Kelly: Zero tolerance on school discipline
The new Education Secretary Ruth Kelly has said that there should be a “zero tolerance” approach to school discipline.
Tackling disruptive behaviour from a “minority of pupils” will be a priority and she promised extra help for schools with discipline problems.
Mrs Kelly also stressed that parents have a responsibility to support schools in tackling bad behaviour from their child. She said there would be a new drive by local authorities to make better use of parenting orders to reinforce parental responsibility.
Schools will also be encouraged to pool resources to buy shared in-school or off-site help so that disruptive pupils can be removed from the classroom.
Her speech comes on the same day the Conservatives launch their discipline policy, which promises to give headteachers the final say over expulsions.
Mrs Kelly told an audience of headteachers in Blackpool that: “We need to re-draw the line on what is acceptable [behaviour in schools].”
“Good schools already have a strong school ethos and a policy on behaviour that’s respected by the whole school community because it’s clear, consistent and rigorously applied. This approach must be in every school with any level of bad behaviour dealt with promptly and appropriately.”
And she stressed that: “Parents too must support the school’s behaviour policy and not automatically assume, when their child is punished, that their child must be in the right and the school in the wrong. Where parents do not take responsibility for their child’s unruly behaviour, then it is right that action is taken to ensure that they do, through Parenting Orders administered by the courts.”
But the Liberal Democrats accused Mrs Kelly of “empty rhetoric”. Education spokesman Phil Willis, said: “Labour has had nearly eight years to tackle school discipline and this latest piece of empty rhetoric will do little to solve the problem.
“School discipline is a complex issue which deserves a mature response, not a competition between Labour and Conservatives as to who can sound the tougher”.
He said the Liberal Democrats would reduce class sizes, reduce teacher workload and improve the curriculum so that children want to be in school and bad behaviour is tackled before it starts.
