No national rule sets the detail, wording or length of a behaviour log.
DfE’s statutory behaviour guidance only encourages schools to capture behaviour incident data, and the DfE-published workload advice says long written explanations should be the exception. One thing is firmer: where a pupil is removed from the classroom, the guidance expects the school to collect and analyse that data. Everything else — the codes, the free-text box, the deadline — your school chose.
updated 12 Jun 2026last checked 21 Sept 2026
What the source actually says
The current statutory guidance puts general behaviour data capture in encouraging, not mandatory, terms:
“Schools are encouraged to have strong and effective systems for data capture, including all components of the behaviour culture.”
— Behaviour in schools: advice for headteachers and school staff, DfE, p.30, “Monitoring and evaluating school behaviour” DfE
and lists what to gather:
“Schools are encouraged to collect data from the following sources: • behaviour incident data, including on removal from the classroom;”
— Behaviour in schools: advice for headteachers and school staff, DfE, p.30, “Monitoring and evaluating school behaviour” DfE
Removal from the classroom is the exception, and here the same guidance uses “should”:
“Schools should collect, monitor and analyse removal data internally in order to interrogate repeat patterns and the effectiveness of the use of removal.”
— Behaviour in schools: advice for headteachers and school staff, DfE, p.24, “Governance of removal” DfE
On how much you should have to write, DfE published the Teacher Workload Advisory Group’s advice to school leaders in November 2018:
“These behaviour codes should align with a school’s behaviour policy and should be limited in number. Teachers are less likely to find recording incidents burdensome if they don’t have to write extensive text, or select from a long list of behaviour codes that cannot be easily memorised or are too specific to be able to choose from. There will be situations where serious or complex incidents require detailed explanations but, given that teachers will have to write these outside lesson time, they should be the exception rather than the rule.”
— Making data work, Teacher Workload Advisory Group, November 2018, p.8, “Pastoral data management” DfE
The joint letter sending this to every school leader — signed by the Secretary of State, Ofsted, ASCL, NAHT, NGA and CST on 5 November 2018 — framed the whole report as advice “intended to be supportive”, listing “having simple systems for logging behaviour incidents and other pastoral information” DfE. It is advice, not a rule, and it says nothing about how any inspection framework treats behaviour logs.
Your logs are not pointless, though. Inspectors do read them, under the guide in force today:
“Key records you review should include safeguarding records, attendance data, behaviour logs and complaints records.”
— School inspection operating guide for inspectors: for use from September 2026, Ofsted, “Reviewing key records” Ofsted
though the very next instruction to inspectors is:
“Avoid auditing paperwork. Instead, evaluate what leaders understand from their own analysis and the actions they have taken as a result.”
— School inspection operating guide for inspectors: for use from September 2026, Ofsted, “Reviewing key records” Ofsted
This is the June 2026 (v2.0) edition, in use on inspections from 7 September 2026. Both sentences quoted above appear identically in the November 2025 edition it replaced.
Your school may still require it
Your school can lawfully require you to log every incident, in a set format, within a set time — and a school that wants to spot a pattern between the same two pupils needs you to. What is not fixed nationally is the depth: if the system demands a paragraph for a late arrival, that is a local design decision, and DfE’s own advice is that extensive text should be the exception.
See also Do I have to record every bullying incident?, Does my school have to have a behaviour policy? and How often do I have to collect and record pupil data?.