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Cardiff West Community High School featured on BBC News for reforming behaviour 

 

Phone and shouting ban 'transforms' school plagued by fights

Pupils leaving lessons upset about social media comments.

These were regular occurrences at Cardiff West Community High School - one of the most "challenged" schools in Wales - until mobile phones were banned as part of a range of measures introduced to tackle bad behaviour.

"Almost overnight, exclusions [for violence] reduced," said head teacher Mike Tate, who introduced the ban at the secondary school in Ely, Cardiff, last summer.

Mr Tate, who also banned shouting, said internal truancy - when pupils are in school but not lessons - was now "almost nil" and there was better focus in classrooms.

When Mr Tate became the head teacher of Cardiff West two years ago, he wanted to understand what was causing the behavioural problems at the school.

The issues included pupils bunking off lessons, being aggressive and fighting due to social media spats.

Deputy head teacher Kathryn Stevens said the problems "permeated every part of the school day".

"We were having fights at lunchtime, at break time. We were having children walking out of lessons because they were seeing messages popping up and it was causing them distress," Ms Stevens said.

Mr Tate said pupils would "come out of class because they would get a message to go and see another pupil".

"We could see that these were big issues," he added.

"It's transformed behaviour," added Ms Stevens

Mr Tate said it would be "naive" to claim fights had been eradicated completely, but said pupil exclusions for violence had fallen by 72% since the ban was introduced.

                                                                                                                          

So what do the pupils make of the changes?

Sixteen-year-old Lanre believes the phone ban, brought in last year, has made a big difference to behaviour.

He said pupils were more focused in lessons and there was less bullying

"People used to be recorded and it used to go online" but that has now stopped, he said.

Lexi, 15, said better relationships between staff and pupils was important.

"I think better relationships definitely help the children become better behaved in their classes," she said.

He said banning phones had also addressed the problem of "pupils texting one another to meet in the toilets, or be out of lessons", leading to a reduction in internal truancy.

For the full story please see the link on BBC News below;

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czxy1n9dgl3o