Sir Thomas Rich's Grammar School

Sir Thomas Rich's is a school judged 'outstanding' by Ofsted. Students feel privileged to be in an organisation that offers such high standards of education. The staff enjoys a high degree of autonomy, strong support from the senior team and a generally good working environment.

The school started PROGRESS following an increase in more challenging behaviour from students. The prevailing view was that such behaviour needed to be quelled, and that a ‘good’ teacher was one who could do so. Members of staff who did encounter difficulties dared not mention them for fear of being branded incompetent. This reduced the opportunities for staff to get support from others, and to develop common responses to student misbehaviour.

Young people had picked up from staff the idea that the best way of dealing things was to ‘put up and shut up.’ Those who had personal issues relating to home or to work felt that they had nobody to talk with. They felt distant from adults in the school and, though that worked for many, it didn’t work for all.

This history of avoiding emotional issues meant that engaging with the PROGRESS Programme was initially quite difficult for staff as well as students. It was the first time they had been asked to express an open and honest opinion about their experience of teaching and learning in the school. They had very little expectation that anything positive could happen as a result of such a discussion. It took for a while for trust to build, and for people to start using their intelligence to shape an even better learning environment.

Staff and students eventually decided to work together on strategies for developing shared understandings of expectations and building relationships that genuinely supported academic progress and learning. The goal was to work towards a situation of mutual support and respect, with both parties responsible for what went on in the classroom.

What emerged was a way of opening up a dialogue between staff and students when behaviour or learning was not going well. A form was developed for staff or students to use when they wanted to highlight any positive or negative aspect of the classroom relationships. The relevant Head of Year receives these forms, investigates and acts as an intermediary when necessary.