Let teachers punish bad pupils, head tells parents

A DEPARTING girls’ school head has attacked parents for refusing to allow teachers to tell their children off or punish them.

Louise Mcgowan, who is due to leave Walderslade Girls’ School in Kent this summer, has written to parents criticising them for their children’s bad behaviour.

The headteacher, who has 25 years of experience, said attempts to discipline children often ended up with “furious parents” outside the school, as pupils treated their lives “like a soap opera” and parents argued with each other on social media.

Mrs Mcgowan told the BBC that the disruption was caused by “some very angry children” who ruined lessons for others and “treat life like a soap opera”.

“They seem to enjoy conflict,” she said, adding that “dramas” which happened out of the school at the weekend often escalated on social media.

In her letter, she said: “The fact five students this year have lost their places is unprecedented, but I will not tolerate and never will tolerate extremes of poor behaviour…

“More students now are ignoring the school’s rules on use of mobile phones, choosing to openly use them in front of staff without fear of consequence, refusing to comply with instructions to put them away and often refusing confiscations.

“We had several incidents where parents actively fought on behalf of the child against the school, even when it has been found through investigation evidence their child was in breach of the behaviour policy.” Some parents were said to have refused to back the school’s efforts to implement punishments for poor behaviour.

The lack of support made teachers’ jobs extremely difficult and served to “empower” children’s poor attitudes and behaviour rather than to correct them, the head teacher said. Mrs Mcgowan, who is leaving because of health problems following kidney surgery, added: “It is simply not acceptable for a parent to argue when their child has clearly been in the wrong, has broken rules and found to have misbehaved or been rude.”

She said most parents had been supportive to staff.

Nigel Scott, chairman of the governors, said parents had been positive about the letter. He said: “It used to be that if you were in trouble at school, then you are in trouble at home, but that does not seem to be the case.

“But we are talking about the few, not the many. The school is a family school and has a great reputation.”