Parents are blamed for pupils' behaviour

Parents are contributing to bad behaviour in class by consistently taking their children's side when teachers try to uphold school rules, the second-largest teaching union was told yesterday.

Children's lack of respect for authority is causing increasingly serious discipline problems in schools, delegates told the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) conference in Bournemouth.

The union voted unanimously yesterday for the abolition of independent panels that have the power to return expelled pupils to school on appeal.

Delegates also voiced concerns that some staff were put under pressure by headteach-ers not to report violent incidents for fear of bringing their schools into disrepute.

Les Kennedy, of the union's national executive, said teachers did not want to appear as if they could not control their classes. He said: "A five-year-old threw a chair into a teacher's legs injuring her so badly that she was off school for three weeks. She didn't want to report it. We need to change that attitude."

Meanwhile, plans to merge the three teaching unions to form a "superunion" were set back when delegates voted to veto all references to a merger from a consultation document to be sent to members.