The 'class from hell' terrorising a primary school

Bernadette Doherty's action was unprecedented in the annals of primary school history.

But the headteacher of Wharrier Street primary school in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne – one of the city's most deprived wards – was adamant. She had had enough of a small group of pupils who seemed hell-bent on disrupting life for everybody else.

So she excluded 12 of them – including eight from the same class – for three days in a dramatic attempt to stamp out violent and racist behaviour.

Only a week ago, an 11-year-old girl was expelled from the 500-pupil school for punching one of the teachers, Clare Marriott, 37.

Mrs Doherty's extraordinary crackdown, which is supported by teachers' leaders, comes at a time of heightened concern over the twin issues of rising disruption and truancy in schools. It also comes a day before new figures are expected to show a rise in the number of youngsters excluded from school.

Parents were warned there would be a crackdown in a letter in which Mrs Doherty said she was keeping a dossier on the behaviour of 15 pupils whose behaviour was causing concern.

She listed the offences committed by the group as: making a racist comment to an ethnic minority pupil; attempting to vandalise school property; walking out of classrooms; refusing to follow instructions from teachers; roaming the corridors during lessons; fighting and yelling at adults.

Eamonn O'Kane, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said the Wharrier Street exclusions were a "catastrophic situation which would have been unthinkable a few years ago".

Recently the union has noted an increase in the number of cases in which primary schools have expressed concern about the behaviour of pupils. Even four-year-olds in their first term have been excluded for uncontrollable behaviour in the past 18 months.

"It is symptomatic of the disrespect being shown to teachers nowadays and a malaise which really needs to be tackled," Mr O'Kane said.

"I fully applaud the school for the action it has taken. It has got to be a brave decision for the head and governing body to take and it will be one that has been taken out of desperation. I certainly have never heard of so many pupils at that age being excluded from a primary school at the same time before."

Parents of the pupils claimed the school was in turmoil with teachers unable to control the pupils.

One of those in the class for eight and nine-year-olds from which eight pupils were excluded said: "Everyone in the class was carrying on. I put my feet on the table and the teacher told me to take them off.

"I just ignored her so she sent me out of the class and I was put in another class. After that other people were sent out, all my mates."

Mrs Doherty said: "This school does not have a serious behaviour problem, but there is a minority who seem intent on disrupting life for all our other pupils.

"This situation became so serious that a supply teacher said she could not continue to work for us unless something happened. She was unable to teach at all because of the behaviour of a group of children who have been disruptive over a period of some time."

She said the pupils would be allowed back on Monday, together with their parents "who we must speak to about changing their behaviour".

"We have seen street behaviour in the classrooms and we don't want street behaviour in Wharrier Street primary school," she said."The reaction of some of the parents could have been better. In one case, the exclusion letter was screwed up and thrown back at the school administrator."

It is just this issue – the refusal of a minority of parents to support schools in their attempts to discipline schools that has led Estelle Morris, the Secretary of State for Education, to warn them they could face fines or even jail if they fail to ensure their children behave properly in school.

She revealed at a teachers' union conference at Easter that she was extending parenting orders – under which mothers and fathers can be instructed to attend good parenting classes and accompany their children to the school gates to combat truancy – to cover cases where pupils misbehave in school.

Up until now, they have only been used in cases where youngsters have appeared before a juvenile court.

She said at the time that she wanted to start a national debate over the responsibility of parents towards their offspring. "How parents behave and the effect their behaviour has on their children's behaviour should not be a taboo subject," she said.

"We need to break that taboo and enter into a debate even if it means politicians talking about an issue which they usually avoid. I understand that some parents find life difficult, but that is no reason for them not to support teachers. Toughness can be no excuse for attacking a teacher."

She has also unveiled guidelines for headteachers and appeals panels who sit in judgement on exclusions, urging them to take a tougher line with pupils guilty of a serious offence. Violence, bullying and drug dealing should lead to permanent exclusion even for a first offence, the guidelines say, and that decision should not be overturned on appeal.

It marks a shift in emphasis in the Government's position. One of the first targets produced by the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, when he was Education Secretary was to reduce the number of school exclusions by one-third by 2002 from an all-time high of about 13,000 a year.

Teachers' leaders argue that the setting of this target was one of the reasons that behaviour in school worsened, because it increased pressure on governing bodies to keep troublemakers in the classroom.

They welcome the shift in emphasis, which has been supported by the creation of hundreds of extra pupil referral units, where excluded children can be given full-time education while they are barred from their schools.

So, presumably, does Mrs Doherty. She is unlikely to have been able to go ahead with this week's exclusions if the pressure had still been on to keep as many pupils as possible in school.