Ashcroft High School

Ashcroft High is a school where students have a lot of opportunities to get involved in the running of the school. Student panels regularly look at behaviour issues, and there are focus groups on matters relating to teaching and learning. Until the PROGRESS Programme, however, there had never been a joint meeting of staff and students to discuss issues about learning and behaviour.

Students at Ashcroft were inclined to say that the issues around student behaviour at the school were mostly triggered by the rapid churn of staff. They felt a sense of loss about losing valued relationships, took out their anger on the new adults and resented the apparent triviality of the discipline issues that were raised.

Students told staff that another explanation of their behaviour was that many of the teaching styles they adopted were boring. Staff responded by explaining that they felt they had no choice but to teach in ways that made classroom management easier. Some staff said that the creative ideas students came up with for breaking this logjam ‘blew them away’.

At a separate meeting, teaching staff told SMT that they felt unsupported. This led to a discussion of how all the things leaders were doing to raise standards and improve the school meant they had less time available to show appreciation of the work that staff were doing.

Staff and students had also discussed the inconsistencies in adult responses to behaviour. These arose because some staff were reluctant to take on new ideas or ways of working. Their determination to do things the way they had always done them, led to those staff who embraced the changes feeling undermined.

In their meetings, staff explored a range of strategies for:

• Building their capacity to work as a whole team
• Developing strong relationships with students
• Making sure lessons were engaging and interesting