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Eng: Behaviour specialist, Tom Bennett, to lead a government initiative to support schools

Posted: Sat May 04, 2019 11:41 am
by Debbie_Hepplewhite
If anyone can make a good job of this laudable aspiration to support schools to improve behaviour management, Tom Bennett is your man!

https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-how- ... -will-work
The government has outlined details of a £10 million initiative to tackle bad behaviour in schools. It will see more than 500 schools receive advice from other expert exemplar schools on dealing with poor pupil behaviour.

The scheme will be led by the DfE’s behaviour tsar Tom Bennet, who talked to Tes about the programme, and his role in it.
This is such an important initiative to support teachers struggling with poor behaviour of one kind or another.

The TES headline description of a 'crackdown' is probably not the right word for the intention of this initiative. Read the whole piece to learn Tom's ethos underpinning this project.

Re: Eng: Behaviour specialist, Tom Bennett, to lead a government initiative to support schools

Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 6:05 pm
by Debbie_Hepplewhite
Teacher-blogger, Greg Ashman, writes about hearing Tom Bennett speak on the topic of behaviour and, as usual, provides some sensible thoughts about this topic:
Culture beats make-believe in tackling school behaviour
https://gregashman.wordpress.com/2019/0 ... behaviour/
I recently had the opportunity to see Tom Bennett speak about behaviour at the DSF conference in Perth. Oddly, although I have seen Bennett introduce a number of researchED conferences, I had never heard his signature behaviour talk and it was something pretty special. I think I am beginning to understand the role of school culture in a way that I had not previously fully appreciated. Bennett’s discussion was measured, nuanced and well-received by the teachers, special educators and speech pathologists in the audience. I can therefore understand why the UK government has appointed Bennett to oversee a ‘behaviour network’ to support 500 schools.

Re: Eng: Behaviour specialist, Tom Bennett, to lead a government initiative to support schools

Posted: Sun May 05, 2019 6:12 pm
by Debbie_Hepplewhite
Hm...it seems the Government personnel are using the wording 'crack down' in their press release about this initiative.

And I'm not the only one who has commented about the unfortunate use of this notion (as noted in a tweet):
Schools backed to tackle bad behaviour

£10 million scheme to help teachers crack down on bad behaviour in the classroom
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/scho ... -behaviour
More than 500 schools will be part of a pioneering scheme to tackle bad behaviour in schools, backed by £10million investment.

Behaviour expert and former teacher Tom Bennett, who led a national review to identify the best ways of dealing with disruptive behaviour in schools, will lead the programme, where a network of expert schools will be identified to help teachers and school leaders in need of support.

More than 82% of parents consider good discipline in the class a key factor when choosing a school for their child, according to research. However, over a third of schools are not currently judged as having good enough behaviour by Ofsted. With low level disruption costing individual pupils up to 38 days a year of learning and dealing with poor behaviour cited as a key reason for teachers leaving the profession, the Government is determined to take action.