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Bingo! That’s how to rein in rowdy pupils says schools czar
Tim Ross, Education Correspondent15 Apr 2009
TEACHERS should run games of Who Wants to be a Millionaire in class to stop children becoming bored and misbehaving, a government report said today.
Many school discipline problems begin when children lose interest in lessons, according to Sir Alan Steer, the Government's school behaviour czar.
Setting up classroom games of bingo and Pictionary, or adapting versions of TV quiz shows such as Millionaire and Blockbusters, can help keep pupils interested, his report suggested.
Sir Alan said: “Often behavioural problems arise from children not learning and being bored. That's not the teacher's fault, it's just sometimes a fact.”
His 200-page report contained a list of suggestions for classroom activities to “engage all students”.
If teachers stop asking pupils to volunteer answers by putting their hands up, the whole class is forced to pay attention, the report said.
Teachers should use question techniques such as “phone a friend” to encourage “whole class listening”.
The report, launched at the NASUWT teachers' union conference in Bournemouth, suggested: “Who Wants to be a Millionaire questions answered in pairs. Which pair becomes the richest?”
Ministers promised to accept all Sir Alan's recommendations in a new drive to ensure better behaviour in schools.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls said schools where behaviour was rated only “satisfactory” would face intervention from council hit squads.
Schools with inadequate behaviour will receive urgent attention from local authority experts.
Sir Alan, the former head of Seven Kings High School in Ilford, told the Standard today that parents and other adults must take responsibility for providing good “role models” for children.
He said children were copying the worst behaviour they see from footballers and celebrities on television, claiming that abusive soccer stars fuelled violence in the playground while celebrity sex scandals encouraged teenage promiscuity.
Sir Alan said parents and other adults must set an example. “We as adults have a responsibility to kids,” he said.
“If we behave in a certain way children will copy it. We have a culture where we are prurient. The sexual life of celebrities is all over the press and yet we wonder why youngsters are sexually active.
“If footballers are violent and abusive is it a surprise children are copying them? If one could wave a magic wand, wouldn't one want to abolish the television in the bedroom?
“I think it's a bit sad if we have families where they are not meeting and everybody is separating off to their own rooms and listening to their iPods or playing with the computer.”
Sir Alan called for a ban on televisions in children's bedrooms to minimise the influence of popular culture on the young and suggested that parents should spend more time and less money on their children, and must be prepared to say “No” more often to their demands.
His study comes amid growing concerns over the breakdown of respect and standards of behaviour in schools and wider society.
Sir Alan stressed that most children behaved well. The “vast majority” were a credit to their generation, volunteering and working hard. But he added that a minority disrupted lessons with low-level back-chat, while some had “major behavioural problems”.
Mr Balls will release guidelines today urging teachers to use the full range of powers at their disposal.
These will propose an expansion of parenting contracts and warn that parents can be fined £50 or face court if they fail to take responsibility for their children's behaviour.
Teachers will also be told they can use reasonable force to restrain unruly pupils, set weekend or evening detentions, and confiscate property.
Reader views (16)
My generation did well at school through reciting 'times table', and rewriting essays that weren't up to scratch. It worked then it'll work again if there is enough deterrent to bad behaviour. Canes and slippers should do it.
- Martin H. Watson, Teddington, 16/04/2009 09:05
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Steer has just cost the UK taxpayer a fortune to produce a 200 page "report" which, by all accounts, could have been written better by any 12 year old child.
Time to get a proper job Mr Steer - try joining the masses of spin doctors loitering with intent in Downing Street, they would wallow in your alleged "talents".
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe UK, 16/04/2009 09:03
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£50.00 fines to parents who can't get their kids to behave?
Send in Council Hit Squads?
Are these the same Councils that hand out leaflets outlining to our children "The Childrens Rights Charter" - which give them more rights than their parents?
Yes, Parents must say that NO word to thier kids. Its so wrong the amount of money handed to them for nothing these days and what they receive compared to generations gone by. We parents, are generating a spoilt brat generation that benefits no one, not even the children, in the long run.
However, this Government NANNY STATE has not helped parents. Our hands our tied. Say the wrong word to our kids and they shout ABUSE! Even Social Workers admit, kids have more rights than parents now. No wonder the profession has a shortage.
A scheme in London has been set up to remove disruptive, poor attendance kids and put them in a pilot scheme wher they are learning a trade from 14 -16 - hairdresing, car maintenance, carpentry etc. It is proving to be a big success. At 16, these now fortunate kids are leaving with a skill, apprentiship - Hope and so better behaved. What does this say about our "one box fits all" education system? Schools to geared towards tests and league tables and the pupils that will do them proud. More schemes like this should be put in place to save a lost nation of underperforming kids.
- Theresa, London, 16/04/2009 00:10
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Alan Steer, go back to school and try again. The system may have educated you but it has failed to develop any natural intelligence you may have had. This government is becoming increasingly desperate and the sooner their 'innings' is over - all the better. Lock up the likes of Tweed for five years, (as they deserve) and then teenagers of a similar disposition may just begin to respect the law again.
- William Ear, Waltham Cross, 15/04/2009 21:48
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Am sick of reading about brain dead so-called "celebs" and their boring and pointless lives. Most of them are on drugs and have drink problems and have sob stories as to why they can't act like civilised human beings; utterly pathetic. Perhaps if they had to live on a dollar a day like so many millions on this planet they might grow up and see how fortunate they are to live in such a rich society, with so many opportunities that they see fit to squander every day in their squalid little lives.
