Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Executive Director Families and Communities which provided an overview of the preventative work undertaken to tackle behaviour in school; progress made against the national behaviour plan; and a comparison of incidents reported across other local authorities.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee –

(a)      note the content of this report; and

(b)      instruct the Chief Officer - Education and Lifelong Learning to continue to plan preventative professional learning and report progress against the local Behaviour Plan through regular National Improvement Framework updates.

The Convener, seconded by the Vice Convener, moved the recommendations as set out in the report.

Councillor Blake, seconded by Councillor Grant, moved as an amendment:-

That the Committee:-

(a)      note the content of this report;

(b)      note the guidance issued by the Scottish Government on 17 June Schools: Fostering a positive, inclusive and safe school environment;

(c)      agree while any measures that can effectively tackle disruption in classrooms is welcome, parents will be sceptical of the approach being taken if this is the best that SNP ministers can come up with;

(d)      agree teachers and staff in schools will not feel reassured by a laminated list of bullet points when they are having to deal with violent incidents involving pupils;

(e)      agree Aberdeen Labour is serious about supporting teachers and staff in schools by tackling violence in our schools, and to repair the damage done by the SNP during their 18 years in power nationally and 3 years in power locally; and

(f)       instruct the Chief Officer - Education and Lifelong Learning to continue working with trade union colleagues  to plan preventative professional learning and report progress against the local Behaviour Plan through regular National Improvement Framework updates.

On a division, there voted:- for the motion (11) – the Convener; the Vice Convener; Councillors Allard, Hazel Cameron, Fairfull, MacGregor, McRae and Radley; and Ms Barclay, Dr Murray and Mrs Smith; for the amendment (5) – Councillors Blake, Farquhar, Grant, Malik and McLeod; declined to vote (4) – Mr Haywood, Ms Munro, Mr Murray and Mr Regmi.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       in relation to the report recommendation to report back through National Improvement Framework updates, to note that the Executive Director and Chief Officer – Education and Lifelong Learning would liaise outwith the meeting in respect of whether a full report back on the behaviour plan was to be provided, and the timescales for this;

(ii)       in relation to the recently issued Scottish Government document on consequences in schools, to note that the Executive Director would look to share this more widely with staff;

(iii)      to note that the Chief Officer – Education and Lifelong Learning would provide a service update to Members outwith the meeting in relation to how many schools had not used the incident reporting system and whether that number had declined since the previous year;

(iv)      to note that there was missing text at action 15 in the behaviour action plan appendix, and the Chief Officer – Education and Lifelong Learning would provide the detail of this to Members; and

(v)      to adopt the motion.