Primary Teacher UK

Spying on Children to cut out bullying

Headteachers were advised today to screen pupils' computer accounts and gather proof, including photographic evidence, where they suspect teenagers and primary children of joining gangs. Ministers have drawn up advice to schools on identifying and dealing with gang members amid growing evidence young pupils are drawn in by older siblings. They are concerned sexual abuse of girls is spreading through gang cultures.

The document, seen by the Guardian, suggests:

· Headteachers set out emergency plans to deal with sudden outbreaks of weapon-related violence, and inform child protection experts if they suspect girls are being sexually abused in "initiation rituals" or revenge attacks by rival gangs;

· Teachers should learn to identify signs of gang membership such as pupils wearing certain colours, items of jewellery, or clothing. Some pupils now wear weapon-proof clothing, the document says;

· Emphasis is placed on schools working in intelligence operations with police and local partners to protect children at risk;

· Staff should be trained to look out for tags, graffiti, in the streets or in notebooks, or for pupils who suddenly acquire expensive trainers or mobile phones;

· Schools which suspect there may be gangs operating in their student body should "gather evidence" including photos of tags, and behaviour records;

· Some schools may employ tactics including "screening tools" to monitor students on social networking sites, or use powers to search pupils suspected of carrying weapons.

The guidance says that gangs are "predominantly male", continuing: "There are a few female gangs, but more often girls are subservient in the male gangs and even submissive." It warns of sexual exploitation which might include "initiation rituals" or "revenge attacks" against members of other gangs.

It goes on: "There is local evidence of some young children (including primary age) engaged in gang activities. In some areas the groups may be relatively formalised into age groups, for example'tinys' who can progress to 'youngers' then 'elders', usually through symbolic acts of crime."

Housepoints.net

Here is an email I received from Ahmed regarding his website housepoints.net:

I created housepoints.net to allow my school to track house points online. It's been a big hit with the teachers, students and parents so I've now made it available for other schools to use. You can find more information on the following page:

http://www.housepoints.net/for_teachers

The site is free to use and I intend to keep it that way for the forseeable future. It's been designed with simplicity in mind and there's a special "student mode" to allow students to enter their own points - less work for the teachers!

Parents can be given access to their child's profile and at my school this has reinvigorated the house points system - parents are taking more of an interest in school and for the children, earning house points is a big deal again. (I've had plenty of reports of parents praising/rewarding children at home when they've had a particularly good day and that has helped to reinforce the behaviour policy outside school).

There's a short guided tour and online demo you can try. The demo is reset periodically so feel free to make make changes.

It's a fresh look on the team / house points system and certainly worth considering - even if you just use the points with your class. I'd like to see the system being made more child friendly - maybe awarding stars for x number of points etc.

Link: http://www.housepoints.net/

1 in 10 teachers has been attacked

According to a survey by the ATL 1 in 10 teachers say they have been attacked and injured by violent pupils. The ATL surveyed 800 members across the UK and found two-thirds believed standards of behaviour were getting worse, despite repeated government attempts to crack down on poor discipline.

Nearly all state school and college staff who took part in the study reported problems with low-level disruption, such as pupils talking, using mobile phones in class, and ignoring teachers' requests.

3 out of 10 said they had experienced "physical aggression", while three-quarters said they had been threatened or insulted by a pupil. One in 10 teachers and college lecturers said a violent student had caused them "physical harm".

More details are available on the Guardian website.

Help needed with a new Dispatches programme

I've received a email today asking for help with a new TV Dispatches documentary about violence in school. Full details are below:

Violence in British schools is a recognised problem by the government and society. Teachers need more help, and effective programmes need to be put in place to improve child behaviour. But how do we do this? True Vision Productions is making a film exploring the issue of violent child behaviour for the Channel Four series, Dispatches.

We would like to hear from teachers who have experienced violent behaviour exhibited by pupils in their school and are keen to address the issue with the use of early intervention programmes, or who have used such programmes before. We are hoping to film the work of established organisations who work with schools to help teachers effectively tackle the roots of aggression and prevent further violence.

The documentary will take a serious look at how important the issue of child violence is in society, how it is damaging children’s prospects at home and at school, and how we, as a society, need to explore ways to minimise violent behaviour.

