ABSTRACT
Considerable anger and frustration are felt by teachers in inner city comprehensives when they read criticism about their schools in the media. Teachers are blamed for not achieving good examination results, yet little attempt is made to understand the problems which face our inner city schools. Not the least of these are the maintenance of discipline and regular attendance. Schools seeking to recover from failure quickly realise that the most important challenge is often a restoration of order and pride in the school. That means having clear sanctions (and rewards) which are fairly applied to all, with a sliding scale of punishments. Programmes such as Assertive Discipline or Discipline for Learning, developed by Sir Dexter Hutt at Ninestiles School (and outlined in Chapter 4), are proving increasingly popular in achieving this. These rules must be clearly understood by every teacher, pupil and parent. Tackling truancy is equally important, as it sets a standard for what is expected. The law has introduced tougher penalties for parents seen to condone their child's absence. But improved attendance and better discipline often go hand in hand with a new sense of order and calm in a school, as much as with legal sanctions. They also depend on children being taught right from wrong in the home, so that the school's efforts are properly reinforced outside the classroom. In this chapter, we shall see some of the ways in which schools have addressed these problems.
