Expel any pupil using 'evil' drugs, says head

Anthony Seldon, head of £24,441-a-year Wellington College in Berkshire warns today that social attitudes to recreational narcotics have become far too lax.

He will tell the annual Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference - an organisation representing the country's leading independent schools - that part of the solution to the nation's growing drugs problem is to teach children how to be happy without them and will warn the conference in Bournemouth that rising rates of mental illness are being fuelled by the "cataclysmic" use of illegal and prescription drugs.

These include skunk, which is more powerful than other strains of cannabis and has been identified as a likely trigger of schizophrenia and psychosis in young people. "They are such a massive evil, even cannabis is so deeply evil and sinister."

Dr Seldon said what distinguished independent schools like his is the quality of pastoral care they offer. But they face the same problems as state schools - particularly when it comes to drugs, on which Wellington operates a "no second chance policy" he said.

Wellington College, a co-educational school which takes boarders and day pupils between 13 and 18, has hired a private security firm to conduct drugs sweeps with sniffer dogs once a term.

And he said the reason he has not expelled any pupils for drug-taking since becoming headmaster last year is because they knew they would be instantly ordered to leave if caught taking drugs.

"If you have a very, very clear, sharp policy, everyone knows where they stand. You have a hard, cruel policy to be kind."

Dr Seldon also lambasted the media for not portraying drug use negatively enough. "The media and the Government need to be far tougher. No illegal or recreational drugs are acceptable in any form."

He added that he knew of one man who had "lost his mind for six months" after smoking only one joint.

Dr Seldon has pioneered a compulsory course in well-being at Wellington and after the first year he said A-level and GCSE results at the school improved, although he was cautious about attributing the increase in top grades to the happiness course alone.

"It's very hard to pinpoint. Our results have gone up. Is that because we are doing this? I don't know. What there is clear evidence of is... if you can create an emotionally intelligent organisation, this has real benefits in a school."

Dr Seldon plans to extend the well-being course at Wellington to cover all pupils after initially focusing on those taking GCSEs.

Unlike the Government's Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning programme, which Schools Secretary Ed Balls said would be rolled out to secondary as well as primary schools, Wellington's scheme covers teachers as well as pupils, Dr Seldon said.