Helping hand for Markles?

there’s one profession that comes in for a lot of criticism, it’s teaching.

It’s a job few of us would fancy doing full-time, but teachers must sometimes feel they can never do anything right.

A report out last week said teachers should ignore “low-level” disruptive behaviour, such as swinging on chairs or moving about the class.

It claimed that ignoring such behaviour was more effective than tackling it and drawing attention to it. Yet it follows on from another report suggesting schools should crack down on this type of behaviour.

I often teach children and I rarely encounter bad behaviour. But that’s because we’re doing something physical, it’s extremely fast-moving and they’re all engaged in what we’re doing.

The classes last between 45 minutes and an hour. By the end of them, I’m emotionally exhausted. So I have absolute respect for people teaching day in, day out.

For teaching, which involves sitting at a desk, it must be much harder to always keep children engaged. When children do act up, teachers don’t have as many disciplinary powers as they once did.

Here’s an idea. Why don’t we let teachers teach and get on with the job they are trained to do, and are expert in?

I’m sure all the advice is well-meaning but they are bombarded with it. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Children are individuals. What works for one won’t necessarily work for another.

All this advice must surely be wearing for teachers. Sometimes the people who make the rules and dish out the advice have been in the job they’re on about, or it’s years since they’ve actually been at the coalface.

I found that many times in tennis. When I started coaching outside Scotland, people would tell me how to do things. I’d often think they must be right as they were more experienced than me.

I’d realise later they weren’t. Everyone wants to feel part of something. And one thing I know from when I taught on a regular basis is that getting to know pupils produces results.

For teachers with classes of 30 pupils or more, that’s no easy task, especially when teaching mixed ability groups.

However teachers choose to discipline children, one thing I am totally against are “consequences booths”. Have you seen them? It is claimed children are being confined in small booths for up to seven hours for minor bad behaviour. They are in use in some English schools and there are claims they will affect the mental health of pupils. I agree – they are awful. I hope they are never used in Scotland. Surely there has to be a better way to discipline children. Meghan Markle’s family have hit the headlines again. Her half-sister Samantha said if their father dies: “It’s on you, Meg”.

Couldn’t all this have been avoided?

If Royal insiders had brought the family on board at the start and advised them, of wouldn’t have happened. Perhaps the family relationships are so fractured there’s no

going back.