News Date: Monday 7th February 2005
Loughton: need for action on discipline West Sussex schools
New policies to improve discipline and standards
Tim Loughton MP for East Worthing and Shoreham and Shadow Minister for Children today welcomed the new five-point action plan launched by Conservatives designed to restore discipline to unruly school classrooms in West Sussex. As an illustration of falling standards, in East Worthing and Shoreham, 2,169 children played truant in 2003 (compared with 2,150 in 1997).
Loughton explained,
'Too many children in West Sussex don't get that start in life. Lack of discipline is a real and growing problem in our schools. Children cannot learn in undisciplined classes in schools where teachers are demoralised, undervalued and unable to maintain order. That, however, is the position in too many schools, despite the hard work of teachers.'
Under the five-point action plan,
- Head teachers will be given the final say over exclusions and appeals panels will be scrapped.
- Labour?s plans to force all state schools to take their share of undisciplined pupils will be abolished.
- Head teachers will have an unqualified right to insist on parental agreement to discipline as part of the conditions of entry/attendance for their children.
- Schools will be given the funds and financial freedom to introduce random drug-testing, CCTV and metal detectors.
- Teachers will have greater legal protection so that they can enforce discipline without fear of having their lives ruined if a child falsely alleges abuse.
Loughton added:
'Labour have had their chance to improve our schools and it hasn't worked. Money is being thrown at the problem but it's being wasted on bureaucracy. Conservatives believe that teachers, not politicians, should run our schools. We will cut teachers' paperwork, restore discipline in schools and give parents the opportunity to choose the best school for their child.'
ENDS
Notes to Editors
- Education watchdog, OFSTED, has revealed in its annual report (2 February) that the number of failing schools has increased by almost one-fifth in the past year, while behaviour among pupils has also deteriorated.
- According to the National Association of Schoolmasters/ Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), there is an attack on a teacher every seven minutes (NASUWT Press Release, 3 April 2003). The Association of Teachers and Lecturers has reported that the number of assaults on its members increased fivefold between 1998 and 2002 (The Daily Telegraph, 7 April 2004).
- Ms Chris Keates, then acting General Secretary of the NASUWT, said that ?the level of assaults on teachers and pupil-on-pupil violence are of deep concern? (ibid.). She also pointed to the fact that the Office of National Statistics (ONS) reported incomplete data from some LEAs which suggested that even this high figure may be understating the problem. She stated: ?Fear of being stigmatised as ?failing? if [schools] admit to incidents of violence or causes some schools to suppress information? (Times Educational Supplement, 6 August 2004).
- Figures released in August 2004 showed that over 17,000 pupils were suspended in a single term in 2003 for violent behaviour. The first termly exclusions survey of LEAs, carried out by the Office for National Statistics, showed that 12 per cent of permanent exclusions (288) and 5 per cent of temporary exclusions (4000) were for physical assaults on an adult, with a further 336 permanent and 12,800 temporary exclusions for assaults on fellow pupils (ibid.).
- New figures show that one in five panel decisions result in the head being overruled and forced to readmit disruptive pupils they have expelled. Of 1,070 appeals made in one year, 21 per cent were upheld ? putting 210 expelled pupils back into the classroom (Hansard, 31 January 2004, col. 506W).
Local figures on rising truancy for each Parliamentary constituency in England can be found at:
http://www.conservatives.com/pdf/DataTruancyStats2004.pdf (PDF version - 300k)
http://www.conservatives.com/pdf/DataTruancyStats2004.doc (Word version - 3 Mb)
ENDS
East Worthing and Shoreham Primary Secondary All
No. of pupils truanting 1997 1,150 1,000 2,150
No. of pupils truanting 2003 991 1,178 2,169
1997-2003 % change -14 18 0.9
2003 % of half days missed 0.3 0.8
England 2003 564,741 629126 1,193,867
% of half days missed 0.43 1.07 0.70
