealing with
the rotten end of the business in terms of sanctions, but the emphasis should be on the
positive side of things because children do thrive on praise. Children do thrive on being told
that they are doing a good job and quite often children who come into schools with low
aspirations need constant reassurance that the things they are doing are the things that will
lead to success for them.
Moyra Healy: These children do not behave in this way for fun. They do it for a reason. If
you can get to the reason and say, ‘Let’s see if you could tackle that situation in a different
way’, or ‘Lets look at how you would tackle that particular situation in another way’. You get
an angry child. Angry children are not naughty; they are just angry and that is just who they
are. But anger is a very powerful tool and I always say to them, ‘Think of people like Nelson
Mandela, Gandhi, Martin Luther King. They were three very angry people and thank God for
them, because they used their anger to change the world in a positive way.’ It is not anger
that is wrong, but it is what you do with it.
Colin Bell: If you create a structure for the children to be successful in, then eventually what
you are creating is an environment that is a good place to work in – one that is characterised
by people walking around with smiles on their faces. Successful schools are schools where
children and staff are happy to be with each other.
Moyra Healy: For me, inclusion is not some poor hapless teacher standing in front of thirty
pupils, five of whom are knife wielding or drug dealing and five of whom are elective mutes
because they do not want to be there and the remaining twenty who want to learn. That is
not inclusion; that is stupidity.
Janet Sommers: A child needs to have confidence but it needs to be competent within that
confidence. It is no good playing the education con-trick of saying, ‘Yes the child can do it’,
when the child knows full well that it cannot. It needs to have that confidence boosted
through other people recognising that child’s achievement. It can be through achievement
books, through stars, through ticks – whatever system you have going – but the child needs
to know that he is doing well and has the potential to do even better.
Moyra Healy: The most important thing I try to get across to everybody I meet who is
involved in education is the need for them to see beyond the behaviour. For me learning
support units – when I first came to the DfES and was having a look across the country – fell
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into two camps. There were those that were trying to address the needs of the children and
those that were nothing more than sin bins and dumping grounds. So in certain parts of the
country you would find places where children were put into rooms where they were put into
little booths, where they had desks, a booth and blank walls and people sent work down and
they were supposed to do that work. That to me is not addressing their behaviour needs.
Janet Sommers: I think the actual curriculum competes against the child succeeding. We
don’t get the pace right. We sometimes have too much rote learning or it is too challenging
and the child will get frustrated and this is where the poor behaviour arises again. The child
has got to see its success.
Colin Bell: For me it is about putting in place procedures, policies and practices that make it
crystal clear to the staff what the expectations are of the children. Because if you create a
structure for the children to be successful in, then eventually what you create is an
environment that is good to work in.
Moyra Healy: What I try and do now is to go around and speak to people and have a look at
some of the practices – and there are some absolutely mind-blowing practices going on
around this country – for inclusion. So it is taking those places and showing other people how
it can be done. Let’s have a look and see how we can educate not just the children but also
the adults. In the very best learning support units in the country we have not just children
going there and being taught, but we have newly qualified staff or new staff to the school
being timetabled to work alongside the very experienced staff who work there, so that they
can learn the positive behaviour management techniques needed to support those children
when they go back to their own classroom.
Janet Sommers: High expectations are totally essential. If you do not have high
expectations of the child, then you are not going to get very far at all, because so many
children do not believe in themselves and nobody in life has given them any belief that they
are doing anything that is good or positive.
Moyra Healy: The other big thing for us in learning support units is that it is a revolving door.
The child belongs in a mainstream class. That is where they should be. We put them in the
LSU and they have a placement in the LSU for a limited period of time. Where they are
successful they should be in their class, so they may only come out for parts of the day or
parts of the week. Then, in the LSU, they address their needs and look at their literacy,
numeracy and oracy skills. I think an awful lot of problems occur because people cannot
voice how they feel so it is addressing those very basic literacy, numeracy and oral skills, but
also the social, emotional and behavioural skills that they need. Then they can go back into
the class with a reintegration package and the reintegration package means: ‘I will not treat
you the way I did before, necessarily, because I am going to give you the chance to prove
