Research and analysis

School and college voice: March 2024

Updated 17 December 2024

Applies to England

Introduction

The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned Verian (formerly known as Kantar Public) to recruit and maintain a panel of school and college leaders and teachers in England, known as the School and College Voice (SCV). The SCV is designed to collect robust evidence to help the Department for Education understand the perspectives of teachers and leaders. This allows us to make more effective policy.

The SCV works as a series of short surveys across the academic year, covering a range of new and longstanding policy issues. This report is about the findings from the March 2024 survey wave of the School and College Voice. This wave took place before the new UK government took office on 5 July 2024. As a result, the content may not reflect current government policy.

Methodology

The SCV survey is answered by teachers and leaders who have agreed to participate in short, regular research surveys on topical education issues.

We select teachers and leaders randomly using records from the School Workforce Census (SWFC) and invite them to take part in an online survey. For the first survey of the academic year, we send invitation letters and emails to teachers and leaders. For other surveys in that same academic year, we send the invitation by email and text message to the teachers and leaders who agreed to join the panel in the first survey.

We conducted the survey between 19 March and 27 March 2024. The respondents were:

• 573 primary school teachers
• 482 secondary school teachers
• 252 special school teachers - 228 primary school leaders
• 187 secondary school leaders - 92 special school leaders

Unless otherwise stated, when we refer to the ‘average’ we are reporting the arithmetic mean. Complete findings can be found in the published data tables, which include more detail on how different groups answered each question.

The report makes some comparisons to previous surveys conducted in previous academic years, for example the School and College Panel Omnibus Surveys for 2022 to 2023. These comparisons are helpful to understand how trends may be changing. However, the survey methodology changes over time and so comparisons to previous years are not as reliable as survey findings within each academic year. We introduced special school teachers and leaders to the SCV in the 2023 to 2024 academic year, so any comparisons from previous academic years do not include these audiences.

Further information on the survey methodology is available in the accompanying technical report: School and College Panel Omnibus Surveys for 2022 to 2023.

Banding for percentages

We use a consistent banding system for describing percentages, as follows:

• very few - 0% to 10%
• a small minority - 11% to 32%
• a minority - 33% to 47%
• about half - 48% to 52%
• the majority - 53% to 66%
• a large majority - 67% to 89%
• almost all - 90% to 100%

We do not describe 0% and 100% as ‘none’ and ‘all’ because figure rounding may mean this is not accurate. For instance, 100% may be 99.6% of respondents, rounded to the nearest whole number.

Topics covered in this survey

The survey included questions about:

• mental health support teams
• teacher confidence and training needs in supporting pupils with SEND
• knife crime as a safeguarding issue
• behaviour in schools
• teacher and leader wellbeing

Mental health support teams

A large majority of leaders (67%) said they were aware of the Mental Health Support Team (MHST) programme. Of these, the majority of leaders (56%) were currently working with an MHST, while a small minority (11%) said they were not currently working with one, but this was in development.

A higher proportion of leaders said they were working with an MHST compared to March 2023, when 45% said they were currently working with an MHST.

We asked leaders who said they were not working with an MHST how likely they would be to work with one in future if this was offered to their school (Figure 1).

A large majority (73%) said they were very likely or fairly likely to work with an MHST in the future, while very few (10%) said they were fairly unlikely or very unlikely to do so.

We asked leaders who said they are working with an MHST to what extent they agree that the MHST has provided better mental health and wellbeing support to their pupils than would have otherwise been available. We also asked them whether they agreed that the MHST has improved the overall school approach to promoting positive mental health and wellbeing (Figure 2).

The majority of leaders (65%) agreed or strongly agreed that the MHST had provided better mental health and wellbeing support to their pupils than otherwise would have been available, while very few (9%) disagreed or strongly disagreed. These results are similar to when this question was last asked in March 2023, when 67% agreed or strongly agreed and 6% disagreed or strongly disagreed.

About half of leaders (52%) agreed or strongly agreed that the MHST has improved the overall school approach to promoting positive mental health and wellbeing, while a small minority (18%) disagreed or strongly disagreed.

Supporting pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)

A large majority of primary (72%) and secondary school teachers (71%) and almost all special school teachers (98%) agreed or strongly agreed that they have sufficient skills and knowledge to support pupils with SEND.

Similarly, a large majority of primary (75%) and secondary school teachers (74%) and almost all special school teachers (99%) said they were very or fairly confident in meeting the needs of pupils requiring support for SEND.

We asked teachers what could improve their confidence in supporting pupils with SEND (Figure 3).

Primary school teachers most commonly said more external specialist support (68%), more training on SEND (45%), or more internal specialist support (40%) would help improve their confidence in supporting pupils with SEND.

Secondary school teachers most commonly said more internal specialist support (44%), more support from learning support assistants (42%), or more external specialist support (39%) would help improve their confidence.

