Misbehaviour interrupts most lessons for 4 in 10 teachers

Four in 10 teachers now report pupil misbehaviour is disrupting all or most of their lessons, a government survey suggests.

The Department for Education has published the latest results, for May, April and March, of its regular school and college voice omnibus surveys.

In total, thousands of teachers and leaders in primary, secondary and special schools were quizzed on a wide-range of topics for the surveys, which chart changes over time.

Here’s your trusty Schools Week round-up of the key findings…

1. Four in 10 teachers hit by regular lesson disruptions

In May, four in 10 teachers said pupil misbehaviour had interrupted all or most of the lessons they had taught in the previous week.

Teachers and leaders who’d taught a lesson in the past week were also asked how many minutes were lost to behaviour issues per half hour of lesson time.

On average, leaders reported 5 minutes had been lost, while teachers said seven minutes was wasted – both up by a minute on the responses to the March 2024 survey.

More than three quarters of teachers (78 per cent) and 58 per cent of leaders said misbehaviour had affected their wellbeing to a great or to some extent over the previous week.

2. Leaders more positive about behaviour

About half of primary school teachers (51 per cent) said pupils’ behaviour over the previous week had been good or very good. Forty per cent of secondary school and 47 per cent of special school teachers surveyed said the same, the May survey found.

But 39 per cent of secondary teachers said behaviour had been poor or very poor. As did nearly a third of primary teachers (28 per cent) and special school teachers (29 per cent).

Teachers and leaders were more positive about behaviour in previous surveys.

A higher proportion of primary (66 per cent), secondary (44 per cent) and special school teachers (52 per cent) rated behaviour as good or very good in March, for instance.

Leaders generally gave a more positive assessments of student behaviour than teachers, however. Some 81 per cent of primary, 77 per cent of special school and 56 per cent of secondary heads said behaviour over the previous week had been good or very good.

But that’s down on March, when 90 per cent of primary, 65 per cent of secondary school leaders and 83 per cent of special school leaders rated behaviour as good or very good.

3. More than quarter of secondary leaders flag weapon incidents

In March, leaders were asked whether there had been any known incidents of students carrying weapons on school premises since January.

The DfE-commissioned survey included “knives, swords, air rifles, guns or projectile weapons as examples of weapons”.

Twenty-seven percent of secondary school leaders said there had been a known incident, but just two per cent of primary and special schools said the same.

Of these, 14 per cent of leaders said there had been incidents of students using a weapon to cause injury or intimidation.

In May, 53 per cent of secondary school leaders said their school was dealing with knife crime as a safeguarding issue.

And 16 per cent of primary and 25 per cent of special school leaders said the same.

In comparison, in March, 11 per cent of primary and 47 per cent of secondary school leaders said they were dealing with knife crime as a safeguarding issue.

4. Teachers more confident in dealing with mental health

The majority of primary school teachers (77 per cent), secondary school teachers (76 per cent) and special school teachers (87 per cent) agreed or strongly agreed that they could identify behaviour that may be linked to a mental health issue, the April survey found.

A larger proportion of teachers also agreed they knew how to help pupils with mental health issues access support offered by their school, compared to when last asked in June 2023.

In April, 79 per cent of primary and 83 per cent of secondary teachers agreed or strongly agreed that they knew how to help pupils with mental health issues access support offered at their school. Some 86 per cent of special school teachers said the same.

And 65 per cent of primary and 61 per cent of secondary school teachers felt equipped to teach pupils in their class with mental health needs – larger proportions than in June 2023.

5. Teachers to deliver tutoring after NTP closes

The government’s flagship National Tutoring Programme came to an end this year.

But in May, 44 per cent of leaders said their school would continue to offer tutoring as an academic intervention after the NTP ended.

Of those 315 leaders, three quarters said they would use pupil premium to fund tutoring, while 34 per cent said they’d raid administrative budgets.

6. Less than half of leaders have heard of NIoT…

Only a quarter of teachers had heard of the government’s flagship teacher training and development provider, the National Institute of Teaching, before the survey in May.

And just under half of leaders (49 per cent) had heard of NIoT, the survey found.

NIoT was set up by four academy trusts and is funded by the Department for Education.