Behaviour & Attitudes

Pupils’ behaviours and attitudes at St Michael with St Thomas are exceptional. Leaders have ensured this culture through exceptionally high expectations of pupils’ behaviour and conduct, embodied in the school rules – Ready, Respectful, Safe - which permeate all aspects of school life. All adults in the school model these values and our high expectations are communicated consistently to pupils and the school community, with leaders insisting on parental engagement to support this shared understanding.

Low level disruption and incidents are dealt with swiftly using the agreed graduated response, which ensures that learning is not disrupted and any poor behaviour is dealt with consistently across the school. The same approach is applied during lunch and break times, with MDAs attending half termly training to ensure consistency during unstructured times in the day, meaning that there is no impact on learning time. Staff are committed to maintaining exceptional levels of behaviour at all times, and school structures such as staff rotas for eating lunch with the pupils, enable this to be part of the everyday ethos of the school.

Consistent monitoring of pupils’ behaviour enables staff to identify any trends or patterns, and act swiftly to address them. Due to this proactive approach, the overall picture of behaviour in school is excellent.
Therapeutic intervention plans are put in place for pupils identified as being in need of additional support for social, emotional and mental health and wellbeing, with highly trained staff using specific programmes to impact on the overall wellbeing of pupils. The school’s dedication to this approach mean that extreme behaviours are rare, as issues are addressed promptly and efficiently. Outcomes of the pupil questionnaire completed in November 2022, indicated that 89% of pupils stated that behaviour in lessons and around school is ‘always’ or ‘mostly always’ good, which demonstrates that pupils value the culture of high expectations for behaviour in school. Respect for all is embedded in the ethos of the school, including respectful touch which is demonstrated daily through our peer massage programme as part of the daily mindfulness time, which helps to relax pupils and leaves them ready to learn.

Pupils’ attitudes to learning have improved significantly since the last inspection, through a targeted approach to develop positive behaviours for learning and the introduction of a new curriculum to improve engagement and investment from pupils. This in turn has impacted on the application of pupils and the pride that they take, both in their directed classroom work, but also in the homework and projects that children complete, often choosing to extend their learning through independent study, which is a direct impact of the level of engagement in their learning.

Relationships between staff and pupils are positive and built on mutual respect. This was demonstrated in the outcome of the pupil questionnaire completed in November 2023, where 95% of pupils answered the statement ‘I have someone to talk to if I am worried’ with Always or Most Of The Time, and 97% of pupils stated that they feel proud of our school.

P​upil Questionnaires

Bullying

Through the implementation of our Ready, Respectful, Safe school rules, bullying is not accepted by any of the school community. The school has worked tirelessly to educate pupils, and parents, about all forms of bullying and the consequences, with the curriculum being specifically designed to ensure pupils know how to stay safe. Rigorous monitoring is in place in school, with detailed and accurate records which detail all incidents of bullying as well as recording follow up actions and review periods. Pupils complete regular questionnaires and staff are specifically trained through the Anti-Bullying Alliance materials to ensure that they have accurate and up to date information and strategies to allow them to be effective in their role. Pupil Leadership groups such as the Wellbeing Team are also in place in school, encouraging effective peer to peer support. The school website has a Whisper Button on all pages to allow pupils to report a concern directly to the FSW and HT, as well as ‘Whisper Boxes’ in place in every classroom which are checked weekly. This year the school has introduced ‘Talking Pebbles’ which is a strategy aimed at ensuring there are no barriers to children communicating worries or asking for help. These strategies are fully embedded in the school practice, which is evident by the fact that there has been one incident of bullying recorded in the last three years. The school has been recognised for its work on Anti-Bullying by receiving the All Together Award Gold Award from the ABA, which has a focus on preventing bullying of vulnerable pupils such as those with SEND.

Attendance

Attendance in school remains broadly in line with national averages and this has been a consistent picture over the last four years (2018-19 = 95.5%, 2019-2020 = 94.6% (up to March 2020 due to Covid-19) 2020-21 = 95.6%, 2021-2022 = 94.4%). The overall rate of persistent absenteeism has been consistently higher than national (2018-19 = 11.2%, 2019-2020 = 13.7% (up to March 2020 due to school closures for Covid-19 – this was declining and we expected if progress continued that the end of the year would have been around 8-9% PA) 2020-21 –11.7% (Covid closures and attendance coding changes) 2021-22 – 10.1% and remains a key priority for the school this year. Robust procedures for attendance have been employed, with parents being engaged in attendance contracts (ACs) if attendance reaches below the expected level following the graduated response. Initial AC meetings are followed up with regular review meetings and specific 1:1 or family support is put in place if necessary, and this is having a positive impact. Detailed attendance reports are completed to ensure leaders have a clear, up to date, picture of whole school attendance, and review meetings between the HT and Trust leaders take place each half term to decide on next steps and actions to address any issues. Pupil level education is also a priority for the school, and expectations for excellent attendance are regularly shared with all pupils, as well as targeted intervention groups taking place weekly. This is supported by weekly attendance prizes for classes, as well as half termly and termly 100% attendance certificates and prizes. The school work closely with a supply agency who donate prizes such as hampers and a Kindle which are used for attendance prizes, in an attempt to raise awareness and conscientiousness when it comes to attendance and punctuality.

Exclusions

There have been 5 suspensions in the last three years, which are the result of two pupils demonstrating extreme behaviours.

Where there are incidents of extreme behaviour, Personal Support Plans (PSPs) and Individual Crisis Management Plans (ICMP) are in place to enable staff to manage the behaviours effectively, minimising the disruption to other pupils. Staff in the school are trained in positive handling and prioritise de-escalation in these situations.