Special school teachers most commonly said more external specialist support (53%) and more support from senior leaders or governors (25%) would help improve their confidence, as would more training on SEND (23%).

We asked teachers which resources they use when supporting pupils with SEND (Figure 4).

Primary school teachers most commonly said they use advice from the SENCO (83%), speaking to teaching colleagues (70%) and internal training courses (66%) when supporting pupils with SEND.

Secondary school teachers most commonly said they use advice from the SENCO (77%), internal training courses (75%) and speaking to teaching colleagues (67%).

Special school teachers most commonly said they use internal training courses (86%), speaking to teaching colleagues (79%), and speaking other specialists (72%).

We asked teachers which barriers, if any, they face in effectively providing support for pupils with SEND (Figure 5).

The most common barrier to supporting pupils with SEND for primary (85%), secondary (70%) and special school teachers (71%) was lack of available staff. Primary (68%), secondary (68%) and special school teachers (48%) also commonly said that lack of time was a barrier.

About half of primary school teachers (50%) said that lacking the right resources was a barrier, while the majority of secondary school teachers (60%) said that class sizes being too big was a barrier.

Training needs for teachers working with pupils with SEND

We asked teachers who said they would benefit from more training or support to improve their confidence supporting pupils with SEND for which pupils they need this additional support (Figure 6).

A large majority of primary school teachers said they needed additional support for pupils with social, emotional, and mental health difficulties (73%) or neurodiverse pupils (71%), while the majority (55%) said they needed additional support for pupils with cognition and learning needs.

The majority of secondary school teachers said they needed additional support for neurodiverse pupils (64%) or pupils with social, emotional, and mental health difficulties (64%). About half (50%) said they needed support for pupils with cognition and learning needs.

A large majority of special school teachers (67%) said they needed additional support for pupils with social, emotional, and mental health difficulties, while about half said they needed additional support for neurodiverse pupils (51%), pupils with communication and interaction needs (48%), or pupils with sensory or physical needs (47%).

We also asked teachers who said they would benefit from more training or support to improve their confidence supporting pupils with SEND what areas of training or support they would find useful. The majority (60%) said they would find training or support in preparing curriculum and scaffolding resources useful. A minority said that training in behaviour management tools (45%) and teaching core skills to pupils (35%) would be useful.

Knife crime as a safeguarding issue

We asked school leaders whether their school is currently and actively dealing with knife crime as a safeguarding issue. We defined this as the school having taken action, however small, as a result of recognising a safeguarding risk to a pupil in relation to knife crime (Figure 7).

Forty-seven percent (47%) of secondary school leaders said their school was dealing with knife crime as a safeguarding issue in March 2024, while 11% of primary school leaders and 25% of special school leaders said the same.

The proportion of secondary and special school leaders who said their school was dealing with knife crime as a safeguarding issue was larger than in December 2023, when 42% of secondary school leaders and 18% of special school leaders said they were dealing with knife crime as a safeguarding issue. The proportion for primary school leaders was similar to December 2023 (9%).

The proportion for secondary school leaders was also larger compared to April 2023 (43%) and similar for primary school leaders (9%).

We asked leaders who said they were currently dealing with knife crime as a safeguarding issue how many individual incidents their school was actively dealing with. Among those who provided a number, the average number of incidents was 3.1 per 1,000 pupils. This was slightly higher than in December 2023, when the average number of incidents per 1,000 pupils was 2.8.

Weapon possession

We asked leaders whether there had been any known incidents of weapon possession by a pupil on school premises since January 2024. We included knives, swords, air rifles, guns or projectile weapons as examples of weapons. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of secondary school leaders said there had been a known incident. Very few primary (2%) or special school leaders (2%) said there had been a known incident.

We asked these leaders whether any pupils had used a weapon to cause injury or intimidation on school premises since January 2024. Fourteen percent (14%) of leaders said there had been incidents of pupils using a weapon to cause injury or intimidation.

Behaviour in schools

We asked teachers how they would rate the behaviour of pupils in their school over the previous week of term (Figure 8).

A majority of primary school teachers (66%) said behaviour of pupils at their school had been good or very good, as did about half of special school teachers (52%). A minority of secondary teachers (44%) said the same.

A small minority of primary school teachers (21%) and special school teachers (26%) said behaviour had been poor or very poor, while a minority of secondary school teachers (33%) said the same.

A lower proportion of teachers rated behaviour as good or very good compared to December 2023, when 80% of primary school teachers, 58% of secondary school teachers, and 60% of special school teachers rated behaviour as good or very good.

Leaders typically gave more positive ratings of behaviour than teachers (Figure 9).

Almost all primary school leaders (90%), the majority of secondary school leaders (65%) and a large majority of special school leaders (83%) said that behaviour in their school had been good or very good over the previous week.

