Headteacher sends home pupils who refuse to stand up when he enters classroom
A new headmaster has sparked a 'respect' row by excluding pupils who refuse to stand up when he enters a classroom.
Kevin Harrison, 55, believes children should immediately rise when he comes into a room because it helps increase 'pride and educational standards'.
But when he introduced the rule at the 900-pupil Macclesfield High School in Cheshire after taking over earlier this month, he was accused of being 'ridiculous' and 'heavy-handed'.
The father of one 15-year-old boy sent home for disobeying Mr Harrison claimed the headmaster needed to 'earn respect' before children should stand up for him.
Tim Walton, 40, added that his son Daniel, who is in Year Ten, was 'entirely justified' to remain seated when Mr Harrison joined his class.
The father-of-three said: 'I teach my kids the laws of society and that is respect is earned.
"The headteacher hasn't been there long enough to earn my son's respect so why should he stand up for him?
'They have brought in these new rules which I think are ridiculous, and they haven't told any of the parents about them.'
He went on: 'They are also saying that girls can't wear make-up. What has make-up got to do with their brains? If they expect girls to go in without make-up then they should ask the staff to as well.
'I've had enough of my kids being punished because of these so-called rules which have nothing to do with their education
Mr Harrison joined the school - whose motto is 'Motivated, Happy and Successful Learners' - after the previous headmaster retired due to a long-standing neurological condition.
It is believed the standing-up rule was dropped two years ago. But Mr Harrison, a teacher for 34 years who had been deputy head at a nearby school, revived it.
He said pupils are asked to stand so they can be 'praised for high standards of appearance to improve personal pride and expectations'.
Mr Harrison, a father-of-two whose wife is also a headteacher, added: 'Rules are about raising standards across the board and having high expectations.
'We want our students to be highly motivated and able to use their initiative, so that they can be confident, resourceful and successful in many different ways. Our aims are to promote high aspiration and high academic achievement.
'We want students to take pride in their work, in the school and in the community. We can't have children refusing to do what a member of staff is asking them to do.
'This student continually refused to listen and abide by the rules, comply with our requests and behave in a respectful way. He has been excluded from school until Friday for refusing to comply with school rules.'
Nick Seaton, from the Campaign for Real Education, said: 'I would say that most parents would think the headteacher is absolutely right.
'Youngsters and pupils have got to respect their teachers otherwise the whole system falls apart.
'It's vital that adults, both teachers and parents and other responsible adults, regain their authority from children, a lot of whom seem to think they can do what they like.
'As for the youngster who failed to obey the rules, if he doesn't like the school he should go somewhere else. He shouldn't think he can do as he pleases. That makes a nonsense of the system.
'The respect is for the position of the headteacher, more than the individual. The headteacher, by achieving that position, has been handed that respect.
'Teachers and pupils are not exactly equals and it's nonsense to think they are. Pupils aren't full adults yet, they have to learn to follow the norms of society.'
All Comments (106)
Jump to unread Post a Commentthats an incredibly ignorant and pretty offensive comment.
Its my opinion, AKA you dont have to stand to respect someone and tbh its true alot of teachers dont deserve respect. :-D
It seems that headteacher has some issues..... :whistling:
It seems that headteacher has some issues..... :whistling:
Wasn't refering to the standing thing i was responding to your ignorant comments about teachers deserving respect.
No its not true, and you are wrong. But never the less i am curious to know the reasoning and backing evidence behind this "opinion" of yours.
If you are maybe an OFSTEAD inspector or similar i will retract this comment. If you are still in school that probably explains it.
a SMALL minority of teachers may not deserve respect, NOT a lot. But the vast VAST majority do.
Anyway regardless: whenever a teacher is activly teaching a lesson they should be respected aswell, if one or 2 start showing no respect them it starts messing with the class mechanic and negitively affects the learning of others.
Do you even have any Idea how much work goes into teaching? Into each lesson?
Alot of kids are horrible but you do get some teachers that bring it out in some of them but alot of students can be a handful. :whistling:
Same could be said about uniforms.
You do treat all kids differently, its how you cater for different needs and learning styles. Some kids react different ways to different dicipline which you have to be aware of, some respond to shouting, some dont. Its all a massive balancing act, dont mistake it for students getting singled out. We have statements for all students that we can look at which details all this sort of stuff in the majority of cases.
