Ready to Learn

Ready to Learn expections on a classroom poster and printed in a student planner at West Exe School, Exeter in 2018.

For the American funding scheme for educational television programmes, see Ready-to-Learn.

Ready to Learn (RTL) is a controversial ^{[note 1]} zero-tolerance behaviour policy template used in some British secondary schools. ^{[1] [2]} Under RTL, students receive a warning for any minor infraction; on committing a second minor infraction, they are sent to an "isolation" room for five lessons (looping around to the next day if necessary) and a one-hour detention after school. This is described as an "extremely simple, binary system". ^{[2] [3]}

Ready to Learn was developed by Henbury School in Bristol in 2016. ^{[1] [2] [3]} It has since been adopted by many other academies nationally. Some schools have implemented RTL under alternative names, making it challenging to estimate the extent of its usage. ^{[note 2]}

History

Ready to Learn was created at Henbury School, Bristol in January 2016. Headteacher Clare Bradford and assistant headteacher Matthew Stevenson have both claimed sole responsibility. ^{[4] [5] [6]} Conservative MP Charlotte Leslie praised the system, ^[7] and invited former Labour schools minister Jim Knight to tour the school, resulting in Knight also evaluating the system favourably. ^[3] Ofsted subsequently assessed in November 2018 that school leaders' "attention to the implementation of the school's behaviour strategy, 'ready to learn', has diverted their attention from tackling the school's sharp and severe decline in pupils' academic performance", and rated the school Inadequate. ^{[8] : 4}

It has been argued that Ready to Learn emerged as the result of an interaction between, on the one hand, socially conservative rhetoric from the Department for Education under Michael Gove's tenure as Education Secretary, and central pressure to adopt whole-school policies on "low-level disruption", and on the other hand, an existing Blairite synthesis of a progressive and behaviourist approach to behaviour management with a neoliberal "language of management" and willingness to exclude pupils to improve a school's average results (with this aspect emerging out of the Baker reforms of the 1980s). ^{[1] : 16–22} Journalist Michal Grant has called RTL a "symptom of school leaders not seeing children as complex young people", ^[2] a view similar to that espoused by some pupils subject to the system. ^{[1] : 45–6} Stevenson himself cited a training course at the Ambition Institute and a fact-finding mission to other schools as the inspirations for the policy. ^[6]

Local press cited the introduction of Ready to Learn to West Exe School, Exeter in 2017 as the reason for the school's improvement in results. ^[9] The Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust had also introduced RTL to other schools in Exeter, including Isca Academy. ^[10] The Ted Wragg Trust renamed RTL to "Reset" at their schools in 2020. ^{[1] : 10} In April 2023, a parents' campaign group, Reset Ted Wragg, was established to oppose the policy, stating "Reset / RTL are finished ... We do not consent to these archaic punishments". ^{[11] [12]} The Trust initially agreed to review its policies, ^[13] but the group dismissed the proposed amendments to the RTL system as inadequate. ^{[14] [15]} As of September 2024, the group remains active, accusing the Trust of "doubling-down on outdated and unpleasant" policies. ^[16]

Bristol City Council's independent review into alternative learning provision in 2020 found that most Bristol secondary schools were using Ready to Learn or a similar policy. ^{[17] : 22} The report states that there "appears to be an evidence base that says 'Ready to Learn' is an effective whole school behaviour approach and some schools have described it in positive terms as 'transformational'", but also that RTL results in disproportionate numbers of pupils with additional needs being excluded and put into alternative provision. ^{[17] : 22}

Description

No copy survives of the original policy developed at Henbury School in 2016, although the basic mechanics of the system are described in contemporary newspaper reports. ^{[4] [6]} From at least 2017, a detailed implementation of Ready to Learn circulated between various schools, often being copied word for word. The following description of this standard or vanilla version of RTL details the standard elements which appear in all or most implementations. Although the majority of schools make at least one change to the terminology, the default language can be inferred from those phrases that are the rule rather than the exception. For a concrete early example of an almost pure example of "vanilla" RTL, see a guidance document produced by Sir Bernard Lovell Academy near Bristol in June 2017. ^[18] For comparison, see the March 2023 behaviour policy of Brannel School in Cornwall, showing the stability of the stock language across time and place. ^[19]

In "vanilla" RTL, there are three ways to incur an isolation: breaching the 'Ready to Learn expectations'; 'defiance', defined as disobeying a 'reasonable request' from a teacher; and 'Red Cards'.