Very few primary (6%) and special school leaders (4%), and a small minority of secondary school leaders (17%) said behaviour had been poor or very poor.

A lower proportion of primary and secondary school leaders rated behaviour as good or very good compared to December 2023, when 95% of primary school leaders and 82% of secondary school leaders rated behaviour as good or very good. The proportion of special school leaders rating behaviour as good or very good was the same as in December 2023 (84%).

Frequency of positive behaviours

We asked teachers how often their school had been calm and orderly over the previous week of term (Figure 10).

The majority of primary (66%) and secondary school teachers (54%) said that their school had been calm and orderly every day or most days over the previous week. About half of special school teachers (52%) said the same.

We looked at how teachers answered this question over time (Figure 11).

Fewer primary and secondary school teachers said their school had been calm and orderly compared to December 2023, when 79% of primary school teachers and 65% of secondary school teachers said this. The proportion for special school teachers was similar when compared to December 2023 (53%).

A larger proportion of primary school teachers said their school had been calm and orderly compared to March 2023 (61%). The proportion for secondary school teachers was similar when compared to March 2023 (52%).

We also asked leaders how often their school had been calm and orderly over the previous week of term (Figure 12).

Almost all primary school leaders (90%) said that their school had been calm and orderly every day or most days over the previous week. A large majority of secondary (77%) and special school leaders (86%) said the same.

A larger proportion of primary school leaders (47%) said their school had been calm and orderly every day compared to secondary (30%) and special school leaders (28%).

We looked at how leaders answered this question over time (Figure 13).

Fewer primary and secondary school leaders said their school had been calm and orderly every day or most days compared to December 2023, when 96% of primary school leaders and 89% of secondary school leaders said this. The proportion of special school teachers saying this was similar to December 2023 (90%). Findings were similar compared to March 2023, when 87% of primary school leaders and 78% of secondary school leaders said this.

We asked teachers how often their school had been a safe environment for pupils over the previous week of term (Figure 14).

Almost all primary school teachers (93%) said their school had been a safe environment for pupils. A large majority of secondary (83%) and special school teachers (89%) said the same.

A large majority of primary school teachers (67%) said their school had been a safe environment every day, compared to about half of special school teachers (50%) and minority of secondary school teachers (39%).

We looked at how teachers answered this question over time (Figure 15).

Fewer secondary school teachers said their school had been a safe environment compared to December 2023 (89%). The proportion for primary school teachers and special school teachers was similar compared to December 2023, when 97% of primary school teachers and 87% of special school teachers said their school had been a safe environment. The proportion of teachers who said their school had been a safe environment was similar when compared to March 2023, when 89% of primary school teachers and 80% of secondary school teachers said this.

We also asked leaders how often their school had been a safe environment for pupils over the previous week of term (Figure 16).

Almost all primary (97%), secondary (94%), and special school leaders (97%) said their school had been a safe environment for pupils.

A smaller proportion of secondary school leaders (64%) said that their school had been a safe environment every day, compared to primary (79%) and special school leaders (78%).

We looked at how leaders answered this question over time (Figure 17).

A smaller proportion of secondary school leaders said their school had been a safe environment for pupils every day or most days compared to December 2023 (99%). The proportion for primary school leaders and special school leaders was similar compared to December 2023, when 99% of primary school leaders and 97% of special school leaders said this. A similar proportion of leaders said their school had been a safe environment compared to March 2023, when 96% of primary school leaders and 97% of secondary school leaders said this.

We asked teachers how often pupils and staff had been respectful to each other over the previous week (Figure 18).

A large majority of teachers (69%) said that pupils had been respectful to each other every day or most days over the previous week. Almost all teachers (91%) said the same of staff.

We looked at how teachers answered this question over time (Figure 19).

Fewer teachers said that pupils had been respectful to each other every day or most days compared to December 2023 (79%). A similar proportion said that staff had been respectful to each other compared to December 2023 (95%). The proportion of teachers who said that pupils or staff had been respectful to each other was higher than in March 2023, when 63% of primary and secondary school teachers said that pupils had been respectful to each other and 89% said that staff had been respectful to each other.

We also asked leaders how often pupils and staff had been respectful to each other over the previous week (Figure 20).

Almost all leaders said that pupils (90%) and staff (97%) had been respectful to each other every day or most days over the previous week.

We looked at how leaders answered this question over time (Figure 21).

Fewer leaders said that pupils had been respectful to each other every day or most days compared to December 2023 (96%). A similar proportion said that staff had been respectful to each other every day or most days in December 2023 (99%). The proportion of leaders who said that pupils or staff had been respectful to each other were similar to March 2023, when 89% of primary and secondary school leaders said that pupils had been respectful to each other and 98% said that staff had been respectful to each other.

Impacts of misbehaviour

We asked teachers and leaders how frequently pupil misbehaviour had interrupted the lessons they taught in the past week (Figure 22).