True Vision Productions is one of the UK’s top documentary companies. We have considerable experience in filming with children and within schools. In particular ‘Beating the Bullies’, a film about peer mediation among primary school children. We have recently won two Baftas for best documentary and won many other awards including eight Emmies.

For more information on the film and the work of the early intervention programmes, please contact Joanna on 0208 742 7852 or Joanna@truevisiontv.com. There is no obligation to take part and all correspondence is confidential.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Anti-Bullying Week 2007

From Monday 19 November, Teachers TV are broadcasting a special week of programming to link with National Anti-Bullying Week. Programme highlights include:

Inspirations: The Scary Guy Does Primary Monday 19 November, 4.00pm (available on Freeview) and 8.00pm The Scary Guy - tattooed from top-to-toe and pierced between the eyes – certainly lives up to his name, but put aside preconceptions based on his appearance and his mission is soon clear. Scary’s aim is to eliminate hate, violence and prejudice by engaging with the young. On his trip to St Margaret's CE Primary School in Heywood, the children are not scared of him at all and are instantly engaged by his messages, which include: always be yourself; always help others; always resolve conflicts without fighting; and never reject anyone because of how they look.

What If? Gangs Monday 19 November, 4.30pm (available on Freeview) and 8.30pm Mike Baker chairs a panel - including two head teachers, a diversity expert and the chair of the Youth Justice Board – which discusses how escalating gang-related incidents can be tackled within schools. How involved should teachers be with troublesome pupils? How far can they go to deal with the threat of violence faced by the children, without putting themselves – or their charges – in danger?

Anti-Bullying: How Do They Do It In Norway? Tuesday 20 November, 4.00pm (available on Freeview) and 9pm This programme explores the background to Norway’s anti-bullying policies, which has helped to cut bullying in some schools by 50%. It examines Norway’s tradition of communal responsibility for children and looks at the most successful anti-bullying programmes in two schools that take a zero-tolerance stance against bullying.

Have a look at the Anti-bullying week website for activities and further links as well as previous posts on the PTUK site.

New powers for headteachers to tackle poor behaviour

Parents of pupils who have been excluded from school will be required to keep their children indoors, attend reintegration interviews with the head teacher and work with teachers to develop strategies for improving the behaviour of their child, announced Ed Balls today. Measures from the Education and Inspections Act 2006 that come into effect this week, include:

• Parents are now responsible for keeping children indoors during exclusions – parents of children found in a public place during school hours, without reasonable justification, can be subject to a £50 fixed penalty notice. This will be £50 if paid within 28 days rising to £100 if paid after 28 days but within 42 days of receipt of the notice. Failure to pay could result in prosecution of the original offence which, on conviction, could mean a £1,000 fine or a community sentence.
• Parents of excluded pupils will have to attend compulsory reintegration interviews with the head teacher – where they will discuss strategies for managing the pupils’ behaviour in future
• Earlier intervention through parenting contracts – schools will have the ability to develop parenting contracts, which set a clear, agreed action plan for unruly pupils, before bad behaviour escalates to the point where exclusion is necessary – previously, parenting contracts only came into play after a pupil was excluded;
• More power for heads to enforce parental responsibility – heads will now be able to apply directly to the courts for parenting orders in cases where parents do not take responsibility for their child’s action. These enforce the terms of a parenting contract and mean that parents will be fined if they then fail to take the agreed action.
• Tighter rules to help prevent excluded children slipping behind - After the fifth day of any exclusion, either the school (in the case of fixed exclusions) or the local authority (in the case of permanent exclusions) must provide an alternative source of full time education to prevent the excluded child from slipping behind. Under the previous rules this was required after 15 days, not five.

It's about time that the first rule comes into effect.  How demoralising is it when you have excluded a child from school to see them riding around the playground or talking to the children during playtime through the fence!

Pupils should supervise lunches

A recent reports suggests that older pupils should become paid dinner supervisors in school canteens and lunchtimes should be made longer not shorter. The School Food Trust suggests that lengthening the daily lunch break would allow pupils to relax, eat properly and recuperate for the afternoon's lessons. It also says that teachers should sit among pupils and communicate using coloured cards to avoid having to shout.

Although it is probably more suited to secondary schools, the booklet 'A Fresh Look at the School Meal Experience' is really interesting and it has lots of practical ideas for making lunch times a positive experience for everyone!

