Discipline in schools

[mtbc]

My children attend high school here in Scotland. Unlike the typical American four-year high school, this extends a couple more years into younger children, thus lasting six in all, though students may leave after four. My children often seem annoyed by others disrupting classes. We initially chose the school (hence our abode) based in part on relatively good inspection reports. However, my children are often bringing home anecdotes about all manner of misbehavior: students standing up and answering back to teachers, skipping class, occupying other rooms in which others' classes are being held; many of the teachers appear to have little control over the students. Occasionally my children overhear teachers muttering about how they would rather be teaching elsewhere. The anecdotes are sometimes partially corroborated by articles in a local newspaper about difficulties at the school.

It is difficult for me to know what to expect. My secondary education was now a good couple of decades ago, in an English public school, public in the UK sense of being an established private school, state instead being the term for the normal government-funded system, and that before corporal punishment was outlawed in private schools. Discipline was such that on a hot day we were to remove our blazer only if the headmaster had issued the appropriate order and we also rolled up our shirt sleeves, one mayn't do one without the other; boys were sent home for infractions like overly long hair. When I became a prefect as a student I had the authority to issue some mild punishments and to recommend others such as detentions. Being private, the school had freedom to expel pupils with little more impact than the loss of their fees.

But, that was then. In a modern, state-funded school, what ought I to expect? I do not have enough primary evidence to publicly judge my children's high school and I certainly do not know enough to have confidence in my impression that among teachers their school is not one of the desired posts. Further, I have little to suggest in terms of remediation: what can schools do to improve student discipline? My Latin teacher used to tweak our ears and even that didn't keep our class wholly in line. I do not know what classroom management techniques are taught in teacher training but I wonder if teachers are relatively powerless, whether for technical, procedural reasons or political ones. Furthermore, I wonder if my children's school may number among the better, if these issues are quite typical in the modern state school system.

Comments

[aldabra]

We have been very disappointed with Parkside, and we've just written to the head withdrawing K from a two-year BTEC a month before the end of the course, using phrases like "criminal offence" and "ideally involving redundancies" (they've lost the assessed coursework, before submitting it, which in some cases was the replacement assessed coursework after they lost the originals last year, and there is too much of it outstanding now to do again, though kids who actually need the course for their sixth form offers are trying).

The school has just been judged outstanding in all categories by Ofsted.

[mtbc]

Losing (repeatedly!) assessed coursework is really poor. There should indeed be consequences. Have the local papers yet wind of the story? Good luck in complaining sufficiently to fix for subsequent years whatever went wrong.