TEACHER SUPPORT IS THE KEY TO CLASSROOM DISCIPLINE, SAYS UTU

Northern Ireland teachers have welcomed the Government’s efforts to clarify the rules regarding the use of reasonable force to control unruly pupils.

Members of the Ulster Teachers’ Union, however, said that the key to delivering any policy was support for staff.

There are no nationally imposed rules preventing teachers from touching pupils but some schools adopt a ‘no touch’ policy because they fear complaints from pupils who are restrained or comforted by teachers.

The UTU was responding to Education Secretary Michael Gove’s calls for the situation to be simplified and clarified.

“Teachers already have the powers they need to manage bad behaviour but many fear retribution if they were to forcibly remove an unruly pupil,” said Avril Hall Callaghan, General Secretary of the Ulster Teachers’ Union.

"Myths that schools should have 'no-contact policies', that teachers shouldn't be able to protect and defend themselves and others, need to be dispelled but teachers need to know that support is there for them if they do have to use such reasonable force to handle a situation.

“One young teacher was in her second year of teaching before she received training in positive handling strategies to manage the kind of behaviour which is becoming more prevalent in the classroom context.

“A teacher in another special educational unit received training in her first week and was told she’d have to use the techniques maybe once a year. In fact, she needed them the next day when a fight broke out between pupils and a male teacher was injured as he tried to separate the boys involved.

“It’s a very daunting situation for a young teacher, often a young woman, to face when they’re trying to split up two brawling 16-year-olds.

“"We all accept the protection of children is paramount, but that should not be at the expense of natural justice - school staff have rights too.

“Teachers must feel safe to act when pupils are, for instance, fighting and could hurt each other and where a pupil is deliberately damaging property.

"We do know that there's a very high level of concern about children being touched at all and the sad truth is that in the litigious society in which we live it could be all too easy for a teacher to find themselves the subject of an action simply for trying to break up a fight.”