21 October 2005
A wide-ranging package of new proposals put forward by teachers to ‘reaffirm respect’ in the classroom has been welcomed by Education Secretary Ruth Kelly.
Key recommendations include a ‘clear and unambiguous’ legal right for teachers to discipline pupils - backed by an expectation that every school has a clear set of rules, rewards and sanctions.
Wider powers to use parenting contracts as a preventative measure before a child has reached the point of being excluded from school will be introduced.
And pupil behaviour will become a key factor in evaluating school performance.
The Learning Behaviour report was the work of a group of experienced heads and teachers led by Sir Alan Steer, who met with the PM on this matter in July.
Rewards
The report says that good teaching is key to promoting good behaviour, but that all schools must also have strategies in place to help pupils manage their behaviour, with a balance of rewards and sanctions.
These strategies need to be applied consistently by all staff, Sir Alan said.
"Most schools are orderly places that for some children provide the stability and security they don’t have in the rest of their lives. But we also know that a small minority of unruly pupils can make life very difficult for teachers and do real damage to the learning and attainment of other pupils in a class."
Ruth Kelly accepted the key recommendations, making clear she wanted to see rapid progress and that behaviour will be a cornerstone of the forthcoming education White Paper.
"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."
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