Strict schools are sapping the joy out of learning

When it comes to behaviour policies, schools have fallen into two extremes. Across the border in Scotland, schools practise ‘restorative justice’: a relationships-based, non-punitive approach that favours constructive conversations over traditional sanctions. On the flip side, academies across England are adopting an authoritarian, zero-tolerance approach, where detentions are given for minor infractions and routines are enforced with military precision. Yesterday, one school in Harlow hit the headlines for giving detentions to top set pupils who score less than 90 per cent in maths tests: another controversial academy policy flown under the banner of ‘high expectations’.

Clearly, the latter works. Scotland’s schools are diving in league tables and facing an ‘aggression epidemic’, whilst the results of notoriously strict schools like Michaela and King Solomon Academy in London speak for themselves. Zero-tolerance means zero time wasted, and this ‘every second counts’ mentality stops the eroding effects of low-level disruption that chips away at so many classrooms.