PM: School expulsions are being looked at
Tony Blair has said that he is prepared to look at reforms of the appeal system against school expulsions – if recommended to do so by a government panel.
The first Prime Minister’s Question Time of the new Parliament saw a fairly muted exchange between the party leaders, with school discipline and expulsion proving the key issue.
Controversial plans for the introduction of ID Cards were barely mentioned, although the Prime Minister did give them his full backing.
Conservative leader Michael Howard concentrated on anti-social behaviour in schools and the wider community, calling for more power for head teachers to exclude pupils and action rather than “gimmicks”.
“A teacher is assaulted every seven minutes”, Michael Howard observed, calling for head teachers to be given the final say in expulsions.
Mr Blair said that he would study “very carefully” the results of the exclusions panel and pointed out that the appeals system was set up by the Conservative government to avoid schools being embroiled in legal action.
Labour, he said, had in fact tightened the system by ensuring that head teachers now sat on appeals panels and had doubled the number of places in pupil referral units for permanently excluded pupils.
But, he stressed that expulsion was only one aspect of discipline, and that the panel would look at all aspects.
Importantly, parents should back-up discipline he said: “When I was at school, if you got told off at school, you got told off at home, it’s time we returned to that”.
