The Government announced today that Heads will be given greater powers to search pupils.
Read all about it here and here.
At the moment, this can only happen if teachers think that pupils are carrying weapons. The new law will mean that they can also search pupils for mobile phones, ipods, drugs etc…
There will be some cases where this is useful. The safety of everybody in school is most important, and if dangerous items are around, then this power will be useful.
However, two pupils from Bethnal Green Technology College hit the nail on the head during their interview on BBC News 24. They stressed how searches like these can be avoided: through better dialogue between pupils and teachers. We’ve seen many schools have turned around discipline problems by including their pupils in the design, delivery and evaluation of things like school behaviour policies.
So while this legislation seems sensible, schools need to be careful with how it is presented to pupils.
In the right hands, it could help to stamp out isolated dangerous behaviour, as part of a wider dialogue on behaviour in school.
In the wrong hands, it could serve to reinforce the ‘them (teachers) and us (students)’ mentality, and lead to greater problems.
Greg