Relationships and behaviour in schools: national action plan 2024 to 2027

Context informing the development of the Joint National Action Plan.

The actions identified within this plan are informed by the evidence provided by the BISSR 2023^[2]. BISSR was commissioned by SAGRABIS to provide a nationally-representative picture of relationships and behaviour in schools:

Behaviour Trends

• BISSR found the majority of staff reported that most/all children and young people behave well around the school. Primary school staff are more likely than secondary school staff to report that all or most children and young people display good behaviour around school.
• However, there has been a decline in children’s behaviour since 2016, with primary and secondary staff reporting decreases in most positive behaviours and increases in most of the low level disruptive, serious disruptive and disengagement behaviours.
• BISSR found that serious cases of disruptive behaviour towards staff, though reported to have increased, are still infrequent. Research conducted by professional associations has reported more frequent experience of such behaviour than was reported within BISSR.
• There was a general trend of positive behaviours decreasing and negative behaviours increasing as children and young people’s ages increased.
• The exception to this trend was physical aggression and violence, both directed at other children and young people and towards staff, which were more often experienced in primary schools compared with secondary schools, particularly within the P1-3 age-range.
• Female staff were more likely than male staff to have encountered at least one incident of physical violence towards themselves in the last 12 months. In contrast, male staff were more likely than female staff to have experienced homophobic, biphobic or transphobic abuse or verbal abuse.
• The BISSR research also identified new and emerging themes of challenging behaviour which are widespread in secondary school, and are beginning to emerge within the primary sector:
  • Vaping, including asking to be let out of class to go to the toilet, in order that they can vape;
  • in-school truancy, whereby children and young people are in school but not attending class, and instead congregate in corridors, toilets and social areas;
  • a rise in misogynistic views, and use of misogynistic and explicitly sexualised language, amongst boys and young men;
  • problematic use of mobile phones and social media, which was leading to disrupted learning in class, and online bullying and abuse.
• Teachers and support staff were asked about which behaviours that they had experienced in the last week had the greatest negative impact on their teaching experience or their experience as a support staff member. The three behaviours that staff identified as having the greatest overall negative impact were all low-level disruptive behaviours: talking out of turn, hindering other pupils and using/looking at mobile phones/tablets inappropriately.
• For those staff experiencing violent and aggressive pupil behaviour, qualitative participants reported a profound impact on their mental health as well as their role. Particular concern was raised regarding the wellbeing of teaching and support staff, who frequently manage disruptive behaviour in classrooms. Violent and aggressive behaviour was also seen to have an impact on school ethos and atmosphere and had led to greater stress and anxiety and a tense atmosphere within schools. Interviewees perceived incidents of pupil violence and aggression having a negative impact on the mental health of pupils.
• BISSR suggests that serious disruptive incidents might be under-reported within school statistics, with primary and secondary staff stating that they were less likely to report an issue to anyone in 2023 than they were in 2016. Reasons given included the lack of information provided to teachers and support staff following previous incidents to update them of the outcome; a lack of support from local authorities; and a lack of consequences for behaviour.
• School staff were generally positive about the level of support they receive from other staff within their school, particularly the formal and informal support they receive from their colleagues working in the same role. There were some differences in staff types, with secondary staff having lower levels of confidence than primary staff that senior staff would help them if they experienced behaviour management difficulties, and support staff highlighting particular challenges in attending meetings or training to support relationships and behaviour approaches. There was also a mismatch between the support local authority representatives identified as being available to schools, and the support reported by schools.

Factors contributing to behaviour trends

• Most school staff in BISSR reported that pupil behaviour was worse in 2023 than before the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions began in March 2020, both in the classroom and around the school. Opinion differed as to whether the COVID-19 pandemic was the cause of these changes in behaviour or had exacerbated and accelerated existing trends.
• The mitigations put in place to limit the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic were felt to have had a negative impact on behaviour, particularly for those children and young people whose transition - either between early years and primary or primary and secondary - was disrupted because of periods of home-learning. Among the impacts identified were:
  • delays to children and young people’s social and communication skills, leading to distressed and disruptive behaviour related to sharing, playing together and communicating their feelings in primaries, and interpersonal relationships and group work in secondaries;
  • disengagement with school and schoolwork;
  • reduction in attendance for some children and young people;
  • anxiety and poorer mental wellbeing;
  • greater reliance on mobile phones and social media.
• The most negative impacts of COVID-19 were considered to be felt by the most vulnerable children and young people: those affected by poverty, deprivation and trauma.
• Other underlying factors contributing to changes in behaviour identified by participants in the BISSR research were:
  • a lack of consequences for children and young people;
  • a lack of support for children and young people with additional support needs (particularly Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder);
  • disengagement from school and learning;
  • wider societal changes such as a general lack of respect in society, the ubiquity of social media and changing approaches to parenting.
• The scale of the challenge in the BISSR research is backed by other research by teaching unions and third-sector organisations, who have published their own research into issues such as violence, abuse and gender-based violence.
• While the BISSR research did not involve parents or children and young people directly, Public Health Scotland research provides evidence of the significant impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on parents’ and carers’ wellbeing, relationships and feelings of connectedness with others and their community. Periods of home-learning have been felt to have impacted on parental engagement and involvement in schools and to have amplified unmet needs, and created new needs.^[3]
• In addition, the early childhood development statistics 2022/23 identified the percentage of children having a concern noted about at least one area of their development at their 4-5 year review had increased from 15% 2021/22 to 17% in 2022/23. Language and communication (8%) and emotional/behavioural development (8%) were the most frequent areas of concern noted. Given the evidence from BISSR 2023 of how delays in the development of these skills are impacting on the behaviour of children in early primary, it may be expected that this increase may be reflected in the findings of the sixth wave of BISSR, when these children will be in primary 3 or 4.

Relationships and behaviour approaches

• Within schools, there was evidence of a culture shift towards a focus on relationships, restorative practice and nurturing approaches and away from punitive approaches since 2016. Nurturing approaches, the promotion of positive behaviour through whole-school ethos and values, and restorative approaches were commonly used across primaries and secondaries to both encourage positive relationships and behaviour and manage serious and low-level disruption.
• School staff were generally supportive of more nurturing and restorative approaches to managing behaviour, with the caveat that time and support were needed to integrate these fully within the school, and that there had to be meaningful consequences within this approach for more serious disruptive behaviour.
• Analysis showed perceived poorer school ethos and poorer promotion of policies on behaviour were associated with frequent negative behaviour including low level disruptive behaviour, aggression towards other children and young people and social exclusion.
• Teachers’ confidence in their ability to ‘promote positive behaviour’ and ‘respond to indiscipline’ in the classroom, both in primary and secondary schools remains high, although confidence in their ability to ‘respond to indiscipline’ has decreased since 2016.
• Analysis showed limited confidence in one’s own abilities ‘to respond to indiscipline in the classroom’ or to ‘promote positive behaviour’ was also associated with more frequent experiences of negative behaviour, though no inferences can be drawn from the analysis about causality of this relationship.