General Chat

Was going to post a similar thread myself. If anyone thing in this country was black and white, here we have it. Unfortunately, like other initiatives before it, this will fail. Too many bad parents; lawyers; wimps of school governers frightened they will get sued; and all the usual do-gooders; european parliament et al. Happy days

Unfortunately, some teachers and students neither feel nor are safe in their workplace, if and when behaviours which would not be tolerated in any other social or public setting, occur with regularity in theirs. With regards parenting. The obnoxious child, whose only challenges are those which parents create by means of overindulgance and/or neglect of parental responsabilities. Is found at and in, every socio-economic level of society. Just as responsible parents and well raised children are. Patty

We have a new head teacher and he bought in that when a pupil is really bad he requests a parent to come in and do detention with their child and apparently many do. Discipline is slowly improving Star

There is help available for children who have learning problems - we have access to a behaviour support unit for children that find discipline and authority difficult. Of course you have to fill in lots of forms and jump through the right hoops to get it, but it is available. The Unit can observe the child, suggest strategies and provide extra people to come in and work with the child. nell

Gwynne I agree with you totally. No one should get away with violent behavior. Hence they should, if the situation does not improve after say 6 months to a year, be transferred to a specialist school who can give them the one to one they need. However some of those with special needs such as Autism, Aspergers, or AHAD often find it hard to control themselves in situations. Its not just about learning to do it, some of them are just unable to. Last year there was a 10 year old boy in our school. He caused so much havoc, threatening teachers, abuse, disrupting school etc, he was suspended several times and for the last six moths or so, was excluded from school.. .........what the other parents who moaned about him didn't know...he has Aspergers (a form of autism). Hence the rages, etc. He has a medical condition, and although it wasn't fair on his peers, he was labelled by other parents as a little bad behaved s*d ! He started senior school in September a specialist special needs school in Harlow. Apparently they have the resources to help him and he is improving in leaps and bounds. If this help was available for primary school kids like this, then 2 thirds of the kids who disrupt at school would have help, and so would the teachers who have to put up with the abuse. E x

I think most people would agree that parents should discipline their children and teach them to respect school authority. The problem is that some parents don't respect the school - often the ones whose children misbehave. They might also not have enough money to pay a fine. What then? At my son's school there are boys who think being suspended is a joke and one of them went with his mother to her workplace and said he earnt more money that way and he'd rather not bother with school. He's 14 and in the 50s he could have left school, to everyone's relief. But now he and the school have to tolerate a couple more years. nell

Hi, Even if children have special needs they cannot be allowed to get away with violent behaviour. If they do not learn to control themselves when they are young imagine what they will be like when they are adults. Any child who is violent has no place in a mainstream school. The staff and children have a right to feel safe in their workplace. Gwynne

Where do you draw the line in respect of restraining a child ? Supposing in the struggle the child badly hurts themself ? If there are no witnesses who will believe who ? Who will believe the child when the power hungry teacher gives him/her a forcefull shove or slap ? Who will believe the teacher when the child accuses him/her of assult. When they have in fact used correct restraint. Also with all due respect, there are more children in our primary school who are distruptive due to special needs than the handfull which are just naughty. To look at them you couldnt tell the differance but its true. The other day I had a child trying to hit others with a chair raised above his head. as fast as I grabbed the chair he replaced it with another. In the end, the teacher came in and had to talk him into calming down. It turns out he is a spedcial needs child with behavior problems . I think the schools and teaching staff need more power to exclude such children from school after X amounts of trouble. Or if the child is continuing to seriously disrupt the class and their peers,and are a possible danger to themselves or others, then measures should be in place for the child to be taught in a specilist school. Elaine x

A cub will pester and hassle its lion father by climbing on his head ,tugging at an ear and so on,and will continue to do so until father lion shows his teeth or gently swipes the cub away. In the same way,law and peace will never prevail with individuals being relied upon to self govern their behaviour through knowing right from wrong,there will always need to be a leader,and authority that holds some element of fear. Its just a question of how much fear and how much authority that needs to be established.

They should never have taken away the teachers rights in the first place. The sooner the teachers can do something about unruely kids the better. And yes, I agree, parents should be fined if kids are found roaming the streets during school (term) times, I know of loads of instances where kids are deliberately getting themselves suspended from school ... just to have days off. Elaine :-)

Not before time, thank goodness someones seen the light at last. The way things were going the pupils (or a minority of them) would have ben running the classes not the Teacher. Mind you I'm the old fashioned type, a checked shirt at the gangway if you misbehave, Keel-hauling might be appropriate for the rearly bad apples. Dont think the strap, taws or whatever you like to call it did anybody that much harm physically, but it made you aware of your place at school, hurrah for common sense!! :-)))) Len

i don't believe in hitting a child. i reckon the child should be given 2 warnings, each time the parents notified. on the 3 warning the parent should be brought into school to sit in the class for a week. or pay a cash sum towards the school fund of £100 boy! the kids will soon settle bown. ltnnxx

Hi, There is no question of physical punishment being used in school again. That isn't what the new rules are. I never hit my own child and certainly wouldn't want to hit anyone else's child. Most teachers feel the same way. Gwynne

If kids misbehaved they used to get given 'lines' to do. If they refused to do them they were sent to the head who gave them a warning. If they still refused to do them it was probably the slipper or cane. That seemed to change their mind!!! The problem these days is that kids know they can get away with things but if they knew they would have to face some physical discomfort things may be different. A lot of the latest generation have no respect for anybody or anything. Before you all shout I know that there are a lot of really good kids out there - again it's the minority giving the rest a bad name. My hubby used to be a teacher but decided to give it up when one boy threatened him with a large pane of glass. He knew there was nothing he could do because he'd get into trouble himself. Another teacher at the same school had a mental breakdown because of the kids.

Hi Roxanne :-) Whether or not it's a social backlash or just the pendulum swinging back the other way, it's certainly about time both teachers and the overwhelming majority of students, for whom the classroom is a place of work. Were afforded the same right to workplace health and safety standards as any other group. I cannot imagine any other publicly funded, government owned and operated place of work other than the classroom or school. More compromised in terms of it's original (in this case academically oriented) mandate. Or less supportive of it's workers in terms of their rights as citizens, far less as employees or clients. While we are led to believe that all children have the right to an education, there are occasions when the rights of a minority appear to exceed those of the majority. Having said that. I would never in a million years, wish to see corporal punishement returned to the classroom. That would in my own opinion be transferring opportunity to abuse power, from one set of hands to another. Patty x

Apart from anything else, discipline is remakably cost-effective. My primary school had 42 in the class (counted them on the photo) and no classroom assistant, yet we all came out at 11 literate and numerate. My secondary school had around 32.

I agree, its about time kids got told off for doing wrong, as we all say it never did us any harm, but you can bet some high and mighty will put a spoke in the works. when will they learn its people like them they cause all sorts of problems in the first place. jean

Great news. Things really went downhill when the cane was abolished. OK it probably hurt but the kids weren't too keen to go back for a second caning. I think just the threat of it being there deterred some of the misbehaviour.

Good news for we teachers. It's about time parents were made to accept responsibility for the few badly behaved children that spoil school for the rest of us. Gwynne

Brian, so very true, our country has been ruined by people who are brainless!!!