Teachers to get legal right to restrain pupils
Donald MacLeod, Matthew Taylor and agencies
Friday October 21, 2005
Teachers will be given the clear legal right to discipline unruly pupils and restrain them through the use of "reasonable force", ministers announced today.
The education secretary, Ruth Kelly, backed recommendations from the government's school discipline taskforce for new measures to force parents to take responsibility for their children's behaviour.
Teachers' leaders welcomed the new legal rights proposed by the taskforce, chaired by headteacher Sir Alan Steer, which they said would stop pupils disrupting lessons, but insisted they must be backed with action and not left to gather dust like previous discipline initiatives.
The plans include:
· a new law setting out teachers' "clear and unambiguous right" to discipline pupils and restrain them through reasonable force
· a national charter of rights and responsibilities for teachers, pupils and parents
· a new offence of "allowing a child to be found in a public place during school hours without good cause" to be introduced to make sure parents keep track of their children when they are excluded from school
· possible fixed fines for parents who are guilty of this new offence
· wider use of parenting contracts to be imposed before a child is thrown out of school.
Ms Kelly welcomed the report and promised to implement the key recommendations "as soon as possible". Some of the reforms are expected to be contained in a white paper later this month.
She said: "The government has made tackling poor behaviour a major priority, providing increased powers and resources. But some schools still face real discipline challenges because there is too little consistency in dealing with poor behaviour.
"There is still too much low-level disruption to lessons - backchat, rudeness, calling out in class - that makes teaching and learning more difficult. These proposals can help bring change not just to the rules, but to the culture, reaffirming respect in classrooms and putting teachers firmly in charge."
Ms Kelly added that poor behaviour would not simply disappear if there was legislation. "Heads and teachers must use these new powers with the backing of parents - only then can we make good behaviour the norm in every classroom," she said.
The taskforce wants pupils excluded for more than five days to be interviewed when they return to school to help them settle back in. The controversial right of parents to appeal against exclusions is backed, but there is a call for the independent appeals panels to be more representative and for guidance to avoid cases being overturned on technicalities.
By 2008, all secondaries, including academies and foundation schools, should be forced to belong to local partnerships working together to share "hard to place" pupils, the report states.
The taskforce rejects a code of rules for pupils, but recommends a national charter of rights and responsibilities for youngsters, parents and teachers, to be included in home-school agreements.
Some members of the taskforce were tempted to ban mobile phones in schools because of text bullying. But the report recommends that all schools have a policy on their possession and use.
The general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Mary Bousted, said she was particularly pleased the report clearly recommended legislation to establish beyond doubt that schools have the right to discipline pupils.
"The Steer report is an essential first step in rebalancing the equation between the individual rights of each pupil and the collective rights of the school community. It is essential that parents, carers, and society in general support schools in achieving good behaviour so that all pupils can benefit from their education. We are particularly pleased the report clearly recommends schools have the right to discipline pupils when their behaviour is unacceptable," she said.
The general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, John Dunford, said "more clarity" in the law would be helpful, but cautioned that the law would be interpreted in the courts.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, Mick Brookes, said: "Within the school community, it is the attitude of parents that is a key element essential for the maintenance of good behaviour.
"It is reprehensible that a minority of parents condone negative and loutish behaviour which causes distress in the school environment."
http://education.guardian.co.uk/classroomviolence/story/0,12388,1597781,00.html
Donald MacLeod, Matthew Taylor and agencies
Friday October 21, 2005
Teachers will be given the clear legal right to discipline unruly pupils and restrain them through the use of "reasonable force", ministers announced today.
The education secretary, Ruth Kelly, backed recommendations from the government's school discipline taskforce for new measures to force parents to take responsibility for their children's behaviour.
Teachers' leaders welcomed the new legal rights proposed by the taskforce, chaired by headteacher Sir Alan Steer, which they said would stop pupils disrupting lessons, but insisted they must be backed with action and not left to gather dust like previous discipline initiatives.
The plans include:
· a new law setting out teachers' "clear and unambiguous right" to discipline pupils and restrain them through reasonable force
· a national charter of rights and responsibilities for teachers, pupils and parents
· a new offence of "allowing a child to be found in a public place during school hours without good cause" to be introduced to make sure parents keep track of their children when they are excluded from school
· possible fixed fines for parents who are guilty of this new offence
· wider use of parenting contracts to be imposed before a child is thrown out of school.
Ms Kelly welcomed the report and promised to implement the key recommendations "as soon as possible". Some of the reforms are expected to be contained in a white paper later this month.
She said: "The government has made tackling poor behaviour a major priority, providing increased powers and resources. But some schools still face real discipline challenges because there is too little consistency in dealing with poor behaviour.
"There is still too much low-level disruption to lessons - backchat, rudeness, calling out in class - that makes teaching and learning more difficult. These proposals can help bring change not just to the rules, but to the culture, reaffirming respect in classrooms and putting teachers firmly in charge."
Ms Kelly added that poor behaviour would not simply disappear if there was legislation. "Heads and teachers must use these new powers with the backing of parents - only then can we make good behaviour the norm in every classroom," she said.
The taskforce wants pupils excluded for more than five days to be interviewed when they return to school to help them settle back in. The controversial right of parents to appeal against exclusions is backed, but there is a call for the independent appeals panels to be more representative and for guidance to avoid cases being overturned on technicalities.
By 2008, all secondaries, including academies and foundation schools, should be forced to belong to local partnerships working together to share "hard to place" pupils, the report states.
The taskforce rejects a code of rules for pupils, but recommends a national charter of rights and responsibilities for youngsters, parents and teachers, to be included in home-school agreements.
Some members of the taskforce were tempted to ban mobile phones in schools because of text bullying. But the report recommends that all schools have a policy on their possession and use.
The general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, Mary Bousted, said she was particularly pleased the report clearly recommended legislation to establish beyond doubt that schools have the right to discipline pupils.
"The Steer report is an essential first step in rebalancing the equation between the individual rights of each pupil and the collective rights of the school community. It is essential that parents, carers, and society in general support schools in achieving good behaviour so that all pupils can benefit from their education. We are particularly pleased the report clearly recommends schools have the right to discipline pupils when their behaviour is unacceptable," she said.
The general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, John Dunford, said "more clarity" in the law would be helpful, but cautioned that the law would be interpreted in the courts.
Meanwhile, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, Mick Brookes, said: "Within the school community, it is the attitude of parents that is a key element essential for the maintenance of good behaviour.
"It is reprehensible that a minority of parents condone negative and loutish behaviour which causes distress in the school environment."
http://education.guardian.co.uk/classroomviolence/story/0,12388,1597781,00.html