BFL – boosting staff and pupil morale and increasing academic attainment

The head teacher of Ninestiles School in Birmingham has driven change over the last decade by focusing on effective teaching and learning, assessment for learning and curriculum choice. One of the key features of this transformation has been the introduction and painstaking observance of a rigorous, transparent, whole-school approach to discipline.

About ten years ago students were underachieving and teachers were streaming children heavily – focusing on higher streams with lots of people in lower streams not attending. Children were left with bad feelings about their time in school.   

In 1993 the school did have a pastoral system, but a new management team immediately saw scope for improvements. Originally there were heads of year that stayed focused on particular age groups; however, this was re-configured so that heads of year would stay with each new year of intake throughout the five-year (11-16) cycle. This meant that the year heads would get to know the children inside out and build really strong relationships with the parents.

The new leadership team also started placing positive images of pupils around the school to reward them and motivate others to succeed. This, in addition to the ‘listening’ pastoral system, helped to create a new, pupil-centred ethos. Despite the introduction of these programmes, there was still too much time spent off task by students. This meant, chiefly, that there was too much arguing over low-level behaviour problems, the kind of constant daily issues that can really wear teachers down.

When this point was reached, some ten years ago, the foundations were laid for the behaviour system of ‘consequences’ that still underpins school life at Ninestiles today – albeit after several stages of re-evaluation and modification. See Methodology.

‘Behaviour for Learning’ (BFL) has boosted staff and pupil morale and helped to generate a rise in academic attainment across the school - it has increased the number of pupils gaining five A* - C GCSE results from 6 per cent in 1988 to 75 per cent in 2003.

The impact is borne out in these consistently high results of recent years and by the comments of the chief inspector of schools, who said of Ninestiles in 2000, 'Of the 1,650 secondary schools receiving a full inspection since September 1997, the teaching quality profile is the best of any.'

The implementation of the scheme has not proved costly, but it has taken a lot of time to develop. The deputy head oversees the scheme with help from the heads of year, one member of staff (a former head of year who returned from retirement) monitors the isolation room. Recently, a pastoral secretary was appointed to take over the administration of the scheme, which was formerly carried out by the deputy and heads of year. 

The system is not a quick fix by any means – it’s a whole-school system and you have to spend time at the beginning getting it right, establishing the rules and making sure they are succinctly and concisely explained for children. 

The BFL system continues to be adapted according to changing needs. The most recent focus has been on stamping out abusive language.

The behaviour system of four ‘consequences’ was initially developed over ten years ago by the senior management team as a way of reversing a pattern of underachievement. Consequences one and two – or C1 and C2 for short – are verbal warnings. C3 is a detention, usually held the day after the offence, and C4 is one day spent in the school’s isolation unit. This is a small room where up to five pupils at a time carry out their C4 punishment for one school day per offence which is from 9am until 3pm; however this can be extended in relation to the nature of the offence. The main concept is to keep the children apart from their friends where they will be working under the continued supervision of a member of staff.

BFL is a powerful tool for getting members of the school community to respect each other. Bullying, verbal violence or swearing at another pupil may lead to a C4 or exclusion, depending on the circumstances. Pupils are excluded for any physical violence or verbal violence aimed at a member of staff. The fixed penalty for carrying inappropriate items such as a knife or drugs is a permanent exclusion.

For pupils’ personal security and peace of mind BFL also extends to behaviour in the toilets, where CCTV operates in the circulation areas and where toilets are allocated to specific year groups. All C3s and above are input directly by staff into a searchable intranet database, providing an instant snapshot of pupils’ conduct for staff and parents.

The programme, however, can not be a heavy stick with which to beat the pupils. It has to be fair and you have to take the children along with you. For this reason, each of these consequence levels are clearly spelt out around the school and any changes are announced in assemblies. The emphasis of BFL is the detrimental effects of bad behaviour so staff always try to ensure that pupils understand that they are responsible for the consequences of their actions. 

Ninestiles School is a large 11-18 Technology College of 1500 pupils situated in Acocks Green, Birmingham, close to the boundary of Solihull. It is a foundation school and its 240 places each year are heavily oversubscribed. The school attracts pupils from a wide area and broad social background.