Are Behaviour Hubs Failing?
Can we agree on something first?
If behaviour improves, it is likely that students will learn more, and make progress. And if behaviour deteriorates, students will learn less, and make worse progress.
This bit is trickier to agree on, so I’ll accept whatever your answer is. Imagine your school has had a lot of success with behaviour. So much success that it has been chosen to lead on behaviour as a behaviour hub. You now help other schools improve behaviour, because you have skills and knowledge to share.
How would your school’s progress be affected?
Keep that answer in mind as we dive into the data and the nuance.
This is an article in Schools Week about the success of Behaviour Hubs.
It cites some perplexing measures of impact which come from the Behaviour Hubs’ interim report. And then it tries to offer some context to explain them.
“Consider, for example, that staff ratings of pupils’ behaviour as positive went from 44 to 49 per cent, against students’ rating falling by 2 per cent.
Our experience tells us that when schools join the programme, the same happens initially as happens with any policy shift or change in a school. If leaders carry out an action plan based on an honest audit and the whole staff team administer the action plan consistently, there will always be some level of resistance.”
Ah, that sounds plausible. Things are improving, but this change annoys those who love the status quo. So, some teachers would rather believe that behaviour has not improved, despite the evidence of their own eyes. They are not “honest”, and they let down the “whole staff team”. This could happen. In those circumstances, a 5% improvement rating is amazing.
And the students? Well, if the action plan is successful, now there are clear and consistent rules, and consistent consequences. No wonder they would say things have got worse. Again, very plausible.
But this is simply opinion. Opinion is no way to measure impact.
This was written by Pan Panayiotou, Executive head, Worthing High school and CEO, South Downs Education Trust. An insider who has been running a behaviour hub since 2021. His opinion ought to be listened to. But it is still not a measure of impact.
And it should also match up with some facts.
We agreed that, as behaviour improves, so does progress. This has been my experience of every school I have come across where behaviour improves - there is a significant increase in Progress 8.
Other metrics, like removal from lessons, suspensions, permanent exclusions might all go up - measuring those is not a sign of success or failure. The measure is, are students able to learn more when behaviour improves?
Let’s find out.
The 2024 Performance Tables tell us that Worthing High School has Progress 8 of +0.11. Great behaviour ought to lead to great progress. The DfE says this is only “average” progress.
But, this could be a school with high disadvantage, with a challenging cohort. So, some nuance is required. How do they compare to schools with similar intakes? FFT Schools Like Yours ranks them, in 2023, 42nd out of 51 similar schools.
Their intake is similar to schools on the list which I know. These schools include ones in Marlborough, Malmsbury, the Costswolds, Cheltenham - white, middle class catchments where parents are highly educated, and mostly financially secure.
But, maybe the comparison criteria in Schools Like Yours is wrong. Panayiotuo tells us the context is different to this:
“Worthing High School has never claimed to be anything other than a ‘normal’ mixed comprehensive school. We’re a coastal school with above average levels of SEND.”
‘Coastal school’ is shorthand for deprivation, isn’t it? The DfE Performance tables can settle this.
And sure enough, the school had 30 disadvantaged students in year 11 in 2024.
Out of 214, so 14%. The Education Policy Institute says that the national figure is 25%, or a quarter.
A not so ‘normal’ comprehensive. Despite its “average” progress, 91% of students get sufficient grades, and are motivated enough to carry on with education for at least 2 terms post 16. This compares to 86% nationally. This is another indicator that the cohort is not a normal comprehensive, but aspirational.
This one behaviour hub cannot represent all the behaviour hubs. Debunking one opinion is not a measure of impact either.
So we must turn to the organisation which oversees them, which has written the interim report.
Behaviour Hubs themselves have a web page dedicated to “impact”. Yet they publish no measures of impact there (at the time of writing). Instead they publish some measures of opinion which are far more positive than their report.
Yes, the report is not published or linked to the “impact” page. This smells, an a scale of fish, like a kipper. But, that’s just my opinion, which as we know is not a measure of impact.
Luckily, they do publish all their 18 lead schools. Let’s take a look at their data shall we?
What Are Behaviour Hubs Doing?
Here’s the full list, with their Progress 8 ranking (for 2023 - as 2024 is not yet on the site at the time of writing.)
Let’s see where they rank for progress compared to schools with similar cohorts. Remember you decided how much better their progress would be? I chose a conservative figure - they would only be 10% better. So, out of the 51 schools, their progress would rank them 20th or higher.
I’ve placed those schools in bold.
Allerton High School, Leeds 25/51
Ashmole Academy, Ashmole Academy Trust Ltd, Barnet 16/51
Bedford Free School, Advantage Schools, Bedford 47/51
Carmel College, Bishop Hogarth Catholic Education Trust, Darlington 24/51
Cromer Academy, Inspiration Trust, Norfolk 28/51
The Duston School, The Duston Education Trust, Northampton (all-through school) 32/51
Glenmoor Academy, United Learning Trust, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 21/51
The Market Bosworth School, Nuneaton 37/51
Moor End Academy, South Pennine Academies, Huddersfield 48/51
Painsley Catholic College, The Painsley Catholic Academy, Staffordshire 29/51
Pudsey Grammar School, 21st Century Learning Partnership, Leeds 30/51
Saint Augustine’s Catholic High School, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Multi-Academy Company, Worcestershire (I couldn’t find a match for this school)
Sedgefield Community College, The Laidlaw Schools Trust, Durham 12/51
St Gregory’s Catholic Science College, All Saints’ Trust, Brent 20/51
St James School, Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust, Exeter 11/51
St Patrick’s RC High School, Salford 31/51
Wingfield Academy, New Collaborative Learning Trust, Rotherham 38/51
Worthing High School, South Downs Education Trust, West Sussex 42/51
So, 4 out of 17 schools are in the top 40% for progress in similar schools.
This is an arbitrary measure - but most of us would agree it is a low bar. Top 40% seems like a modest target.
The mean ranking, adding them all up and dividing by 17, is 29th out of 51. Below average.
What does this mean?
Probably that whatever these schools are doing with behaviour is less effective than schools with similar cohorts.
Probably that their students tend to behave in ways which are socially acceptable because of their background and upbringing, more than what the schools themselves are putting in place.
Possibly that becoming a leader of a hub is a distraction to the main thing - the progress of the students in your own school.
Certainly that, if you want effective behaviour advice, you need to pick very carefully. Luckily, there are 4 schools to choose from!
Light in the Darkness
Behaviour hubs are not scaleable in the current form. But improving behaviour is.
I have a colleague who has begun to lead on behaviour in his school for the last two years, and their team has transformed it. He’s proved this with all manner of real impact measures, especially including progress 8.
You know who you are. I appreciate you my friend.
Which behaviour school helped him, generously and effectively? Ashmole academy. They’re one of the four.
Contact them? I would.
Excellent article. It’s mad that Behaviour Hubs don’t measure in progress. This is probably because in education, it doesn’t matter if you are traditional or progressive, your ‘view’ is so entrenched you find the statistics to prove your position is right - and ignore those that show otherwise. I worked with Ashmole - and they were very different. The senior team used objective statistical measures to judge success - like progress. My school improved both for culture and progress scores - and working with Ashmole certainly influenced that. I would recommend Ashmole. Like anything in education - check a school or MATs progress and context before accepting that their ‘way’ works is my view.