The Education Select Committee asked how to support and reinforce positive behaviour in schools and wanted to find out more about the nature and level of challenging behaviour by pupils, the impact of such behaviour and how schools managed behaviour and discipline. They were also keen to know how special educational needs can best be recognised in schools’ policies on behaviour and discipline. CSIE stated that every child has a right to mainstream education within their local school – including those said to have special educational needs or those who have emotional or behavioural difficulties, so long as this did not interfere with the education of other children. Schools are inherently failing to uphold the principle of the best interest of the child (as stipulated in the Children Act, 1989 and The UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, 1989 and other pieces of legislation) when they temporarily or permanently exclude students on the grounds of behaviour or special educational needs. CSIE argued that educational provision needs to be re-organised and its delivery changed so that students are not temporarily or permanently excluded after highlighting the damage that such exclusions cause. CSIE recommends that schools work towards reducing and then eliminating all exclusions through support and interventions in teaching and learning arrangements. Schools may support and reinforce positive behaviour by valuing all members of their community equally and through treating every person in the school community as simultaneously a learner and a teacher. Rather than speaking of special educational needs and singling out individual children as misbehaving CSIE recommends that schools identify what barriers exist to all young people’s learning. In this way schools may ensure that provision is suitable for all learners. CSIE recommends that schools engage with their students in this work and involve young people in systems of peer support, mediation and conciliation.
Consultation Document – Response from CSIE (Word, 46 Kb)
