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Last week our colleague vardaki wrote a message asking if there were any schools which punished students using violence of any kind, and every teacher who answered said ( thank God! ) that it wasn �t a good thing to resort to and that dialogue and affection worked better all the time.
I � m shocked now, as I �ve just heard on the news that in England it �s allowed now - since the beginning of April - to use such kind of punishment ... ????
Have any of you heard anything ? What did they mean by "it �s possible to use violence now - to a certain extent - to change a student �s misbehavior.." ???
I �ve heard nothing about this and my mum teaches in England. There is certainly debate about whether the increasing violence and bad behaviour/attitude of teenagers has something to do with a lack of discipline in schools but I �m pretty certain that no actual changes have been made to the law. If they have, it �s been kept very quiet!
Where did you read this - i �d be very interested in learning more - I don �t keep up with all the UK news as much as I used to!
I heard it on the news a while ago, but I don �t understand now, because as manonski says, the bulletin states the opposite ! On the other hand, I can �t believe they �d say such a thing if it wasn �t true ! I �ll try to find out more and then I �ll let you know.
Teachers can use physical force against pupils if they are fighting,
refusing to leave a classroom or disrupting a school sporting event, government
guidelines ruled yesterday.
The guidelines, published by the Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, are an
attempt to explode the "myth" that teachers cannot touch pupils. They
also make it clear that teachers can use force without parental consent and aim
to tackle the "fear factor" among teachers that they will face
assault allegations from pupils if they intervene to prevent them fighting.
I supposed it had to be true but I couldn �t find anything to check what I had heard. And BB, who can decide which student is "difficult" and which isn �t ?? For me, this opens the door to misuse of the regulation ... On the other hand, the first paragraph of the article states 3 specific situations in which to use physical force, so it �s not like teachers can smack kids whenever they think fit. Anyway, I was just surprised, that �s all.
Teachers can use physical force against pupils if they are fighting,
refusing to leave a classroom or disrupting a school sporting event.
This is not about punishment. It �s about giving the teachers the right or power to break up fights and not let student hooligans take over the classroom.
If teachers adopt "no contact" policies, as some local authorities have
unofficially advised, they wouldn �t even be able to break up a fight when one student is bashing another one �s head in. This is not bringing back the cane, it �s just common sense.
Yes, PhilipR, those are the three situations I was referring to . But I was wondering, it �s reasonable for a teacher to be able to break up a fight, but what can a teacher do if a student refuses to leave the classroom , would you grab his arm and force him out ? It not an easy situation, I still think it can cause more problems in some cases...
Well, I �ll call it a night now, have a good Sunday everyone.
If it helps, you may like to know that our employment requirements specifically state that "Using unnecessary force to make physical contact with a student as a prompt for a verbal instruction or to force compliance" is considered as poor and unacceptable practice.
Our requirements are quite clearly laid out and they do not forbid physical contact in all situations. If you are interested you can read more here about the employment responsiblities of primary and secondary teachers working in New South Wales, one of the states in Australia and with the largest population of all states.
I worked in England, and I know for a fact that those kids are a damned sight harder than Australian kids overall. They �ve got absolutely no innocence whatsoever by the time they hit Year 7 and you �re dealing with a pressure-cooker for an education system.
Still, some amazing teaching goes on in England, or else you �d have a whole country of completely uneducated kids running amok.
In response to your question, my school in England used an escalation system involving:
1. Head of Department
2. Behaviour Management Team
3. Deputy / Head Principal
Essentially, if a student refused to leave the class - which often happens in the heat of the moment - then you �d refer the student to the head of department �s class. If the student refuses, the head of department left her room for two minutes and removed aforementioned student. Duty of Care laws in England and Australia are identical in this situation: you have to know where all your students are at any one time. The timetable was written such that the head teacher �s current class was always a) a good Year 10, 11 or 12 class; b) the room was across the hall. That way, the head teacher could still know where every student was and could hear what was going on her class whilst the offending student was dealt with.
If the student refused to go with the head of department, the behaviour management team came to escort the students from the class. You sent a runner to their office in another building, and two minutes later, they �d come running to take the kid out. At this point, the kid was removed and a conference between you, the head teacher, the behaviour management head of department took place. The student would then go back into the mainstream classroom, after spending 2 - 5 lessons with the Year 10, 11 or 12 class that the head teacher would teach at the same time as yours.
Parents would also be contacted in most cases - where the parents actually gave a damn - and the problem would be workshopped.
If the behaviour management team didn �t work, the deputy would then be called by the behaviour management team to take the student. And it would be the deputy �s responsibility to either PHYSICALLY remove the student with as little or as greater force as required without hitting the student. An ordinary classroom teacher in this situation would never be forced to touch a student, save for breaking up a fight or preventing students from injuring themselves.
It all depends on the school and how well it is managed.
I �ll try to find out more and then I �ll let you know.