that you can do it in a different way.’ That is where we are trying hard to say an inclusive
school is one that says, ‘Yes you belong in this school and your place perhaps is there for
the moment. It does not matter that you are in a different area of the school. It does not
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matter that you are in a specialist room. It does not matter that I have to be in a different
room from you and you can be with a group of people who are all very academic and I might
be with a group of people who are practically minded.’ That is good.
Colin Bell: Quite often schools where children are happy to be are those schools where
children are sitting in the computer room at 7.30am, making demands of teachers, making
demands of learning mentors and, again at the end of the day, engaging with the school in
terms of study support opportunities, representing the school at football, involvement in
drama productions, or involvement in musical productions. All those sorts of things go
towards making a successful school and demonstrate clearly the way children build up an
identity with the school and where they can see that the school cares about them.
Moyra Healy: I think that behaviour is the bedrock upon which schools are founded and for
too long we have seen behaviour as a luxury. A lot of our parents did not have a very good
experience of school either and so they inappropriately support their children and they will
say to them, ‘Don’t you worry love; them teachers get at you, I’ll get down there and I’ll sort
them out for you.’ Therefore they are being inappropriate for their child. What we want to do
is to say our inclusion room is a place where everybody is welcome. So I think that you can
make a school a very just place by actually recognising that young people have that sense of
justice and just because they are young and because they are inexperienced does not mean
that they do not know right from wrong and that they do not know the right way to be treated
or the right way to treat other people.
It does not mean to say that they always do it, but their opinions and views should be taken
into consideration and we should look at them and say when we are developing our school
policies they are not just dusty things that belong in a filing cabinet. They are living
documents that should affect everything that happens in a school. First of all, if you are going
to be an inclusive school, as a whole staff, and that is every single adult who works in the
school has to buy into it and has to understand it. The first thing is understanding what
inclusion is, and I think that takes time and I think it has to be done carefully and sensitively.
Once you have got the understanding of what inclusiveness is, you then have to say, ‘How
do I teach every adult in this school the skills that they need to be able to cope with the
emotional baggage that children bring with them?’
There is a spiritual side to every human being and I do not mean by that a religious side. I
mean that there is a spirit. When I worked in the PRU I had a really tough lad – in fact he had
burned down a garage and had stolen a lot of money. He was a bit of a frightening character
in many ways and I did not know how to get through to him.
Then one day I noticed a ring on his finger and I said, ‘What does that ring symbolise?’
‘Mohammed and peace be upon him,’ he said, and his face changed and we were able to
have some kind of a conversation.
Now that was somebody who had a faith and by tapping into that he recognised something in
me that recognised something in him. But it is not just to do with religion and faith but it is to
do with touching the spiritual side of every human being. There is a physical side, there is the
thinking side, but the spiritual side is the bit that says, ‘What is this word “love”? Where does
it come from? What does it mean? How can I tap into it? Why is it something that is such a
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powerful emotion and how can I fit into this big place called school and still feel that I belong
here?’ That belonging is concerned with what the real meaning of love is. If you can get at
the spiritual side of things then I think you have cracked it.
Reflection on the interviews
Describe the values and beliefs expressed in the interviews.
Discuss with a partner how the values and beliefs expressed relate to your own values and
beliefs or those of your organisation.
What questions, related to the practicalities of enshrining values and beliefs in practice,
would you have liked to ask the interviewees?
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Activity 1 Resource B: Diamond 9 sort
A Diamond 9 sort is a simple yet powerful way of helping individuals or groups prioritise a
range of issues.
1.
Write each issue on a separate square of paper, card or sticky note.
The group then needs to identify the criteria that will be used to identify ‘importance’. For
example, this might be ‘urgency for action’, ‘influence’, ‘need to consider in making
decision’.
2.
Arrange the issues in the pattern below so that the most important is at the top of the
diamond, the next two in importance are on the second rank, the next three on the third
rank, and so on. Cards left over can be placed outside the diamond for future
consideration.
3.
Rearrange the issues within the diamond until you are happy with the order of priority.
The most important element of this activity is the discussion and reflection.
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Activity 2: Values, beliefs and theory
(30 minutes)
Purpose

