New survey shows quarter of teachers feel ill-prepared for disruptive pupils

A new survey  reported in The Independent and conducted by YouGovfor the Teachers’ Support Network has revealed that one in four teachers believe that they have not been sufficiently schooled in how to deal with children causing problems in their lessons. Key amongst the report’s findings was that 25 per cent of teachers said that their initial teacher training did not prepare them managing or disciplining disruptive pupils.

The survey’s finding follow a speech earlier this year from chief schools inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw, who stated that the main reason that four out of ten teachers leave the profession before the five year mark is because teachers are inadequately prepared for dealing with unruly pupils. “There is no such thing as a bad newly qualified teacher – just one that is badly trained,” he added.

The report would appear to indicate that, in addition to teachers and teaching assistants requiring access to behavior specialists such as education psychologists or school councilors when engaging with the most challenging pupils, there is also a need to enhance initial teacher training and improve continuing professional development provisions to enable them to cope with more routine challenges.