To be glad schools are finally hitting back

If it's bullying and bad behaviour in class, absolutely. If it's obsessive uniform checks, absolutely not.

The problem is it’s too late at secondary. They need to make sure things are straightened out at primary instead of bending over backwards to accommodate useless parents who won’t read to their kids or potty train them. All these harsh rules did for my well-behaved bright kids was make them anxious and put them off education.

schools have some pretty stupid rules sometimes. My daughters school definitely does. From personal and professional experience, I’m
convinced some people deliberately become teachers because they enjoy the power trip over minors.

Which rules are you talking about.

I’m an ex teacher and Mum to ND children. Trying to get the SENCO to agree to the reasonable uniform adjustments recommended by medical professionals (soft trousers instead of tailored ones) took me 6 weeks.

There are some oddities about some school rules. Most are useful but some are archaic, cause young people to become less independent, make them uncomfortable and less likely to learn and punishments are often unnessary and leave little room for escalation.

The trouble with our current system is that there isn't joined up thinking. I was reading about a school where hundreds of children have left subsequent to a shift in behaviour policy. I'm sure there is less challenging behaviour now in that school, which is great for the remaining students and staff, but those children are somewhere. They haven't disappeared. Either they are making other schools more challenging, or they are out of education, with consequences down the line for both them and the communities they live in.

Definitely. It doesn't matter if someone outside a school cries about it in a local trashy paper and denounces the rule. If it's needed to manage the learning of hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of ill disciplined children well, then schools need to hold firm. There's far to much pandering to what individuals would prefer for themselves, when actually those kids and their parents are part of a collective group that's there for an important purpose.

Start of term punishments in the media are usually for uniform violations which are ridiculous, petty and archaic. Many countries don’t have uniforms and their behaviour is not worse than in the UK.

I can’t imagine that make schools hell like the persistent bullies and violent kids being sent home because their right to an education is seen as more important than the rest of the class and staff being safe.

I'm not a teacher but a parent who's DC at times have suffered both from being bullied and had their education set back by kids who know no concept of how to behave and their parents giving even less of a toss.

I'm all for those parents having their kids at home with them, filling their day how they want that way it leaves those DC that want an education to receive one and teachers wanting to be able to do what they trained to do.

What mustn't be allowed to happen in place of going to school though is for the DC to be allowed to roam the streets causing more havoc.

But that's not for teachers to sort out.

That depends on the rules, surely? If they are stupid rules that just make my life and that of everyone around me more miserable and annoying...then, no..I wouldn't be relieved. I'd roll my eyes and think, "for fuck's sake...chill"

I remember one school where we had to check all of the kids before leaving the classroom to head to their next lesson.

• Shirt tucked in?
• Top button done up?
• Tie done properly?
• House lanyard round their neck?
• House lanyard and tie underneath their jumper?
• Are they wearing a jumper? (If not, tell them to put on their jumper.)
• Do they have their pencil case and planner?
• Is their equipment in their pencil case?

Honestly,...life's too short for this. I don't care. I really do not care. As long as they aren't showing up half naked and are dressed for the weather and the fact that they are in school, I don't care about sodding top buttons.

The biggest risk factor for really terrible outcomes for children - becoming the victims and perpetrators of serious crime - is being excluded from school.

If you want to celebrate school exclusion, fine. But people should be aware that when it's happening on a large scale, there may well be social consequences.

Context is key.
What are the staff relieved about?

Yes, schools should definitely “hit back” at students and transform the relationship into a combative one. What could be healthier?

What sort of rules?