A larger proportion of teachers said that pupil misbehaviour had interrupted all or most of their lessons compared to December 2023 (27% ). A similar proportion of leaders said this compared to December 2023 (7%). These findings are also true when comparing to March 2023, when 30% of teachers and 8% of leaders said that all or most of their lessons had been disrupted.

We asked teachers and leaders who had taught a lesson in the past week of term how many minutes had been lost to misbehaviour per 30 minutes of lesson time. On average, leaders reported that 4 minutes had been lost due to misbehaviour for every 30 minutes of lesson time. This was the same as reported in December 2023 (4 minutes).

On average, teachers reported that 6 minutes had been lost due to misbehaviour for every 30 minutes of lesson time. This was the same as reported in December 2023 (6 minutes).

We asked teachers and leaders how confident they feel managing misbehaviour in their school (Figure 23).

Almost all teachers (92%) and leaders (99%) said they felt very confident or fairly confident dealing with misbehaviour.

These results are similar to those from December 2023, when 95% of teachers and 99% of leaders said they felt very confident or fairly confident dealing with pupil misbehaviour.

We asked teachers and leaders whether pupil misbehaviour had impacted their wellbeing in the previous week of term (Figure 24).

A large majority of teachers (77%) and the majority of leaders (53%) said pupil misbehaviour had affected their wellbeing. A small minority of teachers (13%) and very few leaders (4%) said it had affected their wellbeing “to a great extent”.

A larger proportion of teachers said pupil misbehaviour had affected their wellbeing compared to December 2023 (68%), while a smaller proportion of leaders said this (46%).

Teacher and leader wellbeing

We asked teachers and leaders a series of standardised questions from the Office for National Statistics about personal wellbeing. These questions are known as the ‘ONS-4’ measures and are answered using a scale from 0 to 10.

Happiness

We asked teachers and leaders (on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being happiest) how happy they felt yesterday (Figure 25).

The average happiness score was 6.4 for teachers and 6.8 for leaders. The average happiness scores were similar compared to December 2023, when teachers reported an average happiness score of 6.8 and leaders reported an average happiness score of 7.2.

Life satisfaction

We asked teachers and leaders (on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the most satisfied) how satisfied they are with their life nowadays (Figure 26).

The average life satisfaction score was 6.8 for teachers and 7.4 for leaders. The average life satisfaction scores were similar to December 2023, when the average scores were 7.1 for teachers and 7.4 for leaders.

Extent to which teachers and leaders feel the things they do are worthwhile

We asked teachers and leaders (on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the most worthwhile) to what extent they feel that the things they do in their life are worthwhile (Figure 27).

The average score was 7.4 for teachers and 8.0 for leaders. These scores were similar to those reported in December 2023, when the average score was 7.7 for teachers and 8.2 for leaders. 

Anxiousness

We asked teachers and leaders (on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the most anxious) how anxious they felt yesterday (Figure 28).For this measure, a lower score represents lower anxiousness.

The average anxiousness score was 4.5 for teachers and 3.7 for leaders. Both teacher and leader average feelings of anxiousness were similar to when last asked in December 2023, when the average score was 4.4 for teachers and 3.8 for leaders. The average anxiousness scores for leaders were, however, lower than in April 2023, when the average score was 4.8.

Job satisfaction

Finally, we asked teachers and leaders (on a scale of 1-7 where 1 means ‘completely dissatisfied’ and 7 means ‘completely satisfied) how satisfied they are with their present job overall (Figure 29).

The majority of teachers (62%) and a large majority of leaders (77%) said they were somewhat satisfied, mostly satisfied or completely satisfied with their job.

A small minority of both teachers (31%) and leaders (20%) said they were somewhat dissatisfied, mostly dissatisfied or completely dissatisfied with their job.

The proportion of teachers who said they were satisfied with their job was lower than in December 2023 (68%), while the proportion of leaders who said they were satisfied with their job was similar to in December 2023 (76%).

Glossary of terms

Mental Health Support Team (MHST)

Provide additional capacity for early support and meeting the mental health needs of children and young people in primary, secondary and further education settings. They have 3 core functions:

• deliver evidence-based interventions for mild to moderate mental health issues
• help mental health leads develop and introduce a whole school or college approach give timely advice to school and college staff
• liaise with external specialist services, to help children and young people get the right support and stay in education

Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)

A child or young person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for them. A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if they:

• have a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age
• have a disability which prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions

Many children and young people who have SEND may also have a disability under the Equality Act 2010 - that is ‘…a physical or mental impairment which has a long-term and substantial adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities’. Where a disabled child or young person requires special educational provision, they will also be covered by the SEND definition.

Special schools

Schools which provide an education for children with a special educational need or disability. Almost all pupils in special schools have an education, health and care plan (EHCP).