Tories want to sideline badly behaved pupils

Published on Saturday 5 September 2009 19:54

SCOTLAND'S worst-behaved children should be removed entirely from the school system and sent to "second-chance centres" where they must stay until their behaviour improves, the Scottish Conservatives will propose this week.

The Tories will call on the SNP government to open entirely new schools for the most disruptive pupils in the country, some of whom have been excluded from school five or more times.

New polling conducted by the Conservatives has found that 70 per cent of Scots back the idea, saying that badly behaved children should not be returned until they have shown their behaviour has improved.

The idea is modelled on experiments in the US and elsewhere in the UK where several pilots have been successful.

However, there were warnings last night from teaching groups who warned that if funds were cut from other parts of the education budget, they would not be welcomed.

Meanwhile, the SNP government said that they already had residential schools for badly behaved children, and suggested that the Conservatives' plan was therefore unnecessary. Education spokeswoman Elizabeth Smith said: "We're talking about those kids who are excluded three times or five times where clearly whatever is being done for them isn't working. This is for children who have got serious disciplinary problems and who are hauled back into the classroom before they have realised that their behaviour is unacceptable."

Writing in Scotland on Sunday today, she said: "When it comes to persistently unruly pupils, my solution is to take them out of mainstream education and teach them in separate, 'second chance centres', until they know how to behave."

She added: "I want well-behaved pupils to be able to get on with learning, and teachers to get on with teaching without the distraction of a few badly behaved pupils."

The Conservatives admit that the plan would be too expensive to set up nationally and are instead suggesting that a pilot scheme is set up to monitor success. They believe that the plan would pay for itself in the long-term if the pupils were pulled away from a life of crime.

The YouGov poll of 1,183 Scots, commissioned by the Conservatives, asked whether respondents would prefer continually disruptive pupils to be removed from mainstream classrooms and placed in separate classrooms with separate members of staff until they show that they can behave. Seventy per cent of people said they agreed.

By contrast, only 10 per cent said they backed such children being "kept in the same classroom as well-behaved children but with an extra member of staff". A further 11 per cent said they agreed that such children should be sent home, with 10 per cent saying they did not agree with any of the options, or didn't know.

The polling was carried out ahead of a major education conference being held by the Scottish Conservatives this week. The conference will also focus on attempts to improve literacy and numeracy, and consider reforms to the school system.

Anne Ballinger, the general secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association, welcomed the idea last night but warned that "the devil would be in the detail".

She said: "If what they are talking about are basically sin bins, then who is going to man them? There is nothing worse for teachers than being asked in the middle of the day to supervise all the difficult pupils.

"But if what they are talking about is proper structured support for small groups who would get one on one attention or special attention so they can develop skills, then that would be a wonderful idea."

"They will need to find the money to do all that. We would not be happy if they were going to take that money from somewhere else."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Scottish Government is determined to support head teachers in their efforts to improve discipline. That's why alternatives to mainstream education, including residential schools, for pupil's whose behaviour is persistently disruptive already exist.

"Local authorities, voluntary organisations and the independent sector all offer alternatives for pupils." He added: "To support this work, the Scottish Government fund the Pupil Inclusion Network to promote policy and good practice across agencies from all sectors."