To understand that an aim to meet the needs of all pupils is based upon a set of beliefs
about how we consider that people should relate to each other

To understand the key characteristics of an educational environment that meets the
needs of all pupils

To encourage group members to begin to explore what impact the embedding of the key
values identified in the previous activity would have on an organisation
Resources

Activity 2 Resource A: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (reading)

Activity 2 Resource B: Applying Maslow’s model
Suggestions
The purpose of this activity is to connect the thinking that group members have been
undertaking about values with a theoretical model, in this case Maslow’s. The Maslow model
is not used in this instance simply because this is the only model that can be used. The
intention is that, having completed this activity, group members will then be able to apply
their thinking to other theoretical models.
The session leader should draw the group’s attention to the fact that it is possible to follow up
this work in Work-based activity 3.
Group members should be reminded of their pre-reading for this topic, including Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs. Time will be needed for participants to re-read the paper in Resource A:
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and to look at the questions on Resource B: Applying Maslow’s
model.
In pairs, group members should consider the implications of Maslow’s model to a primary
school, a secondary school, a learning support unit (LSU) or a pupil referral unit (PRU).
Group members can consider some or all of the questions below.

In order to put Maslow’s model into practice, and use it to support an ethos that meets
the needs of all pupils, what are some of the practical procedures the organisation would
have in place?

If an organisation began to manage itself with regard to this model:
– how would a child or young person know that things were different?
– how would a newly qualified teacher (NQT) or other new member of staff recognise
that things were different?
– How would a parent or carer see that things were different?

If a department began to manage itself according to this model, how would a child or
young person know that things were different?
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List the three most important things your organisation or setting could do to ensure better
support for children or young people who experience social, emotional and behavioural or
attendance difficulties.
List the three smallest (or easiest!) things your organisation or setting could do to ensure
better support for children or young people who experience social, emotional, behavioural or
attendance difficulties.
The session leader should ask group members to feed back the three things that they feel
are easiest to achieve in an educational setting and record these on a flipchart for later use.
Group members should make a personal record of this feedback, for use when choosing and
planning a work-based activity.
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Activity 2 Resource A:
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs 3
Maslow felt that human beings are basically trustworthy, self-protecting, self-governing and
that they tend towards growth and love. He felt that humans are motivated by unsatisfied
human need and that lower levels of need must be satisfied before the higher levels.
The four levels are:

physiological needs – to satisfy hunger, thirst, warmth

safety – to be secure, safe

belonging – to find love, affiliation with others, acceptance

esteem – to achieve, be competent, gain approval and recognition.
Maslow later added the following higher levels:

cognitive – to know, understand and explore

aesthetic – to appreciate symmetry, order and beauty

self-actualisation – to find self-fulfilment and realise one’s potential

transcendence – to help others find self-fulfilment and realise their potential.
3
Taken from Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in Maslow, A. (1973) The Farther Reaches of Human Nature.
Reprinted by permission of SLL/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. Copyright by Abraham Maslow. Used with kind
permission.
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Activity 2 Resource B: Applying Maslow’s model
Consider the implications of Maslow’s model within a primary, secondary or special school,
an LSU or PRU.

In order to put Maslow’s model into practice, and use it to support an ethos that meets
the needs of all pupils, what are some of the practical procedures the organisation would
have in place?

If an organisation began to manage itself with regard to this model:
– how would a child or young person know that things were different?
– how would a newly qualified teacher (NQT) or other new member of staff recognise
that things were different?
– how would a parent or carer see that things were different?

