Government announce group to tackle school discipline

The government has announced plans to form a new group of school discipline experts in order to tackle bad behaviour in schools and create a “culture of respect”

The new Leadership Group on Behaviour and Discipline will be comprised of heads and teachers and will work with the government and key national stakeholders, including all the teacher unions, to create effective school discipline and improve parental responsbility for children’s behaviour.

Teaching unions and other professional associations have been invited to nominate heads and teachers who have a proven track record in managing bad behaviour to sit on the Group, which will be chaired by Sir Alan Steer from the Seven Kings School in Ilford.

The Group will discuss a number of issues including effective disciplinary practise; new powers for schools to tackle unruly behaviour; teacher training; parents responsibility to discipline their children; and collaboration between schools to tackle the problem.

The Group will also discuss the possibility of creating a national disicipline code; the effectiveness of exclusion appeals panels; and legislation to protect teachers from assaults.

Commenting on the new Group, Schools Minister Jacqui Smith said: “Real progress had been made in tackling serious bad behaviour in schools. However, a culture of respect, good behaviour and firm discipline must be the norm in all schools all of the time.

“The government has provided schools with powers, training and support to deal with disruptive behaviour, but we know that the real work is done on the front line by heads and teachers. We cannot simply legislate bad behaviour out of the classroom. It has to be delivered on the ground by teachers with the full backing of parents.”

The Leadership Group on Behaviour and Discipline will is due to deliver a report by the end of October, which will be considered by a high level stakeholder group, chaired by Ms Smith, including all the teacher unions and education watchdog Ofsted.

(KMcA/SP)