The ultra-disciplined approach sails quite close to common sense, but it absolutely isn’t working

In 2021 our school switched from a nurturing style to one with an ultra-strict behaviour policy. The idea is to create a ‘calm environment’, but the means to get that environment is by creating a culture of fear, where kids can’t engage in learning. 

One of my children went to bed crying one night because he was so worried about not having enough spare green pens. I’ve heard of kids getting up in the night to double-check whether a teacher has sent them homework, that they might get in trouble for not doing. 

We’ve got kids that were really happy at primary school now screaming at the school gates because they don’t want to get out of the car.

Last year I spoke to a mum who was called by the school because her daughter wouldn’t go into the isolation room. She had to convince her daughter – who was weeping at the other end of the phone – to go in because she was scared she’d get suspended otherwise, which as a single working mum wasn’t something she could manage. This poor girl just sat in a room with a computer that didn’t work, from 9am-4pm.

The approach to behaviour that our school and many like this have implemented stems from Doug Lemov’s book, ‘Teach Like a Champion’, and teachers are egged on to ‘push through and sweat the small stuff.’ 

The problem is, it all sails quite close to common sense. Of course we want good behaviour and smart students, but this approach, which comes packaged in all this pseudo-psychology about cognitive load, absolutely isn’t working. 

There are other schools in our area that take a completely different approach to behaviour, and they’re achieving far higher than ours.

A common misconception is that these hardline rules are being introduced in schools where behaviour is out of control.  But that wasn’t the case at our school – our problem was that there was a relatively small group of kids who were creating a real bullying problem. Then these ultra-strict rules came in, the kids that weren’t causing any trouble felt like they were being penalised, and the bullying is still there anyway.

Parents and teachers have done so much to try and draw attention to how much damage this is doing to children, but there is nowhere we can go – we’ve exhausted every avenue. 

We went to the school, and they said they couldn’t help. We went to the trustees, they said they couldn’t help. And then we went to the higher people in the trust, and they then sent us a legal letter. We went to the Department for Education regional director, who said there’s nothing he can do. There is no accountability in education.

One thing that’s been fascinating for us is the amount of time and money that’s been spent on an external PR agency to brief our school on how to fight against us. It feels like they are a ‘brand’ and they’re trying to protect their brand at all cost.

And it’s not being picked up by the national media as it’s not considered headline-grabbing enough. That’s what’s been reflected by some of the BBC journalists we’ve talked to. A Sky journalist was on the cusp of covering our school but said, ‘there’s just not enough headline in this.’ But that’s the miserable existence of our kids they’re talking about.

For any Year Six parents looking at senior schools I’d advise you to ask about their behaviour policy. Because if you haven’t, you could end up in a place like this.

Dad, South East