Teacher suspended for filming children's behaviour

A teacher who secretly filmed unruly behaviour in the classroom for a television documentary was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct on Friday.

Angela Mason, of Aberdare Gardens, London, went undercover at several schools in the capital and the north east of England for the Channel 5 programme Classroom Chaos. Using a camera hidden in her handbag, she recorded a number of incidents of pupils misbehaving and disrupting lessons she covered as a supply teacher in late 2004 and early 2005.

Mrs Mason admitted carrying out the secret filming, but denied it amounted to unacceptable professional conduct, arguing that she was acting in the public interest. But at a hearing in Birmingham the (GTC), ruled the public interest defence was not strong enough to justify the breach of trust implicit in the secret filming.

Issuing the judgment, Andrew Baxter - the chair of the GTC committee - said that secretly filming students would constitute unacceptable professional conduct in all but the most exceptional circumstances.

Punishment for false allegation pupils

From the Independent: A headteacher honoured for her services to education has launched a campaign to punish parents and pupils who make malicious allegations, after being falsely accused of assaulting a three-year-old.

Dame Mary MacDonald, head of Riverside Community School in North Shields, near Newcastle, faced the allegation just months after she was recognised in the New Year Honours List for turning her school's performance around.

Figures show that around 6,000 teachers have been accused of abusing children in the past 15 years. One union, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said ­ of the 2,210 allegations it had investigated ­ only 88 had resulted in a conviction.

In one authority, 50 teachers have been suspended on abuse allegations in the past five years.

Leaders of the National Association of Head Teachers at their annual conference in Bournemouth demanded yesterday that heads and teachers should have the right to remain anonymous until allegations were proven against them. In addition, the school's name should remain secret.

They are also investigating ways of punishing parents and pupils who make malicious allegations. In the pupil's case, they argued, the youngster should be expelled. Parents should be brought to court on a new charge of making a malicious allegation.

Dame Mary said yesterday that her ordeal had started when two mothers stormed into a school assembly ­ and accused her of hitting the child of one of them. They refused to leave until the police were called. She gathered witness statements from other staff and was cleared by both police and her local authority.

However, two days later, the case was reopened after a council official heard gossip on a council estate that she had kicked the three-year-old " like a football". Eventually, she was cleared for a second time.

"When I heard the allegation, I was beginning to think 'what if the Queen hears about this?'," she said. "This is a very serious time for heads and for teachers in schools. I was accused by a parent who was fired up by another mother who had been an aggressive parent in my school for many years."

She added: "I have seen the allegations destroy excellent colleagues' reputations. The headteacher is the big catch in the school. Teachers can be protected to some extent by strong headteachers but a head has no one to turn to."

 

Exclusions in primary schools

At least one child aged five or under is expelled from school every week and dozens more are suspended as bad behaviour among pupils soars. Official Government figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show that increasing numbers of children are being barred from primary school for offences as serious as sexual assault, theft, racism and even drug dealing. In an alarming disclosure, it is revealed that 230 pupils are suspended and six are permanently excluded from primary schools in England every day during term time. In the reception year alone, 60 pupils aged four or five were expelled in just 12 months - a three-fold increase compared to year earlier. A further 960 - or five a day - were suspended. The findings will fuel concerns that bad behaviour among teenagers is increasingly trickling down to the very youngest children.

Teachers claim that many pupils arrive at school without any sense of respect for adults as parents fail to impose any discipline in the home.

According to the Department for Education and Skills, 43,720 pupils were temporarily excluded from primary schools in 2004/5 - the latest available figures - an increase of 2,420 in a year. A further 1,090 pupils were permanently excluded, down on 1,270 a year earlier. Worryingly, a significant number of pupils suspended from school had been punished for serious offences, such as sexual attacks on fellow pupils and teachers.

In total, 330 pupils were suspended for racism, which includes taunting, swearing, bullying or graffiti with a racist element. A further 310 pupils were sent home from school for sexual misconduct, which includes sexual abuse or assault of fellow pupils, lewd behaviour or sexual bullying or graffiti. There were another 150 drug and alcohol-related incidents which relate to drug dealing, the possession of illegal drugs, smoking and alcohol abuse. But most concerns surrounded the behaviour of pupils in the reception year, which accept children as young as four.

According to the figures, 960 were suspended in 2004/5, or five for every day of term.