kerri

From the UK, some interesting ideas for parents have come out about bullying. Schools could be taken to court if they don't take effective action against bullies and other children who disrupt the education of kids who want to learn, the UK Schools Secretary Ed Balls has said.

Balls said that parents would be asked to sign 'behaviour contracts' when their children start school and if the school failed to prevent disruptive behaviour groups of parents could get in touch with the local government ombudsman (LGO) and even go through the courts.

A magistrates court would then consider whether all parties were fulfilling the terms of the contract. "If one or two parents feel that their child's learning is being disrupted by one or two pupils they will have the right to exert the power of appeal to the LGO and beyond," Balls said. "If you make a guarantee it's got to be able to be enforced."

Should Australia adopt this system. Have your say below.

butterfly kiss

I don't know if taking schools to court is the answer, it certainly seems a bit drastic.

I recently had and issue with my child that was being bullied by other students and this bullying was instigated by his teacher whose children also went to the same school.

When we complained about this behaviour we were dismissed and told they could see no issues. ( not with the bullying itself, they wouldn't even acknowledge that it was happening ) Our son was coming home crying almost everyday saying he had no friends, we moved him to another school and he is so happy. We tried to make his old school accountable for this teachers actions but they made it almost impossible to make anything stick when thier course of action was to deny, deny , deny.

Jode

I think there is too much pressure on our school in the first place....adding more and more to the curriculum, dropping teacher aide hours, etc. The result is teachers who are overworked and stressed out, as well as schools who don't have enough staff to monitor EVERY play area at break times.

My kids' school prides itself on it's anti-bullying stance and yet my kids come home every couple of days with new stories about kids being picked on in the playground, and the teachers don't even know about it (or don't find out until a complaint is made). We need to go back to basics...there's always talk about teenagers getting into trouble because too many of them are left to their own devices and unsupervised, but in reality that culture is being fostered in primary school!

I don't know about taking schools to court, but I like the idea of parents signing "behaviour contracts" - for some reason, so many parents just don't want to take responsibility for their own children's behaviour......

Narelle78

There was a thing on Sky News the other day that a school, I think in Queensland, had suspended 22 students because they bullied a teacher on FB. I think it is starting to get ridiculous when stuff like that happens. I think the school should have found out why the kids said what they said before they took any action against students.