Children 'over-indulgence' slammed

Parents who struggle to cope resort to spoiling their youngsters to keep them quiet while teachers offer rewards to encourage pupils to pay attention in class, a report said.

The Cambridge University study, produced for the National Union of Teachers (NUT), found poor standards of behaviour was one of the biggest causes of stress and extra work for school staff.

This represented a "noticeable change in the climate of schooling" over the past six years, the study said.

NUT general secretary Steve Sinnott, speaking at the union's annual conference in Manchester said some parents struggled in the "increasingly commercialised" world of childhood. "Parents seem to be trying to cope by over-indulging their youngsters," he said.

"Indulgent parents are struggling in a commercialised world to deal with poor behaviour on the part of their children and that spills over into schools, making it more difficult for teachers to cope with youngsters."

The research, led by Professor John MacBeath, from the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Education, said primary teachers were increasingly adopting secondary-school style approaches to discipline. "Teachers claimed that pupils, even in the early years of primary education, were reluctant to follow instructions and that a minority could be extremely confrontational, used foul language and could even be physically aggressive," it said.

The study said some schools offered children "credits" in return for good behaviour in class. Pupils could exchange these credits for snacks and even accumulate enough to earn "a day off school".

But there was little evidence that such policies - backed by ministers - had improved school discipline, the report said.

The study continued: "Motivation to listen carefully and courteously to the teacher or one's fellow pupils rests on a desire to win a free can of cola rather than from a growing understanding among class members of their interdependence as human beings."