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The parents of classroom troublemakers should be blamed for falling standards of discipline rather than schools, the annual conference of the Professional Association of Teachers heard last week.

Ann Nutley, administration manager at Bacon’s College in south-east London, said the proportion of secondary schools with good behaviour had fallen from three-quarters in 1997 to two-thirds today.

Her motion, calling on the government to take action against, or provide support for, the parents of disruptive children was passed unanimously.

The move follows calls earlier this year by education secretary Ruth Kelly for parents of disruptive children to attend parenting classes.

“Poor parenting fosters lack of respect and no manners,” Nutley said. “No wonder then that, having no guidelines, children enter education with limited knowledge about appropriate behaviour.

“Staff in education are expected to teach social skills which should have been learnt at home. They find themselves ‘policing’ classes rather than teaching.”

Nutley also attacked the way some exclusion appeals panels overturned decisions by head teachers.


“Appeals panels have gained a reputation in some quarters for giving excluded children the right to a second chance when they have had 20 or more chances anyway and the school has tried everything,” she said.

Wesley Paxton, a further education lecturer in Yorkshire, said the National Curriculum was also to blame for poor behaviour by less academic children. He said it forced many of these children into an educational “straightjacket".