Hackney mayor slams ‘zero-tolerance’ behaviour policies in schools

Hackney Mayor Caroline Woodley. Photograph: Hackney Council

Mayor of Hackney Caroline Woodley has said she ‘cannot stand’ the use of strict ‘zero-tolerance’ policies in schools, as the local authority examines its approach to pupils’ behaviour amid skyrocketing suspension rates.

Last night (17 March), the children and young people’s scrutiny commission heard evidence from teaching union representatives as part of a behaviour policy review.

Data shows secondary school suspensions have risen far above the average for both inner and outer London, and councillors have said they want to find a way forward that is “tough on poor behaviour, tough on the causes of poor behaviour”.

But as they broached the topic of controversial ‘zero-tolerance’ policies pursued by some schools, Mayor Woodley made clear she “cannot stand [these] in any context”.

The mayor said she understood why there was a need for “bold and firm lines” to protect teachers and children, but “any child with special educational needs is going to fall foul of a zero-tolerance policy at one point or another”.

Her comments followed remarks from David Davies, divisional secretary for the local National Education Union (NEU) branch, who criticised the recent media appearance by a “famous” academy head advocating for a “no excuses” approach to behaviour.

Katherine Birbalsingh, founder and headmistress of Wembley’s Michaela Community School, told LBC radio host Nick Ferrari last week that her pupils were expected to show up and hand in their homework on time no matter the circumstances.

“You can’t say ‘The bus was late, that’s why I’m late’. That means that you should have woken up even earlier and got the earlier bus,” she said.

Mr Davies judged this approach to be “really about compliance” rather than helping pupils understand “why it is important they behave in a certain way – because that’s how we want to try to behave in society”.

He added that “compliance as a behaviour management policy” was upsetting for union members, who argue they “didn’t become teachers to become ‘prison guards for young people”.

In one example, he said, a school teacher was reprimanded for not sanctioning a child who took off their coat after they entered the school building rather than before – against the school’s strict ‘no coats inside’ policy.

Cllr Margaret Gordon suggested advocates of zero-tolerance argue they are a “necessary underpinning” for achievement – as they had coincided with the borough’s seeing improved exam results over the last two decades.

But Davies maintained that schools did not need rigid policies or an “exam factory-style approach” to see better outcomes.

Instead, he credited the last Labour government’s ‘London Challenge’ for improving school standards by fostering closer collaboration between local authorities.

The union secretary also raised the use of “off-rolling”, where pupils are informally encouraged to leave the school due to behaviour problems, without the school recording it as a permanent exclusion.

Darren Northcott, from the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), echoed the importance of collaboration between schools at a local level, particularly in an environment where schools were effectively competing against each other in the admissions process.

“Too often there is a gaming of the system, where schools perhaps perceive that it is in their interest to do ‘implied’ selection by judging which pupils are going to be easier to deal with, and hope some pupils with more challenging behaviours are educated elsewhere,” he said.

“We come across examples of local communities of schools where some schools are particularly inclusive and their ethos and mission is to educate all children in the community.

“But those schools are often penalised for that approach because others often take the approach that they won’t admit some of the pupils that have the most challenging behaviour.”

This latest evidence hearing took place as the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) released its report showing that suspensions and permanent exclusions in England have increased by more than a third in a single year.

Responding to the IPPR report, Cllr Arooj Shah, chair of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) children and young people board, said it supported calls for “greater mainstream inclusion of SEND children” in schools.

The LGA has urged Downing Street to ensure this is considered as part of the planned reforms to special needs policy and the government’s upcoming spending review.

Local data, likely to be more comforting for the commission, shows that Hackney’s special school suspensions are “significantly and consistently” lower than the national average, as well as inner London and outer London averages.