Children spoiled by 'pushover parents' cause school chaos, with tantrums in class

Scientists found that disobedience at home is spilling into classrooms, with some teachers at "breaking point".

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A "small but significant" group of pushover parents is creating major problems for primary schools, according to the Cambridge University report, commissioned by the National Union of Teachers.

It warned that reward systems in schools to encourage good behaviour are not working.

In one primary, a difficult pupil had been given a credit for "walking pupils silently in a straight line to assembly" while a well-behaved student got the same credit for collecting a large amount of money for charity.

The Cambridge research was based on in-depth interviews with hundreds of teachers, parents and pupils over five years.

It revealed that "highly permissive" parenting, coupled with misguided discipline policies in schools, had pushed complaints about poor pupil behaviour to a record high.

Cases in the report included:

A mother who considered it a success that her five-year-old was going to bed at 1am instead of 3am.

A seven-year-old who threw his PlayStation against a wall and threw more tantrums for a week until he got a new one.

A six-year-old who had mastered the violent video game Grand Theft Auto and told his teacher how to "kill pimps and prostitutes".

Parents who did anything to shut their children up "just to get some peace".

Confrontational children were often copying their parents, the report added.

Many mothers and fathers undermined teachers' authority by failing to back disciplinary sanctions imposed on their children. The report found: "Five years ago, primary teachers blamed the behaviour problems on an insufficiently motivating curriculum. Now teachers blame a rapidly changing social scene.

"By the time they come to school, many of these children had become expert in manipulating adults."

Professor John MacBeath, co-author of the study, said: "It does to some extent run across social class, but is particularly acute in areas where people are living in very violent neighbourhoods.

"We did find some teachers who really were at breaking point in some deprived areas."

The problem also applied to secondary schools, and was in some ways "more difficult because kids are bigger, more aggressive and less tractable".

Steve Sinnott, the NUT's general secretary, said the commercialisation of childhood is partly to blame since businesses used increasingly aggressive marketing tactics and "pester power".

"Parents are struggling in a commercialised world to deal with poor behaviour on the part of their children and that is spilling over into schools, making it more difficult for teachers to cope with those youngsters," he added. "It is pretty easy to see the impact that would have in the classroom."

Youngsters throw the same sort of tantrums that allow them to get their way at home, said Mr Sinnott.

"Any youngster who has come from a household in which they don't have a sensible routine for going to bed - say one or three in the morning - the idea those youngsters can be prepared to be engaged in learning is just not happening."

The claims are the latest in a series from classroom unions which implicate parents in school discipline problems.

John Dunford, a head teachers' leader, recently claimed teachers are increasingly forced to act as surrogate parents.

Teenagers who receive the wrong A-level and GCSE grades could claim compensation under plans being drawn up by the Government.

They might be in line for payouts of £50,000 if a new watchdog rules that serious errors were made in the marking of papers.

Exam boards fear the move would "open the floodgates of litigation" and could cost them £1million a year. They insist "some errors of judgment or process" are inevitable in a grading system handling millions of scripts a year.

The prospect of compensation has been raised in proposals for a new independent exams watchdog, to be named Ofqual.

Parents are likely to welcome the move if it increases the accuracy of marking, but the boards could respond by raising exam fees.