The Ready to Learn expectations, printed on the wall of each classroom, required students to arrive punctually, sit where directed, 'sit up straight', begin work 'promptly', and maintain their focus throughout the lesson, remaining silent except when given permission to speak about their work. If a student fell short of any of these expectations, the teacher would tell them they had a 'warning' and write their name on the board. If the same student broke any rule again, they would be sent to isolation 'for 24 hours', which meant they spent the equivalent of a full five-hour school day in isolation―even if this extended across two days―in addition to an hour's after-school detention. For example, a student sent to isolation during the fourth lesson of the day on Tuesday was to remain in isolation for the rest of the school day, serve a one-hour detention, and then report to isolation on Wednesday morning to remain there until the start of the fourth lesson.

Outside of lessons, students are required to follow any 'reasonable request' from a member of staff: if a student failed to comply, the member of staff was to say, 'This is a reasonable request. Are you choosing not to follow it?', and if the student refused to follow this formally communicated 'reasonable request', this was referred to as 'defiance' and the student was sent to isolation for 24 hours.

Separately, each school defined its own short list of regulations for conduct during breaktimes, typically prohibiting shouting, running, swearing, and eating food outside of the designated areas. Students received no warning for these behaviours and were immediately given a 'Red Card', a short detention to be served in the isolation room. Failure to attend a Red Card would result in a full 24 hour term in isolation.

Variants and alternative names

Some schools have implemented but renamed RTL. The exact wording of policy documents often confirms the derivation from vanilla RTL. The vanilla policy document includes a list of four "aims" of RTL with the incipit "To eliminate disruptive behaviour". This stock rationale not only appears word for word in many policies which retain the Ready to Learn title, but in policies with different names, such as Kingswinford Academy's "Prepared for Excellence" policy. ^[20] "Prepared for Excellence" is mechanically identical to RTL in that students are sent to isolation for 24 hours after one warning; there are immediate detentions for breaching lunchtime rules; etc. (its name also appears to be a sort of calque: "prepared" for "ready", etc.). Whilst this alone could still be a coincidence, the word-for-word presence of the "To eliminate disruptive behaviour" rationale text confirms that the policy must indeed have been copied from RTL.

In other cases, local knowledge can trace a policy back to RTL. For instance, in 2022–23, All Saints Church of England Academy, Plymouth had a behaviour policy where students would be sent to isolation on their third (not their second) warning, and only initially for the rest of that lesson and a detention; it was only repeat offenders that were sent for 24 hours. ^[21] Isolation was known as 'the Lighthouse'. Based on the policy alone, All Saints' way of using the Lighthouse would not necessarily seem to derive from Ready to Learn. However, it is known from the local press that All Saints introduced RTL under its original name in 2017. ^[22] Moreover, All Saints was receiving 'ongoing support' from the Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust in 2017 and eventually acceded to membership in 2021, ^{[22] [23]} and the Trust is known to introduce vanilla RTL to schools before they become formal members, and subsequently to rebrand it. ^[1] This therefore suggests that All Saints' policy in 2022 had emerged as a softening or watering down of an earlier vanilla Ready to Learn policy.

Usage

In addition to being used at "most Bristol secondary schools", ^[17] RTL is used at a number of other schools elsewhere in Britain.

Vanilla RTL

• SBL Academy (South Gloucestershire) ^[24]
• John Frost School (Newport South Wales) ^[25]
• Bishop Fox's School (Somerset) ^[26]
• Teign School (Devon) ^[27]
• Brannel School (Cornwall) ^{[19] [note 3]}

Variant forms using RTL name

• St Ninian's High School (Isle of Mann): The policy is called Ready to Learn and uses standardised wording, but students are sent to isolation only on the third warning. ^[28]
• Fallibroome Academy (Cheshire): The policy is called Ready to Learn but the system has been made more complex, e.g. introducing variable-length isolations and 'Yellow Cards' below Red Cards. ^[29]
• Nether Stowe School (Staffordshire): Semantically, "Ready to Learn" is used as the name of the isolation infrastructure, not the behaviour policy; students also get an additional warning. ^[30]
• The Axholme Academy (North Lincolnshire) ^[31]
• Casterton College (Rutland) ^[32]
• Bow School (London) ^[33]
• Hanley Castle High School (Worcestershire) ^[34]

RTL under alternative names

• West Exe School (Exeter) ^{[note 4]}
• St James School (Exeter) ^{[note 4]}
• ISCA Academy (Exeter) ^{[note 4]}
• All Saints Academy (Plymouth) ^{[note 4]}
• Kingswinford Academy (West Midlands) ^{[note 4]}

In popular culture

The fifth episode of School (2018), a BBC Two documentary, focuses on the introduction of Ready to Learn to the Castle School Education Trust in South Gloucestershire. ^{[35] [36]} The programme describes RTL as "strict" and frames it as a cost-saving substitute for more expensive bespoke measures for children with complex needs. ^{[35] : 11:04} A senior leader at Marlwood School concedes that RTL is unfair on students with complex needs. ^{[35] : 25:06} When headteachers raise concerns about RTL's fairness, the trust's CEO encourages them to "hold our nerve" in enforcing it, saying that he would "rather have the problem" of a minority of students missing lessons than see lessons be disrupted. ^{[35] : 30:48}

