This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Moves to improve classroom discipline
14/01/2005
Hundreds of extra school support staff are to be
recruited over the next three years as part of the
Executive's drive to improve support for teachers
and classroom discipline.
The new staff are intended to free up teachers' time to
teach and allow schools to better deal with challenging
pupils.
Councils will be able to use their share of a £34.9
million fund to employ up to 1,000 extra support staff,
including:
- Pupil support base staff who can devise programmes
to change the behaviour of the most disruptive
pupils
- Learning support assistants who support classroom
teachers and may also provide support for individual
pupils
- Classroom assistants who provide general help for
classroom teachers
Education Minister Peter Peacock said:
"The extra staff I am funding will free teachers to
teach the new curriculum, help all pupils to learn
undisturbed and deal intensively with those pupils who need
it most.
"Step by step, over the last five years, we have been
putting in place the methods and resources to allow parents
to send their children to schools where the conditions for
learning are improving. Today's announcement is another
significant step forward.
"I have spent a lot of time in recent months with
headteachers, teachers and teacher unions evaluating our
approaches to improving behaviour in schools.
"We have seen and heard of some very impressive practice
and I have seen many examples where the support staff we
already fund make a real difference. By increasing the
funding, more teachers and pupils will be able to reap the
rewards.
"I have made improving discipline in our classrooms a
clear priority and these extra support staff in schools
will give them the flexibility to introduce a range of
solutions for dealing with challenging behaviour - whether
that is increasing levels of classroom support or
developing pupil support bases in schools and out of school
programmes.
"Together with our stakeholders I will continue to
pursue our drive for improvements in pupil behaviour. I
will be consulting with local authorities, headteachers and
teacher unions on their priorities for the use of this
significant boost to funding."
The £34.9 million comes from within existing Education
Department budgets and will be distributed to councils via
the National Priorities Action Fund.
Councils will receive £7.5 million for 2005/06, £10.8
million for 2006/07 and £16.6 million in 2007/08.
The money is in addition to the £10 million already
distributed to councils annually to implement the
Discipline Task Group's report Better Behaviour Better
Learning.
Throughout the country, work is already going on to
develop and roll-out a range of initiatives, including
staged intervention, behaviour co-ordinators, restorative
practices, masterclasses and three-yearly surveys of
teacher opinion.
Headteachers and councils will decide on priorities for
particular posts, but £16 million could fund around an
additional 1,200 classroom assistants (at an average salary
of £11-£12,000, or 570 home school link workers (at an
average salary of £28,000).