Vandalism, vaping, and disruption - a grim portrait of worsening behaviour in Wales' schools

DEFIANT pupils and parents, mobile phone misuse, vaping, vandalism, refusing to work and violence - just some of the growing problems Wales' education watchdog has documented in the country's secondary schools.

- BY ABBIE WIGHTWICK

The Estyn report, published today, looks at how best to deal with the mounting behaviour problem and follows a damning report into problems in colleges last week.

The findings, which may come as scant surprise to those working in and attending schools, are that behaviour has declined.

Estyn cites reasons including the pandemic, economic pressure on families and lack of specialist provision for increasing numbers of children with additional and emotional needs.

There is no clear national guidance on behaviour and exclusions from the Welsh Government and this needs addressing, the report warns.

It comes after multiple surveys and warnings from teaching unions about worsening behaviour and well-publicised cases of violence, including walkouts by staff and a teenager jailed for attempted murder after she stabbed two staff and another pupil.

Estyn carried out the report, to look at what interventions work best to tackle the worsening problem, at the request of education secretary Lynne Neagle. The Welsh Government is holding a national school behaviour summit this month.

Responses from staff surveyed are clear - action is overdue and there's a lack of national guidance as well as too little funding to support rising numbers of children with complex needs.

Local education authorities told Estyn that poor family engagement with schools, verbal abuse towards staff, including threatening behaviour were all problems.

Also on the list were mobile phone use in school and issues arising from social media, vaping on the school site - particularly in toilets, internal truancy, high anxiety and an increase in additional learning needs referrals, particularly around neurodiversity.

The inspectorate made clear that many pupils work well and looked at how schools can promote positive behaviour in secondary schools as it highlighted the challenges.