Some kids however are just horrible and cant be taught in 20-30 strong class situation as they cant do it, they need to be sat on. Some schools dont have the facilities or staff in place to deal with such students so the sitations may end up as you have described.
The fact is at the end of the day we have to take care of the learning needs for all the students and if some think its acceptable to disrupt this, then we have problems.
Same could be said about uniforms.
Quoted for truth.
Interesting that this should come up as last week uniform was our schools thought for the week and in discussions and a mock vote, even though they complain about it and try to get around wearing it alot of the time, 85% of students voted in favour of keeping school uniform.
Why :thinking:
But this is about following rules not respect, respect wasn't mentioned by the school, it was mentioned by the idiot father who thinks his kid is too good to follow rules.
You are right, respect is earnt but that isn't shown by standing when someone enters the room.
According to the article, the boy was in year 10, so this will be his fourth year at that school, as the rule was previously in place up until 2 years ago, presumably this kid refused to stand when the head entered the room in year seven too, as the old head couldn't have possibly earnt respect from him before he knew him.
I think many voicing against this rule are missing an important point and that is: It's conforming to a procedure and in this case showing respect towards their school headmaster. What are the pros & cons to this? I think it's fair to say the majority of us as adults do this in our everyday lives, showing respect / adhering to a set of rules; be it in education or work environment?
I don't think all children are badly behaved but do believe are many and seems there are more bad ones than good. One reason this may be is that education is failing them or they're sadly failing in their education, I’m convinced it is the latter and it’s hardly surprising when we have this mindset of parenting where “why should I” really doesn’t help?
It would be interesting to read more views from those that are parents?
:whistling: How lol :-D iv made 5 posts plus this one so 6 in total.
I think many voicing against this rule are missing an important point and that is: It's conforming to a procedure and in this case showing respect towards their school headmaster. What are the pros & cons to this? I think it's fair to say the majority of us as adults do this in our everyday lives, showing respect / adhering to a set of rules; be it in education or work environment?
I don't think all children are badly behaved but do believe are many and seems there are more bad ones than good. One reason this may be is that education is failing them or they're sadly failing in their education, I’m convinced it is the latter and it’s hardly surprising when we have this mindset of parenting where “why should I” really doesn’t help?
[COLOR="Red"]It would be interesting to read more views from those that are parents[/COLOR]?
My daughter is 13, she frequently comes home from school complaining about X teacher being unfair in whatever situation...
I usually tell her that 'fair' doesn't come in to it ( unless it was a serious incident) you live by the rules... that is how you get by. You chose not to, then 'fair' gets thrown out the window. :)
If you want to break the rules... at least be clever enough to get away with it, bend them... don't break them... :thinking:
I think that you have to learn to pick your battles... and standing up when a teacher enters the room... in the grand scheme of things, doesn't really matter... its a rule! :thumbsup:
standing up for a teacher- doesn't take much effort.. who cares?! kid should've just done it, as it seems like it wasn't really worth the hassle of being sent home for. though why he was sent home is another issue in itself(!)
standing up for a teacher- doesn't take much effort.. who cares?! kid should've just done it, as it seems like it wasn't really worth the hassle of being sent home for. though why he was sent home is another issue in itself(!)
Why thank you! :thumbsup:
standing up for a teacher- doesn't take much effort.. who cares?! kid should've just done it, as it seems like it wasn't really worth the hassle of being sent home for. though why he was sent home is another issue in itself(!)
I suspect it was a cumulation of things and this was the proverbial straw that borke the camels back so to speak.
I know this from experience, as i went to a good school, the girlfriend went to a bad school only a couple miles away.
Now this was 10 years ago i left, and we stood for the Rector when i started, but after 2nd year we got a new Head, who we didnt stand for. The school didnt move down the rankings and was still as good as ever.
We respected our teachers, as we knew they were damn good teachers, and even the troublemakers would walk out with a Higher or two.
The girlfriends school, i know if i went to i would have had no respect at all for the teachers, who did bully and degrade students. One of their Head's swindled the funds, think it was 3 having "innappropriate" relationships with pupils, a few hit pupils etc etc.
We dont know the school or its teachers so we cant judge one way or the other.
Ooh, picking on a child now. Go on there, big man.