Britain’s schools are facing an epidemic of bad behaviour

Something troubling is happening in Britain’s schools. This week, the government released its findings from the first national survey into pupil behaviour in classrooms. The results are a hard lesson to learn. But, as a teacher who has witnessed chairs being thrown and pupils urinating on teachers’ cars, it doesn’t come as a surprise.

Over 40 per cent of students say that they feel unsafe each week because of poor behaviour, according to the survey. Students have the lowest perception of how well behaviour is going in school. This suggests that teachers and school leaders have normalised lower standards and expectations, to the point that roughly six weeks of lesson time is lost due to disruption a year.

Poor behaviour also seems to have worsened in recent years. A poll of 500 primary school teachers found that, since the pandemic, 84 per cent believe attention span has shortened and 85 per cent have seen an increase in low-level disruption, such as shouting out and not being able to take turns.