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Classroom thugs told: Disrupt school and win an iPod!
Last updated at 15:52pm on 11.04.07School tearaways are to be offered mountain bikes and iPods in return for good behaviour.
In a government campaign against soaring indiscipline, teachers are being told to reward disruptive pupils with prizes and privileges.
Badly-behaved youngsters must be praised five times as often as they are punished or criticised under guidelines unveiled by Education Secretary Alan Johnson.
They can be offered prizes and privileges ranging from non-uniform days and extended breaktimes to CDs, cinema tickets, personal music players and state-of-the-art bicycles.
The scheme has been branded 'absurd'.
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Minister's latest bright idea for curbing school thugs is to reward them
Ministers were accused of 'going soft' on discipline and critics said the guidance would encourage pupils to expect prizes for good behaviour that should be considered the norm.
Chris Woodhead, the former chief inspector of schools, said: "As a taxpayer, I would like to know how much this absurd guidance cost - it is a complete irrelevance to the real world."
Robert Whelan, deputy director of the right-leaning think tank Civitas, said: "We don't want to give the pupils the idea that good behaviour is the exception that has to be rewarded at every stage. Good behaviour should be the norm.
"The idea that children are being over-disciplined is nonsense. They are able to get away with blue murder. It's no wonder teachers are flooding out of the profession."
Tory education spokesman David Willetts said: "Children have a very strong sense of fairness. It will be resented if it looks as if bad behaviour brings rewards."
The rules were published as members of the country's biggest teaching union revealed staff were being spat at, kicked, bitten and even urinated on by young children.
Delegates at the National Union of Teachers' annual conference in Harrogate voted to speed up procedures for taking industrial action over bad behaviour.
Bryan Beckingham, a maths teacher from Oldham, told the conference: "When a pupil throws a bottle of urine over a member of staff it is unacceptable."
Sue McMahon, secretary of the NUT's Calderdale branch in West Yorkshire, said: "My members this year have been bitten by a five-year-old, thumped by a six-year-old, kicked by a seven-year-old, spat on by an eight-year-old, punched by a nine-year-old, verbally abused by a ten-year-old, received malicious damage to her car by an 11-year-old, gobbed on by a 12-year-old, told where to go so many times by a 13-year-old that they nearly went there, head-butted by a 14-year-old and received a facial injury so bad by a 15-year-old that it required surgery."
The new government advice states that pupils should be given five rewards for every criticism or punishment.
It says a "rewards/sanctions ratio of at least 5:1 is an indication of a school with an effective rewards and sanctions system".
It goes on to tell teachers that a "positive" approach can improve relations with parents who are "tired" of receiving letters and phone calls about their children's behaviour.
"It has long been established that rewards are more effective than punishment in motivating pupils," the guidelines say.
"By praising and rewarding positive behaviour, others will be encouraged to act similarly."
Schools are told they must avoid lavishing too much praise on well-behaved pupils.
"It is advisable to pay attention to those who have previously been associated with poor behaviour or who have been less likely to meet standards so that it is not always the same ("good") pupils who receive praise and rewards."
Teachers are warned not to impose whole-class detentions or other sanctions which 'punish the innocent as well as the guilty".
And they are told: "Staff should also consider when it might be more appropriate to, rather than impose a sanction, encourage pupils to reflect on the harmful effects of their misbehaviour."
The guidance has been published to accompany new legal powers for schools to discipline pupils.
For the first time, they will be able to punish pupils for misbehaviour outside the school gates, such as abusing members of the public or 'happy slapping' incidents where pupils film bullying on their mobiles.
Reader views (17)
This is the accumulated results of years of political correctness; when you tell parents that punishing a child is "child abuse", admonish parents and tell them that spanking is punishable under the law you create an atmosphere of parents who are scared to punish their children, for fear of running afowl of the law - Now the United Kingdom has a problem with "yobs" who fear no one, including the Police, and now resorts to "ASBO's" in the hopes that the same teenager that broke the law will now comply with a court order!
- Davec, Dallas, Texas, 12/04/2007 05:26
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Bad behavior gets rewarded. The rules have been made by these lemons to encourage the blackmail system to become the norm, and when the goodies run out go back and do it gain, terrific idea, maybe murder at school will bring a Rolls Royce or a world cruise.
- Tony, Toronto,Canada, 11/04/2007 22:02
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Brilliant. Praise culture is out of control. Clearly it's not enough to praise mediocre school work now the yobs and ferals have to be praised for their contribution to the school community.
