Schools: Discipline

(asked on 3rd March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to strengthen the powers of teachers to deal with unruly pupils.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 9th March 2020

Good behaviour in school is crucial if children are to learn and reach their full potential. As well as delivering excellent teaching, schools should be calm, safe and disciplined environments free from the low-level disruption that prevents pupils from learning.

The Government is committed to backing heads and teachers to enforce discipline, and we have given teachers a range of powers to promote good behaviour and discipline misbehaviour, including how they deal with unruly pupils.

All schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy which outlines measures to encourage good behaviour, and the sanctions that will be imposed for misbehaviour. This should be communicated to all pupils, school staff and parents. To help schools develop effective strategies, the Department has produced advice for schools which covers what should be included in the behaviour policy. This advice can be viewed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/behaviour-and-discipline-in-schools.

The Government is also committed to ensuring all teachers are equipped with the skills to tackle both the serious behaviour issues that compromise the safety and wellbeing of pupils and school staff, as well as the low-level disruption that too often gets in the way of effective learning. To help support staff, we are reforming training through the Early Career Framework so that all new teachers will be shown how to effectively manage behaviour in their first two years in the profession.

In February 2020, the Department announced its next steps for implementing the £10 million behaviour hubs programme, which aims to equip senior leaders in schools with the tools to improve their approach to behaviour management through facilitated peer-training, matching them up to exemplary lead schools and multi-academy trusts for bespoke support. Further information can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/behaviour-hubs.

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