Unruly Pupils 'Need More Support'

Schools should band together to provide social workers for unruly pupils and support groups for parents, according to the government's "behaviour tsar".

The proposals will be among a number of suggestions included in Sir Alan Steer's report to ministers in April.

Sir Alan says a more intelligent approach is needed to combating bad behaviour in the classroom.

Teaching unions say teachers need better support and fewer targets to enable them to better manage behaviour.

Sir Alan said the vast majority of pupils are well behaved, despite society's "negative" perceptions of children.

But he believes more can be done earlier to prevent unruly behaviour becoming a serious problem, such as through primary schools jointly funding social work professionals.

"If we can extend into schools some other services to support children, to help those children who struggle then we are far more likely to have success," he said. It's really important to earn the respect of the children - build a positive relationship with them from the very start.

"So I want schools to be a bit more joined up, more in partnership between each other and the other caring services, so children's needs can be met in a broader sense."

Teaching unions have welcomed the idea, providing it does not burden them with more work, but say the real problem is that staff are ill-prepared to deal with bad behaviour.

NASUWT general secretary Chris Keates said "Behaviour management training is inadequate both in initial teacher training and when teachers are in the job in schools.

"What's preventing a lot of teachers from actually being able to manage behaviour effectively is the current school accountability regime which drives teachers to reach numerical targets, to teach to satisfy inspection."

Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said three in 10 teachers leave the profession in the first five years and unruly behaviour was the main cause.

He wants to see more on-going support for junior staff.

Most involved in education seem to agree that the key to preventing bad behaviour is keeping children interested.

With thanks to BBC News: bbc.co.uk/news for this news item.