Perhaps I should praise the morons who scratched my wife's new car for their contribution to the economy.
- Gaz, London, 11/04/2007 15:00
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When we were young and misbehaved or even got a bad school report - we got a smack, what wrong with that? No wonder kids are drug and gun crazy these days with the lack of discipline which seems to stem from the last 10 years of this government!
- Raminder Bhalla, Northolt, 11/04/2007 14:50
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PLEASE, PLEASE get these muppets out of power!
- Brandon Thomas, London, UK, 11/04/2007 14:24
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When the John Major government ran out of ideas, they stumbled from one stupid announcement to another, until the country got a chance to get rid of them.
It looks like the current government's days are numbered.
- Stephen, London, 11/04/2007 14:17
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I told my son to behave in primary school so he will be picked for the football team which was judged on behaviour rather than talent, and he did, only for them to excluded him from the team for being too good (they wanted to give all the kids a chance!)
I told my son to work hard and get top marks all the way through primary school so that he could get into a good secondary school, and he did, only to be told he wasn't accepted to any of my 6 choices, one of which was the school in our catchment area, he scored too high on his test, if he got lower he would have been eligible!
When he finally got into a school, I repeated the same mantra, he has repeated the same behaviour and hard work, only to be suspended from school for being late three times in a term - we live in East London, had no choice but to accept a place in West London. Tube delays and bad weather (the snow) made him late!
All this optimism and good behaviour has done my child no good, maybe if he was acting up he might have got into a school nearer to our area, and if he got really bad he would get the PSP - I can't afford to buy him!
- Melissa, UK, 11/04/2007 14:14
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Surely it should be the ones who are already behaving who should be reaping the rewards? The next thing we know armed service personel will be rewarded with six figure sums for being captured!
- Casper, Ibiza Spain, 11/04/2007 13:53
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This is absurd! The government has lost all its marbles. Come on guys, stop being too politically correct - exclude the yobs from school - that's the only thing they deserve and yes, stop the benefits accruing to their parents, too. Discipline begins at home and I blame the parents for not instilling it enough. But then what do you expect from a country where the no-gooders are rewarded and hardworking people are taxed heavily? When incentives like this are offered, they are ripe for abuse. You just have to look at the increase in the number of teenage pregnancies because of the potential benefits they can receive.
- Prashant, Woking, 11/04/2007 13:02
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The lunatics truly are running the asylum these days.
- Nigel, London, 11/04/2007 12:48
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Why behave? Let the goodies get the prizes and then mug 'em!
- R J, UK, 11/04/2007 12:27
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I suggest that Mr Johnson conducts a few classes himself to find out just what teaching is like these days. Out of touch, out of ideas and soon to be out of power!
- Fly, london, 11/04/2007 11:16
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You have got to be joking here, who one earth thought up this bright idea? Why should kids who misbehave suddenly be rewarded for getting sense? Totally unfair to the kids who behave.
- Sarah, London, 11/04/2007 09:58
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Oh boy I wish I was back at school, I would make sure I had a house full of gadgets by the end of the year. What a load of wimps and suckers the whole lot of them.
- Steve, London, England, 11/04/2007 09:27
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What they should do is make class sizes smaller. 30 Kids is far too many. 20 is about the optimum.
As for rewarding bad kids for good behaviour, you will just make the good kids behave bad so that they get the rewards when they become good again.
- Ivor, Harrow, UK, 11/04/2007 08:52
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The only idea I agree with is the advice against whole-class punishments. These are unfair and lazy on the part of the teachers.
The rest of the ideas and "guidance" are sheer insanity. Kids aren't stupid, they are going to figure out that if they are bad now they will be rewarded for being good later. This is an insentive for normally well behaved children to misbehave.
Also how do you maintain a 5:1 praise to critisism ratio when you're dealing with a mouthy disruptive kid who does nothing right?
- Tobin, Andover, 11/04/2007 06:09
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AS a retired teacher I am disgusted with this situation in UK. Fortunately in Canada that could never happen. Rewarding studients for bad behavior? The next thing you will be doing is rewarding students one day off for each day they skip. The obvious solution is putting the students in isolation within the school and continuing to do that until they learn. School is a social institution and removal of the social aspect does work.
Teachers should always expect to be treated like any other human and not be abused physically or emotionally.
Wake up Mr Blair or your country, that I love greatly, will have even greater problems.
- Gary Wilson, Canada, 11/04/2007 01:27
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