If a department began to manage itself according to this model, how would a child or
young person know that things were different?
List the three most important things your organisation or setting could do to ensure better
support for children or young people who experience social, emotional and behavioural or
attendance difficulties.
1.
2.
3.
List the three smallest (or easiest!) things your organisation or setting could do to ensure
better support for children or young people who experience social, emotional, behavioural or
attendance difficulties.
1.
2.
3.
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Activity 3: Leading change
(35 minutes)
Purpose

To help group members better understand the implications of an aim to meet the needs
of all pupils upon their role as specialist leader

To begin to develop group members’ leadership skills and attributes and identify their
development needs

To consider how to move colleagues, and their own organisation, towards an approach
that aims to meet the needs of all pupils
Resources

A large sheet of paper on the table and a range of coloured marker pens
Suggestions
The session leader should display the sheet/s from the previous activity on the wall, so that
they are clearly visible to all group members. Participants should then be introduced to the
idea of a paper talk.
A paper talk can be an uncomplicated silent reflection or a spirited, but silent, exchange of
ideas. It has been known to solve vexing problems, surprise everyone with how much is
collectively known about something, get an entire project planned, or provide a committee
with all the information it needs (minus verbal sparring and point scoring).
1.
The session leader explains very briefly that this is a silent activity. No one may speak
but anyone may add to the paper talk as they please. Anyone can comment on another’s
ideas simply by drawing a connecting line to the comment.
2.
The session leader writes a relevant question in a circle in the middle of the paper. For
example:

What do you think about leadership, social responsibility and learning?

How can we improve the learning community in educational settings?
3.
Everyone is given a marker pen, or marker pens are placed on the table.
4.
Participants will write as they feel moved. There are likely to be long pauses for
reflection. Don’t worry; this is natural, so allow plenty of wait-time.
5.
How the session leader chooses to interact with the paper talk can influence its
outcome. The session leader can stand back and let it unfold or can expand thinking by:

circling other interesting ideas, thereby inviting comments

writing questions about a group member’s comment

adding their own reflections or ideas

connecting two comments together with a line and adding a question mark.
After 10 minutes, group members can begin to discuss what has been written on the sheet.
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The session leader tells group members that they are now going to consider the leadership
skills necessary to build an organisation such as the one they have just discussed. In a circle
at the centre of the paper-talk sheet, the session leader writes:

What are the key influencing skills that a leader would need to achieve this?
The group is then asked to list the leadership skills and think back to their reflections on their
own leadership (undertaken in preparation for Study Day 1).
Group members, in pairs, should then discuss what they feel might be the next steps for
them in developing or practising their leadership style in the context of behaviour, attendance
and the aim of meeting the needs of all pupils.
Group members may wish to record this in their reflective log.
This activity may be linked to Work-based activities 2 and 5.
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Work-based activities
The following activities are examples of work-based activities you could undertake. You
may choose to use existing work to consolidate impact, or extend activities you are
already being asked to do. You may undertake your own activity if it is relevant to the
topic and your context.
Work-based activity 1: What is the impact of
your organisation’s mission statement?
Purpose

To provide an opportunity to identify any differences between an organisation’s stated
intentions (as expressed through its mission statement) and the existing practice, by
using work shadowing of colleagues within the organisation
Audience
All group members
Use of expert
None is required.
Links to the learning process

