School discipline
Places for pupils excluded from school and placed in referral units would rise from 4,000 to 24,000 and the units would be renamed "turnaround schools" under Conservative plans, Michael Howard has said.
In a speech on education on Monday, the Tory leader reaffirmed proposals to reverse current government policy and return complete control over discipline to headteachers and governors.
Party Response: Conservative
Michael Howard, leader of the Conservatives, said:"School discipline is not some optional extra. It is the starting point. If our children are to get the decent education they deserve - and our country is to have the skilled workforce it so desperately needs - proper discipline in our schools is essential.
"Children learn best in a safe, secure and structured environment. They cannot learn in classes where loutish behaviour and disrespect for others are the norm.
"Parents want greater involvement in their children's education. They want to be able to choose the school they think is best for their child - schools where children stand up when the teachers comes into a room, where desks are arranged in rows, where the children wear school uniforms, where discipline is enforced and all pupils learn the basics - reading, writing and arithmetic."
Party Response: Liberal Democrat
Phil Willis, Liberal Democrat education spokesman, said: "Michael Howard has replaced the pledge of a grammar school in every town with the promise of a borstal in every town.
"This is simply another Tory proposal that doesn't add up. The Tories fail to explain how they would pay for security and policing and what the consequences are if a pupil fails to attend. Michael Howard seems to have no idea how he is planning to recruit and specially train the necessary teachers and how he will negotiate the legal minefield created by abolishing the appeals process.
"Increasing exclusions is a recipe for disaster. We need a system of 'managed transfer' which keeps the student outside regular schooling for the shortest possible time and doesn't alienate them from their communities."
Stakeholder Response: National Union of TeachersSteve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "The Conservative leader identifies the right issue but offers the wrong solution. Teachers and the vast majority of young people do not want to see their lessons disrupted by unacceptable behaviour by a minority.
"But the proposal for privatised ‘turnaround’ schools could mean children were labelled for life. No child should be written off in this way.
"It assumes that one size fits all when that is clearly not the case.
"It is only local authorities that can co-ordinate and provide a wide range of support in dealing with behavioural problems. What is needed is a wide range of provision from education authorities including help in mainstream schools with disruptive children and extending to pupil referral units and special schools.
"Currently when children are expelled, they are frequently admitted to another school. This change alone can often have the desired effect of turning their behaviour round. It does not result in the child being stigmatised nor in bureaucratic obstacles being placed in the way of their return to mainstream education."
Stakeholder Response: NASUWT
Chris Keates, general secretary of NASUWT, said: "NASUWT has campaigned for many years for the abolition of independent appeals panels, which have a history of inappropriately reinstating pupils who have been excluded permanently from schools, for anonymity for teachers accused of child abuse up to a decision of the court and for better provision for violent and disruptive pupils excluded from schools.
"There is, therefore, much in the package of measures proposed by the Conservatives that NASUWT welcomes in principle.
"The key proposal is the establishment of ‘turnaround schools’.
"Although increasing the number of places in off-site provision for disaffected pupils would be a welcome development, the nature and purpose of such provision requires careful consideration.
"It needs to be of a high quality, provide educational continuity and be staffed by skilled and experienced teachers. Access should be against clear criteria and without recourse to burdensome bureaucracy.
"It should be an integral part of the state school system and provide the opportunity for pupils to be reintegrated into mainstream school.
"If the Conservative Party’s proposals delivered such provision it would be warmly welcomed by teachers.
"However, the proposal that turnaround schools should be run by private companies seems to indicate this provision is in danger of becoming a national network of boot camps for the disaffected.
"This would be highly regrettable.Private provision is driven invariably by consideration of profitability and minimising financial risk. This would not be in the educational interests of vulnerable children. There is no logic or reason for taking the administration of such establishments out of the control of LEAs. It is another example of a potentially good idea being distorted by slavish adherence to the dogma of privatisation."
Stakeholder Response: Secondary Heads Association
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"School exclusion appeals panels sometimes produce perverse conclusions. Their abolition, however, would lead to more cases in the courts as parents seek judicial reviews of heads' decisions. Heads would not welcome the costs of this in time, money and stress. Appeals panels should be improved but not abolished.
"Heads would welcome the expansion of pupil referral units but these should be run by groups of headteachers or by local education authorities, not by private contractors. Extended PRU provision must be planned and run by the schools that use the PRUs, not by outside agencies with conflicting interests."
Stakeholder Response: Institute of Education
Julia Douëtil of the Reading Recovery National Network at the
"Instead of setting up bigger and tougher ‘sin bins’ for them, it would be more cost-effective and morally acceptable to prevent them becoming disruptive in the first place.
"Reading Recovery is a programme of specialist one-to-one tuition that is known to reduce the number of pupils with the kind of literacy problems that lead to disruptive behaviour by at least two-thirds.
"Investment in such support for individual pupils is cheaper and more educationally beneficial than the costs of maintaining 24,000 places in pupil referral units or the costs to society of illiteracy in the literacy-dependent modern workplace. Reading Recovery costs less than £2,000 per pupil.
"It is time for joined-up thinking on exclusions. Prevention has to be the long-term solution, and that demands serious investment in effective early prevention."
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