Parents accused over pupil discipline

Parents must do more to support teachers in disciplining children, the schools secretary has said.

Ed Balls told the National College for School Leadership (NCSL) conference that a "small minority" of parents were failing to back headteachers when punishing pupils.

He said that he had asked the government's school behaviour adviser, Sir Alan Steer, to "look at some ideas to help heads work with these parents".

"Schools are doing a fantastic job of turning around poor behaviour, which is crucial to improving results," he said.

"However, we need parents to continue to play their part.

"When I talk to heads they say behaviour is one of their main concerns.

"Some talk of giving detentions to pupils only for the parent to come in and demand their child is let off.

"So whilst the vast majority of parents work really well with schools, a small minority are not supporting heads to maintain discipline."

Balls will also use express support for "mergers" or "federations" between primary schools.

And he will call for headteachers to employ "school business directors" to undertake care of administrative tasks.

"Schools are changing and the role of the head is changing more than any other," he said.

"We are asking schools to provide more and more services and this can of course be difficult for smaller rural schools, especially primary schools.

"Federations are a great way to help smaller schools share the burden, to share facilities and staff and to work together to deliver what pupils and parents need.

"New school business directors are the perfect people to help take this forward.

"They have a unique role in that they oversee the business management of several schools.

"They join services together, free up heads' time and save money for schools through bulk buying and the sharing of facilities."