References

1. Stapleton, Kerry (March 2024). 'Pupil resistance to the Ready to Learn behaviour system in British secondary schools, 2016–2023' (BA thesis, University of Oxford)
2. Grant, Michal (25 August 2022). 'Zero-tolerance behaviour policy may be contributing to exclusion of Bristol’s most vulnerable students', The Bristol Cable
3. Knight, Jim (7 February 2017). "'The day I visited an isolation room - and realised that the strict behaviour strategy was working'". Times Educational Supplement.
4. Bradford, Clare, ed. Stephanie Broad (11 July 2016). 'Be bold - it could transform your school: Clare Bradford discusses the impact of Henbury School's Ready to Learn behaviour programme', Academy Today
5. Bradford, Clare. 'Henbury School: we're Ready to Learn!', Henleaze and Westbury Voice, 1 August 2016.
6. Stevenson, Matthew (7 September 2016). 'A simple, whole-school behaviour system', SecEd. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
7. Leslie, Charlotte (14 October 2016). Facebook post
8. Henbury School — Ofsted report (21–22 November 2018)
9. Merritt, Anita (11 September 2018). "Troubled Exeter school transforms into one of the top-rated in the region". Devon Live. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
10. Mitchell, A., ‘Our Autumn Term At Isca Academy’, ISCA Matters, issue 21 (December 2017), https://docplayer.net/150490450-Iscamatters-our-autumn-term-at-isca-academy-issue-21-december-2017.html (14 March 2024), p. 1
11. Anita, Merritt (4 April 2023). "Frustrated parents demand Ted Wragg Trust make six urgent changes to school policy". Devon Live. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
12. Merritt, Anita (25 April 2023). "Angry parents say Ted Wragg Trust is 'failing our kids'". Devon Live. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
13. Merritt, Anita (29 June 2023). "Devon's Ted Wragg Trust could change controversial policies". Devon Live. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
14. Anita, Merritt (19 July 2023). "Parents say Ted Wragg Trust changes don't go far enough". Devon Live. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
15. Anita, Merritt (14 November 2023). "Controversial Devon schools trust says it's getting results but 'is listening'". Devon Live.
16. "An outstanding school is one that succeeds for all of its pupils" — Reset Ted Wragg
17. 'Review Report: Bristol Alternative Learning Provision, October–November 2020
19. 1 2
22. 1 2 Turner, Charlotte (17 July 2018). "Pupils have cunning ploy to avoid lessons at failing Plymouth school - Ofsted report". Devon Live. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
35. 1 2 3 4 Sign Zone: School, 03:45 28/12/2018, BBC2 England, 60 mins. https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/12971C02?bcast=128215861 (Accessed 17 Oct 2024)
36. Yong, Michael (4 December 2018). "BBC Two documentary series School looks at controversial Ready to Learn isolation system". Bristol Live. Retrieved 17 October 2024.

Notes

1. Secondary sources describing Ready to Learn in general as controversial:
   • Stapleton, Kerry (March 2024). 'Pupil resistance to the Ready to Learn behaviour system in British secondary schools, 2016–2023' (BA thesis, University of Oxford)
   • Yong, Michael (4 December 2018). "BBC Two documentary series School looks at controversial Ready to Learn isolation system". Bristol Live. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
   • Fox, Claire (24 October 2017). 'To smack or not to smack is not the question. We owe it to children to set boundaries', The Times Educational Supplement.
   Sources discussing controversies in particular schools:
   • Davis, Krishan (14 July 2017). "Parents anger at Withywood school's new behaviour policy which punishes kids for 'shiny shoes' and 'checking the time'". Bristol Live. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
   • Sims, Aaron (18 May 2017). "Behaviour measures including 'six hour detentions' at The Castle School divide opinion". Gazette Series. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
   • Colleen, Smith (19 October 2017). "Strict new 'Red Card' school rules in Devon cause storm of protest". Devon Live. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
2. For example, the Ted Wragg Multi-Academy Trust in Exeter introduced Ready to Learn policies under their original name in 2017, but rebranded them as "Reset" in 2020 without a substantive change in content (see: Stapleton, p. 10) and by October 2024, a parents' campaign group named after the rebranded policy, Reset Ted Wragg (see: Merritt, Anita (4 April 2023). "Frustrated parents demand Ted Wragg Trust make six urgent changes to school policy". Devon Live. Retrieved 17 October 2024.) reported further changes to the nomenclature of "Reset / RTL" (which they considered a "disingenuous" attempt to conceal the nature of the system). See Reset Ted Wragg
3. Refers to isolation as the "Ready to Learn room", but is otherwise completely vanilla, down to the exact wording of the rationale, etc.
4. See above.