Review of Strategies to Address Gender Inequalities in Scottish ...

ii. Initial impetus and fundingThe strategy had been developed to respond to pupils – mostly boys – in the later stagesof primary school who had very challenging behaviour and who seemed unable tomanage their own responses to situations. One pupil, in particular, gave cause for concernbecause of his lack of self-awareness and self-control. The headteacher and thebehaviour support teacher (who was also a Primary 7 teacher) believed that there mightbe benefits in a more direct and sustained attempt to develop emotional literacy in somepupils. Accordingly, parents, pupils and staff were consulted. A high level of supportwas expressed and the initiative proceeded. No research was identified as contributing tothe development.Funding had been made available from the Scottish Executive as part of the nationalprogramme, Better Behaviour – Better Learning (BB-BL) 5 . This was used to providecover for the Behaviour Support Coordinator who worked with the extraction group onemorning each week.iii. The implementation of the strategyFor one morning a week, the Coordinator worked with a small group of pupils extractedfrom their ordinary lessons. The materials used to develop emotional literacy were takenfrom the nferNelson pack designed specifically for that purpose. Activities and tasksaimed, for example, to enable pupils to develop empathy by encouraging them toappreciate the impact of their actions from others’ point of view. The approach alsoaimed to draw parents into thinking more about their children’s responses and how thesemight be developed to improve relationships.The initiative was relatively small-scale, targeted and ad hoc in that it operated inresponse to the needs of particular pupils, as these emerged. At the time of the visit, theprocedure had been suspended for the remainder of the session as it was felt that the needdid not exist at that time. It would be revived if a need was identified.The specific initiative on emotional literacy was linked to other approaches used in theschool such as Circle Time. It was perceived that boys had particular difficulties inexpressing views and feelings and that the additional support provided in an extractiongroup for one morning per week would enable them to function more effectively in socialsituations. It was hoped that their improved behaviour would have positive implicationsfor other pupils in their class and in the school generally.iv. The impactThe approach here was not intended primarily to address boys’ under-attainment, nor wasit targeted specifically at boys. However, since the extraction group was composedsolely of boys, this school’s experience reflects a wider situation where there is asignificant gender imbalance in discipline referrals and in national exclusion statistics.Concern about boys’ performance in school relates to a number of outcomes and not justto attainment. Better Behaviour – Better Learning makes explicit links between learningand behaviour and advocates more integrated systems of pupil support. In that policycontext, the work here could be seen to address boys’ attainment by supporting theirwider development.For the headteacher, the continued use of this strategy will require funding to enable theBehaviour Support Coordinator, a Primary 7 teacher, to be released from her class. Thestrategy is very dependent on this one teacher and it does not seem to be embedded inpractice in ways that would allow it to function independently of that member of staff.5 www.scotland.gov.uk/library3/education/pbis-00.asp______________________________________________________________________________________Review of Strategies to 40 University of StrathclydeAddress Gender Inequalitiesand University of Glasgow