Call for adults to set example

Sir Alan Steer will outline a series of proposals on Monday designed to put new pressure on parents to tackle children who behave badly in school.

But he said it was not just the responsibility of parents to influence their children's behaviour and all adults must play a role.

"Sometimes as adults we don't model the behaviour we want youngsters to follow," he told The Guardian.

"We live in a greedy culture, we are rude to each other in the street. Children follow that."

Sir Alan, who is the headteacher of Seven Kings High School in Ilford, east London, also hit out at criticism of comprehensives, saying: "The majority are havens for their students from a disruptive society."

He said the jobs of schools was to educate but added "sometimes we have to help bring up children as well".

Children's Secretary Ed Balls promised to tackle parents who refused to accept that teachers had a right to discipline their children when he announced the review last month.

He said Sir Alan had been asked to investigate how heads could work with parents who challenged their authority.

Sir Alan has been looking at whether parents would be more supportive about discipline in schools if they received regular online reports about their children's behaviour.