Suspended pupils could do community service

Tony Blair has been floating new ideas in a bid combat loutish behaviour in England's schools.

Ahead of a meeting with educationalists on Wednesday, the prime minister suggested that children who are suspended from school take part in community service.

In a letter to Sir Alan Steer, head of a taskforce on pupil behaviour, Blair says that suspensions are "a crucial sanction for head teachers" but they should be made more of a punishment.

"Should we legally require suspended students to stay at home, accompanied by a parent, rather than allowing them freely to cause a nuisance on the streets or in shopping centres?" he wrote.

Ministers believe school discipline is essential if standards are to be raised and the wider problem of anti-social behaviour is to be brought under control.

The government also wants to see parents taking more control and responsibility for the behaviour of their children.

Commenting on the plans, Ruth Kelly said: "What we've now got to do is restore the link between parents and their children's behaviour in school."

The education secretary said the public would back the government's new drive.

"Everyone knows parents are responsible for their children's behaviour out of school," she told the BBC.

"I think most of your listeners and viewers would think it pretty common sense that, where a child is suspended from school, that they don't regard it as some sort of unofficial holiday where they can go down to the shopping centre and create havoc.

"That actually a parent should take responsibility for that and make sure it's at home and indeed to make sure that child is learning, if there's work set by the school."

However shadow education secretary David Cameron said the focus should be on giving schools more powers on exclusions and the ability to enforce home-school contracts.

"The fact is that when it comes to schools, we have a shared responsibility," he said.

"We are all in it together - teachers, parents, pupils and politicians. 

"The government's responsibility is to put their own house in order and give teachers the powers they need.

"It is striking that after months and years of talking about the issue, the prime minister offers only gimmicks rather than the simple but effective measures that are needed."

The Liberal Democrats also dismissed the government's "latest gimmick".

Education spokesman Edward Davey said: "Liberal Democrats agree we need parents to take greater responsibility for their child's behaviour, but that should start much earlier, before the situation gets out of control, and the pupil is suspended.

"There will be huge practical problems in forcing parents to take time off work and stay at home, from how it would be enforced, to the impact on employers."