Consequences subgroup minutes: December 2024

Attendees and apologies

• Scottish Government (Chair)

• Association of Directors of Education Scotland (ADES)

• Association of Scottish Principal Educational Psychologists (ASPEP)

• Brechin High School (Angus)

• COSLA

• Education Institute for Scotland (EIS)

• Education Scotland

• Heathfield Primary School (South Ayrshire)

• Mearns Castle High School (East Renfrewshire)

• NASUWT

• Oban High School (Argyll and Bute) Inverclyde

• respectme

• Saracen Primary School (Glasgow)

• Scottish Government (Secretariat)

• Stirling High School (Stirling)

 

Apologies

• Head Teacher, Royal High School (Edinburgh)

• Head Teacher, Hazelwood ASL School (Glasgow)

• Drummond Community High School (Edinburgh)

Items and actions

Welcome and introductions

The Chair welcomed members, introductions were made and apologies were noted.

The Chair provided an overview of the group's purpose, context and desired outcomes. The Chair and how this discussion will focus on the actions outlined in the action plan that will support this work.

Terms of Reference

The Chair confirmed the subgroup had been established, as part of the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools (SAGRABIS), to consider the response to the findings of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR) and the relationships and behaviour summits, relating to school staff reporting that there is insufficient clarity on appropriate consequences. 

The Chair highlighted that the joint action plan includes a commitment to consider to provide clarity on the range of approaches and consequences that are available, including exclusion where there is no appropriate alternative, to empower staff to promote positive relationships and behaviour and respond to behaviour that impacts on learning and teaching or the health and safety of others.

Members agreed to send comments on the Terms of Reference via email.

Action: Members to send comments to SG on the Terms of Reference via email. 

Timescales for subgroup

The chair confirmed that this short-life working group had been established with a goal to producing an output by the end of March.

Consequences discussion

The Scottish Government delivered a presentation highlighting the key themes emerging from BISSR, the Relationships and Behaviour Summits as well as a range of Teaching Union’s national conferences and surveys. The presentation also set out challenges identified and a summary of what stakeholders are looking for in this area. Members provided the following comments:

• the group’s remit has been well balanced, and the tone has been clearly captured
• the complexity of the issue and challenges with resourcing was acknowledged – keen to see what we can do to support schools in that context
• a "one size fits all" approach does not work; expectations and responses should be clearly communicated to all
• challenges with recruitment and staff absences make it difficult to build positive relationships
• important to have consistency in expectations but response/support can be different depending on the need of the child
• lack of resources to support disengaged children and young people
• consequences should be framed as "what happens next" following challenging behaviour
• an appropriate curriculum can encourage more young people to engage with their education and in turn support behaviour management
• socio-economic factors and lack of parental support can contribute to behaviour issues
• schools face difficulties in finding alternatives to exclusion
• collaboration across school clusters can be more effective
• expectations should be grounded in a strong foundation of nurture
• raised concerns about teachers not always knowing how to respond in certain situations - potential need for a needs analysis
• safety must take priority over learning
• differences in perception when incidents occur, and staff members may be reluctant to report certain situations - need clarity on how these situations should best be addressed
• gap in schools feeling confident in addressing low level disruption - important to discuss the basics on how school leaders are analysing their school culture and how they are responding with actions to address that; there should be structures in place to deal with that low level disruption
• exemplars will be key in supporting the consequences guidance
• resepctme reward (self-evaluation framework) evaluation will publish in March and learning will be transferrable to other areas
• concern that the proposed timeframe of March may be ambitious

Next steps

The Chair summarised the discussion and proposed the following would be helpful: 

• clarity on what we mean by consequences and what the expectations are
• a statement of position highlighting that there are a variety of interventions available to schools
• challenge questions for schools
• clarity on the language used 
• exemplars 

Members indicated their willingness to have separate discussions on how they could support the work of the subgroup. Members were invited to get in touch by the end of next week if they would be able to help.

Action: SG to develop a plan for the next meeting and proposed output based on discussions.

AOB

The chair highlighted that the subgroup will meet approximately 4 times between December and March 2025. The confirmed dates are:
-    20th January - COSLA
-    19th February – St Andrews House
-    19th March – Victoria Quay 

No other business was raised

Support and Wellbeing Unit
Learning Directorate
December 2024