ABSTRACT
The Education and Inspection Act 2006 requires that head teachers must determine measures on behaviour and discipline that form the school’s behaviour policy. Measures, in this context, include rules, rewards, sanctions, and behaviour-management strategies. The policy determined by the head teacher must include measures to be taken with a view to ‘encouraging good behaviour and respect for others on the part of pupils and, in particular, preventing all forms of bullying among pupils’. The Act outlines how all teachers and other staff in charge of pupils have the power to
discipline, but the head teacher may limit the power to apply particular sanctions to certain staff. Agreement is needed amongst the whole staff team about:
What type of behaviour warrants particular sanctions
Who has the power to implement particular sanctions
When behaviour must be reported, and how this is to be done
How many warnings the child should be given before action is taken
How long the punishment should last
What will happen next if the behaviour does not improve
Who will follow up on reported incidents
How can you obtain feedback on how reported incidents have been dealt with.