- Alan, London, 15/04/2009 16:36
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The schools should be geared up to teach useful skills such as car servicing, brick laying, and basic engineering and the like to interest the children and provide a knowledge of skills which would help them in to jobs. Who cares what William the Conquerer did, and, the other curriculum rubbish
T H Leeds
- Thomas Hayes, Leeds UK, 15/04/2009 15:17
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Stop these "great" ideas now, before any more damage is done to education. They are useless even before they start. Anyone who has children and takes an active part in discipline knows Alan Steer is a fool.
Stop making excuses for unruly low lifes. Put them to one side, in units that can deal with them properly, just as we used to. Then the majority can get on with being educated without interruptions.
- Dave Davies, Basingstoke, 15/04/2009 14:58
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Yep, it's all the fault of celebrity dross, heaven forbid that the parents might take some responsibility for letting them watch such drivel.
- Bob, Cheam, 15/04/2009 13:47
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Well, it doesn't help does it?
Every movie and US TV series has sex and violence somewhat cleaverly disguised as entertainment. Many UK series mimic this trend because "it's what sells".
The excesses of the 'credit crunch' also exist in other industries. By the time we realise it's too late. In this case is teeenage pregnencies and street stabbings.
We need a new approach without infringing in civil liberties.
Pabs
- Pabs, London, 15/04/2009 13:14
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Yes, and remember who it was that encouraged the celeb culture with his 10 Downing St parties and "cool Britannia", Tony BLiar!
- Wen, Oxford, 15/04/2009 12:24
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"Celebrity culture" is just a by-product of the systematic destruction of the fabric of British civil society that has been implemented by the Soviet Labour party.
It is they who have created a culture of abdicated responsibility where there is always someone else to blame for the wrongdoing of the burgeoning underclass.
It is they who have turned a World class education system into a social engineering project in the charge of left-liberal woolly-thinkers, most of whom have never faced life outside the classroom.
It is they who have allowed the cancer of political correctness to spread throughout our public institutions, turning most of them, especially the criminal injustice system, into dysfunctional farces.
It is they who have led by example with their unprecedented sleaze, corruption, lies and abject refusal to accept responsibility for anything, regardless of how glaringly obvious their culpability is.
In short, the responsibility for the moral decline in this country lies at the heart of NuLiebour, as has been amply demonstrated by the recent email scandal and the Glorious Leader's absolute refusal to accept any responsibility for it.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 15/04/2009 11:08
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@Alan Green: You are so right. The reason the police focus on your minor motoring 'offences' is because you can (in the mind of the government, their employer) 'afford' to pay the fines, while criminals and chavs cannot. Law today is 'for profit', not based on ethics or common sense. Stand your ground Sir, you are not the only one to be concerned about such issues and you'll win in the end. Believe me.
- Vision Aforethought, Oxford & London, 15/04/2009 10:50
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I once looked after a little boy for two years, he was blond with blue eyes but had difficulties with behaving and doing what he was told. No matter how much I asked the teacher and support staff not to reward his normal behaviour, but only very good behaviour. They did not listen. After caring for him for 2 years without any real practical support from either Education or Social services (as they where busy saving money). His behaviour improved over time, but it was a constant up hill battle, because I was constantly undermined as the acting parent although I was not related and only received £50 per week from the local authority to care for him. Hence I became exhausted so I very unhappily returned him into care and now I understand that since leaving my home 15 months ago, he has been in 3 foster placements as no one can manage his behaviour.
- A, London, 15/04/2009 10:43
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Report got it spot on. I have two kids under 2 years old - if either one of them, or their future siblings come in to me aged 14 and say that when they grow up, they want 'to be famous', they will get a clip round the ear and told to go out and get a part time job and learn the value of graft and effort in life, rather than instant 'celebrity' with very little of it backed by talent.
- Dc, London, 15/04/2009 10:14
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Yes Sir Alan I completely agree, our children should be using MP,s and Bankers as their Mentors.
- Chris, London, 15/04/2009 10:11
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MY DAUGHTERS LIFE IN SO CALLED DESIRABLE WANSTEAD IS MADE A MISERY BY YOUNGSTERS INVADING HER GARDEN, SECURITY CAMERAS AND LIGHTS HAVE BEEN VANDALIZED AND EVEN THE LETTER BOX HAS TO BE SEALED. TEENAGERS KICKING BALLS AGAINST HER SIDE WALL CLIMB OVER FENCES SMASHING PLANTS TO RECOVER BALLS AND IT IS NOT UNUSUAL TO COME DOWN AT ELEVEN AT NIGHT TO FIND THESE YOUNG MEN PEERING THROUGH THE PATIO DOORS.
OVER TEN YEARS WITH SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS GROWING UP THE POLICE WILL DO NOTHING. BUT YOU DARE TO PARK IN THE HIGH STREET A FEW MINUTES OVER TIME OR SPEED AT THIRTY TWO MILES AN HOUR AND YOU CAN EXPECT THE FULL FORCE OF THE LAW TO DECEND ON YOU.
WHAT LIFE MUST BE LIKE ON SO CALLED SINK ESTATES IS BEYOND COMPREHENSION.
AS FOR BEING A TEACHER IS MUST BE INTOLERABLE.
BUT THEN WHAT IS THESE YOUNGSTERS EXAMPLE LIKE FROM DOWNING STREET SPIN DOCTORS. IS THERE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPREADING LIES TO AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR BY POLITICIANS
- Alan Green, Woodford Green, 15/04/2009 09:59
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