NO
Chris Gravell, policy officer, Advisory Centre for Education
The school that did this is a small, special school and the head teacherapparently has a high level of trust with pupils and parents. When hetakes a computer from a child's bedroom, he is acting on the parents'behalf. In those circumstances the initiative works, but it's difficultto see how it would work in large secondary schools or primary schoolsserving a wide area where children's homes and circumstances aren'toften known to teachers, and where there isn't that degree of trust.
YES
Duncan Harper, head teacher, New Woodlands School, Lewisham
We are a school for children with challenging behaviour and don'texclude pupils. We don't remove televisions and game consoles fromchildren's bedrooms regularly, but with parents' permission we go andpack up the equipment in front of the children. We explain that theymust do things such as arriving at school on time before they can get itback. Their behaviour improves and within two to three weeks theequipment is returned.
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