Practical application

Feedback and reflection

Embedding the experience
Links to other study topics
Your completed portfolio will need to meet the Portfolio Evaluation Criteria that are
introduced in Study Day 2. To help in presenting your evidence, make sure that, when
planning, completing and writing up your work-based activity, you refer to any other relevant
NPSLBA topics you have studied. For example, even if your cluster group didn’t choose to
work through a particular topic, you may have read the materials associated with that topic
yourself. You can use the theory in those materials to inform your practice when undertaking
a work-based activity and record your reflections as you go along.
Notes
Before you begin this activity, you should meet with senior colleagues to agree protocols.
Take the mission statement for a school or educational setting within which you have a role.
Review how accessible this statement is to all users (staff, children and young people,
parents and carers, governors and the wider community).
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Identify, through conversations, interviews and questionnaires, what this mission statement
means to a random sample of staff, children and young people. In particular, explore this in
relation to values and beliefs. Clarify what, for the community, the mission statement would
look like if it were embedded in practice. For example, what would people see, hear and be
doing?
In whatever way possible, observe or shadow an individual child or young person (or a group
of children or young people) in a variety of contexts and at different times of the day.
Observe and note where the mission statement for the setting appears to be embedded in
practice. Note also where you notice that it is not carried through.
Wherever possible, make your observations by following a child or young person who is
experiencing social, emotional or behavioural difficulties. Ask yourself how well the setting
lives up to its intentions. For example, an ideal scenario in a secondary school would entail a
one-day shadowing, during which you might follow a class, with a particular focus on the
experiences of one or two young people. In other settings, it is possible that mobility will be
much reduced. It is important that the children or young people themselves, and the class as
a whole, do not know the purpose of your observations. To do this effectively you should
communicate clearly the purpose and nature of your activity to all relevant colleagues.
At the end of this work-based activity, you should meet again with senior colleagues to
discuss the impact this session has had within your workplace.
You should record the key points from this conversation.
Outcomes

You will understand how an organisation’s mission statement can be used to monitor the
effectiveness – or otherwise – of the organisation’s policy and practice.
Reporting

Notes on your ideas for closing any perceived gap between the organisation’s vision and
practice. For example, this may result in working on an alternative mission statement for
the school, ensuring that the current vision is accessible and understood by all, or
speaking with senior staff

A feedback presentation of your findings to colleagues and/or the children and young
people you observed
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Work-based activity 2: Using the Index for
Inclusion to perform a SWOT analysis
Purpose

To give group members the opportunity to consider the strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats (SWOT) of their own organisation, or an organisation they know
well, in the area of inclusion as it relates to behaviour and attendance
Audience
Those based in schools or in specialist provision, but also those who work within a wider
educational context where the Index for Inclusion has application
Use of expert
None is required.
Links to the learning process

Practical application

Feedback and reflection

Embedding the experience
Links to other study topics
Your completed portfolio will need to meet the Portfolio Evaluation Criteria that are
introduced in Study Day 2. To help in presenting your evidence, make sure that, when
planning, completing and writing up your work-based activity, you refer to any other relevant
NPSLBA topics you have studied. For example, even if your cluster group didn’t choose to
work through a particular topic, you may have read the materials associated with that topic
yourself. You can use the theory in those materials to inform your practice when undertaking
a work-based activity and record your reflections as you go along.
Notes
Before you begin this activity, you should meet with senior colleagues to agree protocols.
Using the information from your pre-reading of the Index for Inclusion, perform a SWOT
(strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis on your own or a relevant school
or organisation.
Take four pieces of paper. On each sheet write one of the following headings:

Strengths (areas in which your organisation is currently successful)

Weaknesses (areas in which your organisation needs to improve)

Opportunities (areas in which your organisation has the potential for future development
or ways in which your organisation could improve its impact)
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
Threats (areas of your organisation’s practice that currently prevent one or more of these
opportunities being realised and aspects beyond the organisation that reduce the
chances of successful implementation).
Consider where each statement from the extract from the Index for Inclusion would be
ranked within your own school or organisation.

Consider the strengths – what would need to happen to amplify each of these?

Consider the weaknesses – what would need to happen to improve these?

How could the organisation capitalise on the opportunities?

How could the organisation minimise the threats?

