Schools inspectorate Ofsted is due to call for a tougher approach to behaviour management this week, when it publishes a report saying that educators need to do more to tackle low-level disruptive behaviour.

A “casual acceptance” of minor misbehaviours in the classroom means that for many children, it is “something of a lottery” whether they will be taught in a disruption-free environment.

Pupils passing notes, swinging on chairs, making silly comments and even using mobile phones in the classroom may seem relatively minor, but the report will argue that they add up to a significant problem in schools. However, many teachers see them as inevitable and accept such issues much of the time, Ofsted claims.

Even though serious cases of bad behaviour are actually dropping, with instances of violence and verbal abuse having fallen, Ofsted feels that this low-level misbehaviour is a major concern.

The Telegraph reports that chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw is expected to slam headteachers for not taking the issue seriously enough. Inconsistencies in behaviour policies are among the significant problems, but Sir Michael is due to say the key to improving behaviour in the classroom is strong leadership.

Ofsted’s report will use the findings of close to 3,000 inspections conducted over the year, as well as two surveys that were commissioned especially for the paper. It is due to be released on Thursday (September 25th).

Last week the regulator announced that no-notice inspections were being conducted in a two-week window throughout September for approximately 40 schools.

One of the key criteria for deciding which schools would be targeted was concern about falling behaviour standards, as well as worries about leadership and governance and how the curriculum is being handled. While many of them were already due for an inspection, this was not the case with all of them.

“Parents rightly expect Ofsted inspections to get to the heart of any problems that may exist in a school – whether they are to do with discipline, safeguarding, poor leadership or governance, or a narrow, unbalanced curriculum,” Sir Michael said at the time.

“That’s why we’ve expanded the criteria for conducting unannounced inspections for the coming year.”