In 2008, the Department of Education (DE) gave a commitment to the Northern Ireland Audit Office to undertake a baseline exercise to determine the current quality of pupil behaviour in schools. As part of this work DE designed a short online questionnaire, which was issued to all primary, post-primary and special schools in February 2010. The current evaluation provides additional evaluative evidence of the outworking of DE’s strategy and the impact of the support provided by Education and Library Boards and across a sample of the schools. The report contains recommendations for all schools, Boards of Governors and managing authorities, as well as for DE.
An estimated 3-4% of the school population in Northern Ireland is identified with social, emotional and behavioural difficulties.