US troubleshooter takes on unruly pupils

More responsibility reduces pupils' bad behaviour, an expert says

A troubleshooter who specialises in fighting violence and crime in US schools is to be brought in to improve discipline at a UK comprehensive.

Haywood school in Nottingham has been given £125,000 by the government to deal with truancy, bullying, poor behaviour and low academic achievement levels.

Its staff will work with Dr Jerry Freiburg, who has implemented his Consistency Management and Co-operative Discipline (CMCD) scheme at around 200 inner-city schools in the US.

This involves pupils doing jobs such as taking the register and assisting the teacher in class, to make them "self-disciplined through gradually experiencing greater responsibility".

Rising standards

The initiative, scheduled to last two years, comes after Haywood school was placed in special measures by Ofsted, the education watchdog.

In 2001, it expelled five pupils and suspended 54 in just four months. Thirty of the 50 teachers resigned during the same period.

Head teacher Jill Hislop, who took over in September last year, said standards had since improved.

She added: "The school has been confronting considerable challenges for some time. We have all worked very hard this year and I am naturally very disappointed that the inspectorate has decided to put us into special measures just as we are clearly starting to close in on our targets.

"Our parents are being very supportive and the plan represents an exciting way forward for the school."

Dr Freiburg, a visiting fellow at Nottingham University, will train some of Haywood school's staff in the ways of CMCD at Houston University, Texas, where he is based.

Nottingham's education director, Heather Tomlinson, said: "We aim to work closely with the school and, by putting this new support structure in place, we are demonstrating that we have every confidence that Haywood can now move forward and come out of special measures."