As a specialist leader of behaviour and attendance within your organisation, what
practical steps could you take to make the process above more likely to happen?
At the end of this work-based activity, you should meet again with senior colleagues to
discuss the impact this activity has had within your workplace.
You should record the key points from this conversation.
Outcomes

You will have a greater understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats to educational settings in the area of inclusion as it relates to behaviour and
attendance.
Reporting

A paper or presentation on the SWOT analysis for the senior leadership team (SLT) or
relevant body
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Work-based activity 3: Using Maslow’s
hierarchy of needs to promote an ethos that
meets the needs of all pupils
Purpose

To investigate how a theory, in this case Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, can provide a
deeper insight into the underlying causes of the behaviour and attendance of certain
children and young people

To explore the implications of promoting and developing an ethos that meets the needs
of all pupils
Audience
All group members
Use of expert
None is required.
Links to the learning process

Practical application

Feedback and reflection

Embedding the experience
Links to other study topics
Your completed portfolio will need to meet the Portfolio Evaluation Criteria that are
introduced in Study Day 2. To help in presenting your evidence, make sure that, when
planning, completing and writing up your work-based activity, you refer to any other relevant
NPSLBA topics you have studied. For example, even if your cluster group didn’t choose to
work through a particular topic, you may have read the materials associated with that topic
yourself. You can use the theory in those materials to inform your practice when undertaking
a work-based activity and record your reflections as you go along.
Notes
Before you begin this activity, you should meet with senior colleagues to agree protocols.
Consider two children or young people, one of whom is experiencing behaviour and/or
attendance difficulties and another who is considered to be doing well.

How can Maslow’s hierarchy give you a deeper insight into the underlying causes of the
behaviour and/or attendance difficulties of one child or young person and the absence of
them for the other?
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
What would have to happen within the organisation for the needs of the child or young
person with particular difficulties to be addressed? Are there any implications for the wellbeing of the second child or young person?

How could this model (and/or other appropriate models) be employed to support and
develop an ethos that meets the needs of all pupils?
At the end of this work-based activity, you should meet again with senior colleagues to
discuss the impact this activity has had within your workplace.
You should record the key points from this conversation.
Outcomes
Within your organisation you will:

thoroughly investigate the application of Maslow’s hierarchy to a current situation and
have insight into the wider implications of the application of theory to practical context

devise an action plan to address any identified needs

discuss the action plan with colleagues and, as a result of your thinking, develop one
action point.
Reporting

Table of your findings, differentiating between the current situation and the actions that
could be taken to improve it

An action plan, with a timeline and your reflective log, to help record the process
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Work-based activity 4: Values and beliefs
Purpose

To support group members to focus on an approach that aims to meet the needs of all
pupils in relation to behaviour and attendance
Audience
All group members
Use of expert
None is required.
Links to the learning process

Practical application

Feedback and reflection

Embedding the experience
Links to other study topics
Your completed portfolio will need to meet the Portfolio Evaluation Criteria that are
introduced in Study Day 2. To help in presenting your evidence, make sure that, when
planning, completing and writing up your work-based activity, you refer to any other relevant
NPSLBA topics you have studied. For example, even if your cluster group didn’t choose to
work through a particular topic, you may have read the materials associated with that topic
yourself. You can use the theory in those materials to inform your practice when undertaking
a work-based activity and record your reflections as you go along.
Notes
Before you begin this activity, you should meet with senior colleagues to agree protocols.
1. Identify a group of interested colleagues and carry out the process in Activity 1 using the
interview transcript from Resource A as a stimulus for discussion if appropriate and
practical.
2. Relate the group’s top-three chosen values and beliefs (from Resource B Diamond 9
sort) to the pre-reading literature. Match the reality outlined in the pre-reading with the
perceptions of the group.
3. Make a note of any practical ways that an organisation could build strong values and
beliefs that can be seen, in practice, to support the behaviour and attendance agenda.
4. Match this ‘ideal’ to the reality of a child within an educational context; discuss this with
the child or young person, parents and carers, other staff or colleagues on an informal
basis.
At the end of this work-based activity, you should meet again with senior colleagues to
discuss the impact this activity has had within your workplace.
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You should record the key points from this conversation.
Outcomes
Within your organisation you will:

create your own Diamond 9 based upon inclusion (individually or within a group of
colleagues)

hold discussions with staff, parents or carers, children, young people and the community,
noting their viewpoints (and make audio/video recording of these, possibly in conjunction
with other group members)

table an action plan for the practical integration of positive values and beliefs to move
forward an approach that aims to meet the needs of all pupils.
Reporting

