The Government has launched a new initiative which it claims will help teachers by providing them with additional practical support, clear management and extended powers to tackle problem behaviour.
The Guarantee will seek to ensure that teachers have dedicated time for lesson planning and assessing pupils, new rights and responsibilities regarding continued professional development, powers to enforce discipline and encourage good behaviour, and support from the wider school workforce for administrative tasks. These pledges will run alongside commitments to introduce a firm but fair performance management framework, ensure strong and effective leadership and provide help via “super” teachers through the Advanced Skills Teachers and Excellent Teachers programmes.
Launching the initiative, Ed Balls, the Secretary of State at the Department for Children, Schools and Families, said: “To achieve a world class school system we need to maintain and develop our excellent school workforce, investing in skills and ensuring teachers are properly supported.”
Announcing plans to provide teachers with greater powers to tackle bad behaviour, a Government statement claims that the initiative “dispels the myth that schools should have ‘no contact policies’”. In clearly defined situations, such as when a highly disruptive pupil refuses to leave the classroom when asked to, teachers “have the powers and legal protection to use force.”
The Teachers’ Guarantee is designed to compliment the Government’s Pupil Guarantee, which sets out out what every young person should get during their school careers, and its Parent Guarantee, outlining parental rights and obligations.
