schools.
 

should teachers have the power to expel or suspend children for misbehaviour

your views please.......

Re: schools.
 

i think they should have more power than that. in a lot of instances it wouldnt come to expel or suspend if the do good brigade would drop off the face of the earth.(some hope)

Re: schools.
 

yes

kids should be sent home but as a friend of mine would tell you the parents of some pupils simply cant be found

usualy doing somthing real important like drugs or boozeing in the pub

Re: schools.
 

fair point so then should they sent to a centre during school hours and made to do a sort of community service (litter picking and graffitti removal)

Re: schools.
 

Not individual teachers no. It should be down to the head.

Re: schools.
 

yes i agree but the power should be there to do these sorts of punishment

Re: schools.
 

So how does it work at the moment?

Re: schools.
 

if a teacher wants a child expelled they have to go to the LEA and they have to look at the childs records before saying Yeah or Neah

Re: schools.
 

The procedure is quite complicated, but it is down to the school governors to exclude a child, temporarily or permanently. A headteacher has powers to exclude for a short period (I think it's three days) but beyond that, the governors have to be involved, either a full governing body or a committee. As a governor, I once had to permanently exclude a five-year-old because he was so disruptive! You cannot just send children home, as there may well not be anyone there to take care of them. You can call the parents (if you can find them) and ask them to remove the child.

Re: schools.
 

A number of years ago I was on this sort of committee, the parent(s) and child would come in and put their point of view the head would give his then they would leave. we then had to decide the fate of these kids. The Chairmans first question would always be 'does this child come from a one parent family' if the answer was yes the child was reported to the LEA if the answer was no the child stood a chance of being allowed to stay & it didn't matter what anyone else thought the Chairmans word was law.

Re: schools.
 

You should have voted your chair of governors out, Debbie. There are a lot of things to consider, not least the effect on the child and where it can go if excluded. However, I always felt that the interests of the other children in the school had to come first. One disruptive child can wreck the education of a whole class, whatever and whoever their parents are. That should be the smallest consideration.

Re: schools.
 

What happens to the child after exclusion? He or she doesn't just vanish,someone else has to bear the cost of trying to educate the wayward soul.This is often done away from the school environment with a teacher and a teaching assistant involved,all in all the costs exceed £25,000 per annum per child.So multiply this by the number of excluded kids and no wonder the Education system is in crisis!

Re: schools.
 

There isn't an easy answer, Lampman. The child has to be educated, and if this can't happen in a mainstream school, alternatives have to be found, usually as you say at great expense. We ought to try educating children to be parents, then perhaps we can break the cycle. Very few children are really evil - it is bad parenting that creates bad children in most cases.

Re: schools.
 

I agree Pendy,up to a certain age the parents bear the reponsibility of giving their children a sense of right and wrong.Then later teachers come into the equation.
Unfortunately in this gym-slip mothers age the basic sense of decency is lacking,also teachers daren't reprimand or discipline a child for fear of action from the parent and the Education authorities.

Having seen some of the pupil referral candidates in action,I can say with honesty,this also does not work.

The only answer I have is back to basics for the next generation,it is much too late for this one.

Re: schools.
 

I agree that teachers should have more power over the children they teach, as a child at secondary school i was very rebelious and was in no way scared of the teacher or headmaster, i always though it was a lght walk!! That was 8 years ago so what must children at school now be thinking????? I regret some of the things i did at school and wish i had helped my teachers to educate me better. Schools should seperate the disruptive and disobedient ones form the ones who want to learn as i think that any childs disruptive behavior does not just disrupt thier education but the whole classes.