A Diamond 9 diagram

Notes (and possibly video or audio recordings) on the interviews about the values and
beliefs operating within the organisation

An action plan for change
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Work-based activity 5: Emotional well-being
and the National Healthy School Standard
Purpose

To help group members positively influence the ethos in their organisation and to
promote change in relation to the behaviour and attendance agenda
Audience
Staff working in school settings
Use of expert
You do not need to involve an expert but it might be useful to involve the local authority
Healthy Schools coordinator.
Links to the learning process

Practical application

Feedback and reflection

Embedding the experience
Links to other study topics
Your completed portfolio will need to meet the Portfolio Evaluation Criteria that are
introduced in Study Day 2. To help in presenting your evidence, make sure that, when
planning, completing and writing up your work-based activity, you refer to any other relevant
NPSLBA topics you have studied. For example, even if your cluster group didn’t choose to
work through a particular topic, you may have read the materials associated with that topic
yourself. You can use the theory in those materials to inform your practice when undertaking
a work-based activity and record your reflections as you go along.
Notes
Before you begin this activity, you should meet with senior colleagues to agree protocols.
If you work in a school that has not already achieved a Healthy Schools Standard quality
mark, you may wish to contact other schools that have achieved it about what actions your
organisation could take to access the programme. Pay particular attention in this discussion
to the relevance of any actions promoting an aim to meet the needs of all pupils, with
particular reference to behaviour and attendance.

Work with colleagues to draw up a plan for how your school could work towards this
quality mark.

Pay particular attention in your discussions to how this plan will influence behaviour and
attendance.

Identify your role, and those of others, in putting your plan into action.
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Alternatively:
Undertake an audit of the levels of emotional literacy within your organisation. You will find
the following resources useful:

the National Healthy Schools website: www.healthyschools.gov.uk

Sharp, P., Nurturing Emotional Literacy – A Practical Guide for Teachers, Parents and
those in the Caring Professions, Appendices 4, 5 and 6.
At the end of this work-based activity, you should meet again with senior colleagues to
discuss the impact this activity has had within your workplace.
You should record the key points from this conversation.
Outcomes
In your organisation you will:

share your findings with colleagues

identify some first steps and draw up an action plan.
Reporting

An action plan (with time frames, outcomes and nominated personnel), agreed with
senior colleagues, to achieve the National Healthy School Standard
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Work-based activity 6: The voice of children
and young people
Purpose

To provide an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the values and beliefs of
children and young people as they relate to an approach that aims to meet the needs of
all pupils

To explore how the perceptions of children and young people relate to the views of the
adults working in the organisation
Audience
All group members
Use of expert
None is required.
Links to the learning process

Practical application

Feedback and reflection

Embedding the experience
Links to other study topics
Your completed portfolio will need to meet the Portfolio Evaluation Criteria that are
introduced in Study Day 2. To help in presenting your evidence, make sure that, when
planning, completing and writing up your work-based activity, you refer to any other relevant
NPSLBA topics you have studied. For example, even if your cluster group didn’t choose to
work through a particular topic, you may have read the materials associated with that topic
yourself. You can use the theory in those materials to inform your practice when undertaking
a work-based activity and record your reflections as you go along.
Notes
Before you begin this activity, you should meet with senior colleagues to agree protocols.
Arrange to interview some individual children and young people in your setting, or a setting
with which you work. Ensure that you have the opportunity to speak with some children who
appear to be coping well within the organisation and some children and young people who,
according to the setting, appear to be struggling to cope.
Use the prompts below as a guide to help you.

