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Schools which fail to crack down on classroom indiscipline will face government intervention, Schools Secretary Ed Balls warned today.
In a bid to outflank the Tories on a key election issue, Mr Balls said that all schools should root out disruptive pupils or face an Ofsted re-inspection.
He unveiled the target that every primary and secondary school should have a "good" or "outstanding" rating on behaviour by 2012, or be on track to reach one at their next inspection.
He said the most badly behaved pupils would be pulled out of mainstream schools and forced into "sin bin" education centres, or taken out of normal classes and taught elsewhere within the same school.
Mr Balls said: "Parents want their children to go to an orderly school with a strong head teacher who won't tolerate bullying or disruptive behaviour in the classroom.
"Our new Behaviour Challenge will ensure that every school has good discipline. And we will back head teachers, and expect all parents to back teachers, so they have the confidence to use their powers to the full so they can get on and teach."
The Behaviour Challenge scheme is being launched as part of a wider drive to improve standards across schools and follows Sir Alan Steer's recent report on pupil discipline.
Schools that fail to improve behaviour will face a legal warning notice issued either by their local council or the Schools Secretary. If the school ignores the notice, it will be subjected to re-inspection by Ofsted within a year.
The school will then risk having the regulator mark it as having "unsatisfactory" standards of classroom discipline. The school's rating will also feature in a new "report card" to parents on their overall performance.
Mr Balls intends to bring in laws which require councils to provide full-time education "in alternative provision" for children whose behaviour cannot be resolved within mainstream schooling.
He said that making behaviour a priority was key to improving school standards results. His announcement follows shadow secretary Michael Gove pushing pupil discipline to the top of the Tories' agenda on education.
Reader views (10)
Is that Labour stuck record still going round in circles?
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 30/09/2009 14:56
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I don't care what they do with the offenders, just as long as persistent troublemakers are expelled from ordinary schools, and neither re-admitted a few weeks later nor swapped for some other school's troublemakers. The vast majority of students who go to school to learn, must never again be prevented from doing so by a small minority of bullies, thugs, and young psychopaths.
As for these "sin bins" ... isn't this the same as what they used to call Borstals?
- Nigel, London, 30/09/2009 14:50
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"...badly behaved pupils would be pulled out of mainstream schools and forced into "sin bin" education centres, or taken out of normal classes and taught elsewhere within the same school" - Just an idea, can't we save some money by putting them in the same "homes" as pregnant 16/17 year olds. When will the Nu-Labour government realise that MORE government intervention is precisely what we DON'T need. If they hadn't intervened and made it impossible for teachers to discipline bad behaviour, and made it "acceptable" for parents to challenge teachers decisions on expulsions, then we might not have the problem we now face.
- Malcolm, London, 30/09/2009 13:56
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Badly behaved MPs - e.g. those who have misappropriated hundreds of thousands of tax payers' money - will be sent to the political wilderness next June - never to be allowed hold public office againb.
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK, 30/09/2009 13:39
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Is this the best nuLab can come up with? I bet the pupils (sorry, they're 'students' now) will be absolutely terrified of a 'sin bin'.
For crying out loud, throw the little sods in a dark room with a couple of burly prefects who need some boxing practice.
- George, London, 30/09/2009 12:26
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Oh please, Badly behaved pupils will be flogged within an inch of their miserable lives, detained in an area sterile of stimulation and will carry out community work in the school grounds more like it.
Parents object, they should be fined for interfering in school business, dont pay then criminal records, bailiffs to recover money and much reduced credit rating.
Stop playing about and do the job properly, not in this half hearted woolly minded liberal, if that’s ok with you manner !
- James, City of London, 30/09/2009 11:13
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Badly behaved pupils will be sent to 'sin bins', says your headline. Good! Can we do the same with badly behaved MPs?
- Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands, 30/09/2009 10:50
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"Schools which fail to crack down on classroom indiscipline will face government intervention, Schools Secretary Ed Balls warned today."
Hang on a minute. Wasn't it government intervention that caused this problem in the first place?
Our shcools do need drastic action to bring them back up to standard, but the first action must be to get rid of incompetent buffoons like Balls and his social-engineering looney-left chums.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 30/09/2009 10:50
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The reason we have the current problem is that teachers/schools have had their power and authority removed - these kids have no respect for the teachers because they know that there is no power and it is just empty threats and will just laugh a the idea of a 'sin bin' - where they can just mess around with their mates knowing that misbehaviour cannot and will not be properly punished
- Andy, london, 30/09/2009 10:29
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Can we do the same to Ed Balls? Or does the village idiot simply stand in the duck pond?
- Bob, Cheam, 30/09/2009 10:13
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