shodan
13-04-2009, 12:51 AM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/5144775/Bouncers-hired-by-schools-as-crowd-control.html
Bouncers hired by schools as 'crowd control' Nightclub bouncers, former soldiers and ex-policemen are being hired by schools to provide "crowd control" in classrooms, according to teachers.
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Last Updated: 3:32PM BST 12 Apr 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01382/bouncers_1382986c.jpg Photo: Getty Images
They are being employed as teaching assistants to cover permanent staff when they are off sick, it was claimed.
The National Union of Teachers - Britain's biggest classroom union - said schools were turning to people with no teaching experience just because they were "stern and loud".
It comes amid growing concerns over a breakdown in school discipline with claims last week that as many as one in four teachers has been a victim of violent pupils in the last year.
A Government report being published on Wednesday will recommend that schools should make more use of "withdrawal rooms" - likened to solitary confinement 'coolers' by some - to control disruptive children.
At the NUT's annual conference on Sunday it emerged that one headteacher had permanently hired two bouncers from an employment agency as "cover supervisors" to take classes when regular teachers were absent.
They were taken on by a comprehensive in north London for around £20,000 each - half the cost of fully qualified supply staff. One of the bouncers later left after disciplinary action was taken when he fell out with other teachers, it was claimed.
Speaking at the conference, Andrew Baisley, a teacher from Camden, said other schools were advertising for classroom assistants with military and police backgrounds.
"It is about crowd control and childminding," he said. "If you are stern and loud, that's what's necessary to do the job."
He added: "The problem is we need someone who's trained with children, to be able to interact with children. If someone is away, you don't want any teacher, you want a teacher from that particular subject so they can help them children with their work, so that the whole hour isn't a complete waste of time."
Mr Baisley refused to name the school involved but one employment agency in Birmingham - called Aspire People - has advertised for people who are "an ex-marine, prison officer, bouncer, policeman, fireman, sportsman [or] actor" to "get involved in a school environment and control the kids in schools throughout the Midlands".
A state school in Tower Hamlets, east London, also hired a teacher with experience as a nightclub bouncer as its new behavioural expert.
Schools are officially banned from leaving normal teaching assistants in charge of lessons, but the NUT claim this is widely ignored. At the union's annual conference in Cardiff, activists condemned the move as "education on the cheap".
It came as ministers prepared to publish new guidance on Wednesday to help schools control bad behaviour in the classroom.
The report - by Sir Alan Steer, head of Seven Kings High School, Ilford - will call for more schools to open isolation units to tackle "low level disruption, where it is preventing the whole class from learning".
Under plans which are already used in some schools, children are placed in rooms for hours at a time without other pupils or proper teaching to punish bad behaviour.
It will also recommend further use of new powers to search pupils for weapons and the imposition of "parenting contracts" to make mothers and fathers accountable for children's bad behaviour.
Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said: "It is unacceptable for a pupil to disrupt the learning and teaching of an entire class. Pupils need to know that when certain boundaries are crossed they will have to bear the consequences, that when they disrupt their classmate's learning they will be held accountable - withdrawal rooms are one way of doing this which I have seen for myself and discussed with head teachers."
Bouncers hired by schools as 'crowd control' Nightclub bouncers, former soldiers and ex-policemen are being hired by schools to provide "crowd control" in classrooms, according to teachers.
By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Last Updated: 3:32PM BST 12 Apr 2009
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01382/bouncers_1382986c.jpg Photo: Getty Images
They are being employed as teaching assistants to cover permanent staff when they are off sick, it was claimed.
The National Union of Teachers - Britain's biggest classroom union - said schools were turning to people with no teaching experience just because they were "stern and loud".
It comes amid growing concerns over a breakdown in school discipline with claims last week that as many as one in four teachers has been a victim of violent pupils in the last year.
A Government report being published on Wednesday will recommend that schools should make more use of "withdrawal rooms" - likened to solitary confinement 'coolers' by some - to control disruptive children.
At the NUT's annual conference on Sunday it emerged that one headteacher had permanently hired two bouncers from an employment agency as "cover supervisors" to take classes when regular teachers were absent.
They were taken on by a comprehensive in north London for around £20,000 each - half the cost of fully qualified supply staff. One of the bouncers later left after disciplinary action was taken when he fell out with other teachers, it was claimed.
Speaking at the conference, Andrew Baisley, a teacher from Camden, said other schools were advertising for classroom assistants with military and police backgrounds.
"It is about crowd control and childminding," he said. "If you are stern and loud, that's what's necessary to do the job."
He added: "The problem is we need someone who's trained with children, to be able to interact with children. If someone is away, you don't want any teacher, you want a teacher from that particular subject so they can help them children with their work, so that the whole hour isn't a complete waste of time."
Mr Baisley refused to name the school involved but one employment agency in Birmingham - called Aspire People - has advertised for people who are "an ex-marine, prison officer, bouncer, policeman, fireman, sportsman [or] actor" to "get involved in a school environment and control the kids in schools throughout the Midlands".
A state school in Tower Hamlets, east London, also hired a teacher with experience as a nightclub bouncer as its new behavioural expert.
Schools are officially banned from leaving normal teaching assistants in charge of lessons, but the NUT claim this is widely ignored. At the union's annual conference in Cardiff, activists condemned the move as "education on the cheap".
It came as ministers prepared to publish new guidance on Wednesday to help schools control bad behaviour in the classroom.
The report - by Sir Alan Steer, head of Seven Kings High School, Ilford - will call for more schools to open isolation units to tackle "low level disruption, where it is preventing the whole class from learning".
Under plans which are already used in some schools, children are placed in rooms for hours at a time without other pupils or proper teaching to punish bad behaviour.
It will also recommend further use of new powers to search pupils for weapons and the imposition of "parenting contracts" to make mothers and fathers accountable for children's bad behaviour.
Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said: "It is unacceptable for a pupil to disrupt the learning and teaching of an entire class. Pupils need to know that when certain boundaries are crossed they will have to bear the consequences, that when they disrupt their classmate's learning they will be held accountable - withdrawal rooms are one way of doing this which I have seen for myself and discussed with head teachers."