Identify and summarise the children/young people’s values and beliefs about behaviour
and attendance.
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
Compare the perceptions of children and young people with your own perceptions and
those of colleagues within the organisation.
At the end of the activity, prepare a chart of your analysis of the perceptions of the children
and young people in comparison to adult views.
Include some suggestions for action, perhaps in areas where children’s and young people’s
views and adult views need to be brought closer together. These suggestions may be lowlevel, small changes or they may have whole-system impact.
Ask the children or young people to complete sentences like these.

I feel I belong here when...

I feel I don’t belong here because...

I find it easiest to cope in lessons when...

I find it hardest to cope in lessons when...

I know the staff at the school like me when...

A good teacher is one who...

I feel like I am doing well because…

I feel like I am not coping because…
Ask the children or young people further questions as appropriate. For example:

What do you think this school or centre values most about children and young people?

In this school or centre, what do you feel is important?

What would have to change to help you to cope even better than you are now?
You will find it useful to research materials on audit and self-review as you prepare your
interviews or questionnaires.
At the end of this work-based activity, you should meet again with senior colleagues to
discuss the impact this activity has had within your workplace.
You should record the key points from this conversation.
Outcomes

At the end of this activity, write a brief paper and prepare a chart of your analysis of the
children’s and young people’s responses and how these relate to their behaviour and
attendance.

Discuss your analysis with colleagues and groups of children or young people. This
feedback will include some suggestions for action. These suggestions might be low-level,
small changes or they may have whole-system impact.
Reporting

Annotated interview excerpts with children and young people (audio and/or video)

A paper of chronicled and summarised children’s and young people’s responses

Suggestions for action
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References
Acknowledgements
Extract from Lister, I. Teaching and Learning Through Human Rights, Strasbourg © Council
of Europe. Used with kind permission.
Definitions of the Index for Inclusion, adapted from the Index for Inclusion © 2002 CSIE.
Booth, T. and Ainscow, M. (2002) Index for Inclusion: developing learning and participating in
Schools. Used with kind permission. The Index for Inclusion is a practical resource
supporting inclusive school development through a self-review of the school’s cultures,
policies and practices. Available from the CSIE website.
Ten Reasons for Inclusion © 2002 Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE). Used
with kind permission.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs taken from Maslow, A. (1973) The Farther Reaches of Human
Nature. Reprinted by permission of SLL/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. Copyright by Abraham
Maslow. Used with kind permission.
Further reading
CSIE, Index for Inclusion, www.csie.org.uk
DfES, SEN Toolkit, DfES Ref: 0558/2001, available at:
www.education.gov.uk/publications
DfES, Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 2001, DfES Ref: 558/2001, available at:
www.education.gov.uk/publications
Goleman, D. (1996) Emotional Intelligence, Bloomsbury
Lister, I. (1984) Teaching and Learning about Human Rights, Strasbourg: Council for Europe
McCown, K. S. (1998) Self Science, 6 Seconds, California
NAHT (July 2000) Social Inclusion – Secondary Leadership, Paper 6
Ofsted, Guidance for Ofsted Inspectors, www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Publicationsand-research
Ofsted (June 2003) Leadership and Management: What Inspection Tells Us, HMI 1646
Sharp, P. (2001) Nurturing Emotional Literacy, David Fulton, London
UNESCO, The Salamanca Statement, www.unesco.org/education/pdf/SALAMA_E.PDF
UNICEF, The Full Convention on the Rights of the Child, www.unicef.org/crc
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National Programme for Specialist Leaders of Behaviour and Attendance
Villa, R. and Thousand, J. (2005) Creating an Inclusive School, ASCD
Useful websites
Help for parents: www.parentscentre.gov.uk
Human Values Foundation, www.ehv.org
Promoting the health and well-being of children and young people: www.dh.gov.uk
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