Tories outline rowdy pupils plan

The Conservatives have outlined plans to ban classroom troublemakers and give powers to protect teachers in England.

Party leader David Cameron said schools would not have to be "penalised" financially for removing persistently badly behaved children.

Good schools would not have to take pupils from bad ones and parents of excluded children would lose the right to appeal to an independent panel.

Schools Minister Jim Knight dismissed the ideas as "gimmicks".

'Follow the pupil'

The Tories also want an end to the "fines" imposed by some local authorities on schools that expel pupils.

Party leader David Cameron said money should "follow the pupil" - such as where excluded children's education continues in specialist units - and that schools would not be "penalised" for banning troublemakers.

"Teachers shouldn't have to be looking over their shoulders while they are teaching"
Michael Gove, Conservatives

At present, he added, many schools were using temporary exclusions to keep short-term control, rather than sorting out the situation permanently.

Further Conservative measures would abolish the obligation for schools to provide teaching for excluded pupils after the sixth day of exclusion.

'Able to learn'

Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove said the Conservatives would make it easier for teachers to confiscate mobile phones used in classrooms.

He added: "Teachers shouldn't have to be looking over their shoulders while they are teaching and schools need to ensure they are places where the majority of pupils are able to learn."

"Removing the requirement to provide education for children suspended for more than five days will simply lead to more excluded kids roaming the streets"
Schools Minister Jim Knight

But Schools Minister Jim Knight said the Conservatives' proposals had not been adequately thought through.

He said: "Head teachers have the clear power to exclude disruptive pupils, but they tell us they do not want the appeals process to be abolished as that would see them being dragged through the courts to defend their decisions.

"If head teachers keep the funding for a pupil after they've been excluded, how will the Tories afford to give excluded kids the help and education they need to get back on track?"

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, welcomed the Conservatives' focus on classroom discipline.

But he continued: "There are elements in today's announcement that would, if enacted, cause some problems.

"Ending the right of parents to appeal to an independent panel against exclusion would, as I have said consistently in the past, lead to more parents going to the courts in an attempt to overturn their child's exclusion.

"This would be more stressful, time consuming and costly for heads. Natural justice dictates that some appeal mechanism should be in place and it is far better that this should not be in the courts."

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