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Press Release

PAT WELCOMES DISCIPLINE MEASURES

8 February 2006

The Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) has welcomed the key reported measures on school discipline to be announced today by DfES Schools Minister Jacqui Smith.

PAT General Secretary Philip Parkin said: "Before I became PAT General Secretary, I was on the Practitioners’ Group on Pupil Behaviour and Discipline (Steer Group). I was therefore particularly pleased to see that the White Paper had taken on board some of the Group’s recommendations to clarify teachers’ rights in disciplining pupils.

“The announcement of further details today is welcome. It is important to send a clear message that school staff have the right to discipline pupils.

"Parents and pupils have rights but they also have responsibilities. Maintaining good order, whether in the classroom, in the playground or on the school bus, is essential to enable teachers to teach and children to learn.

"Good behaviour is something that can be taught and learned."

PAT would like further details of proposals to confiscate pupils’ mobile phones and other equipment. Although this may be necessary on a temporary basis to prevent misuse, such as bullying other pupils or disrupting lessons, it was not something on which the Steer Group made a specific recommendation.

The Group’s report (pages 82 and 83, http://www.dfes.gov.uk/behaviourandattendance/about/learning_behaviour.cfm) recognised the “negative impacts” of mobile phones on school discipline and in terms of the risk of theft and bullying – suggesting that “pupils should be discouraged from bringing mobile phones to school” – but also that “for some schools, a total ban” would be “inappropriate; mobiles are helpful when pupils need to contact parents to arrange lifts home” and in other “family or personal circumstances”. The Report recommended that “schools should be required to have a clear policy on the possession and use of mobile phones on the school site, including details of the sanctions, if pupils disobey the policy”.



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