344 pupils suspended every day
AN EPIDEMIC of violence is sweeping through British schools with hundreds of children suspended every day, it was revealed yesterday.
Official statistics show that an average of 344 pupils were temporarily excluded for assaults on classmates every day during the school year 2006/7.
Annually, the total has soared to 65,390 children, up 2,720 on the previous year, said the Conserv-atives, who obtained the figures.
The Tories argued it demonstrated further evidence of the lack of discipline in schools. But the Government said teachers were using short, sharp shocks to control pupils.
The figures showed that in total, more than 2,200 children were excluded from school in England every school day, most temporarily. The Conservatives are highlighting the fact that so many are served with temporary exclusions for violence.
They also point to large year-on-year increases in certain areas. In England overall, the increase was 4.3 per cent between 2005-6 and 2006-7, but in some pockets the rise was much greater.
In the London borough of Southwark, the number of exclusions for violence rose from 166 to 348 last year – up 110 per cent. Hartlepool saw the number rise 53 per cent, while they were up 50 per cent in Middlesbrough.
Exclusions were up more than 10 per cent in London as a whole, with inner London the UK region showing the biggest increase – up 20 per cent to 3,430.
Shadow children’s secretary Michael Gove said: “This is further evidence of the lack of discipline in our schools.
“It is vital that teachers are given control over the classroom so they can deal with bad behaviour before it escalates into violence.
“We will change the law to give teachers unequivocal powers to maintain discipline. Heads need the power to expel children who are violent to others without the possibility of seeing that child returned to the school.”
The Conservatives have previously pledged to end parents’ right of appeal over expulsions, and abolish the new rules they say force good schools to take pupils expelled from bad ones.
As part of their policy Giving Power Back to Teachers, which is designed to improve behaviour in schools, the Tories would also scrap the requirement on head teachers to arrange lessons for pupils from the sixth day of their suspension. The party believes this creates an incentive for schools to exclude even very badly behaved children for only a short period, or else expel them permanently.
Financial penalties for schools which expel pupils would also be abandoned. Under a Tory government, the legal requirement on teachers to give 24 hours’ notice before detentions would be ended, so that pupils could be punished for bad behaviour on the day.
Teachers could physically res-train disruptive pupils without fear of legal action, allowing them to deal with incidents by removing youngsters from the class.
Head teachers would also be given general powers to ban items they thought could lead to violence or disruption – such as mobile phones, jewellery or computers – while teachers would be allowed to search pupils.
A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: “These figures show that teachers are using the powers we have given them to give short, sharp shocks to control discipline.
“Every single one of these suggestions is either in train, already done or unwanted and unneeded by teachers.”
