Cameron - New school discipline plan

Today David Cameron is to set out his party's plans for improving discipline in schools.

In a Radio 4 interview this morning David Cameron said he would like to introduce contracts between schools and parents. These contracts would require parents to sign-up to codes of behaviour their children must adhere to. This would pass control of exclusions back to head teachers and prevent parents from appealing to their local authority.

He said that the local education authority appeals panel process "completely undermined" heads and that "We would like to scrap appeals panels and put the final say in the hands of the headteacher."

David Cameron also said that excluded children should be supported by voluntary organisations rather than "extremely expensive" pupil referral units.

DCSF minister Kevin Brennan said: "We have already given heads and teachers clear statutory powers to deal with poor behaviour swiftly and decisively. As Ofsted reported earlier this year, the vast majority of pupils are well-behaved and hard-working. But it's important that a small minority of young people should not be allowed to disrupt lessons and undermine the authority of teachers."

"Heads have never had such a range of disciplinary and preventative measures at their disposal. They are now able to send out a strong message to trouble-makers that if they misbehave, they can expect to be punished," he added.

What do you think?
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