Parents of truant children face benefits cut, warns Cameron

PARENTS of truanting children face having their benefits cut, Prime Minister David Cameron warned as he pledged to “restore order and respect” in schools.

Mr Cameron insisted that parents should be held accountable for their children’s behaviour.

He revealed that he has asked the Government’s social policy review, announced in the wake of last month’s riots, to look into whether the parents of children who constantly skip lessons should have benefits cut.

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Mr Cameron said that restoring discipline in schools was not just about giving teachers more powers to deal with unruly pupils, but was “also about what parents do”. He added: “We need parents to have a real stake in the discipline of their children, to face real consequences if their children continually misbehave.

“That’s why I have asked our social policy review to look into whether we should cut the benefits of those parents whose children constantly play truant.

“Yes, this would be a tough measure – but we urgently need to restore order and respect in the classroom and I don’t want ideas like this to be off the table.”

As well as a crackdown on bad behaviour, Mr Cameron said he wanted to bring “rigour” back into the classroom:

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“Every year that passes without proper reform, is another year that tens of thousands of teenagers leave school without the qualifications they really need.

“The most important value we’re bringing back to the classroom is a commitment to rigour.”

The introduction of the English Baccalaureate has meant that the proportion of pupils who are studying history, geography, a language and sciences at GCSE – the subjects needed to be awarded the certificate, along with English and maths – is increasing this year, Mr Cameron said.

His speech was made yesterday at the newly opened Free School Norwich, one of 24 of the first of the flagship schools being launched this term.

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The Government has encouraged parents, teachers, charities, community groups and existing schools to open their own state-funded free schools if they are unhappy with the choice on offer in their area.

Three free schools are opening in Yorkshire this year. Batley Grammar, a fee-paying school for more than 30 years, has moved back into the state-funded sector, opening as Yorkshire’s first free school last week.

Two new free schools will open in the same building in Bradford on Monday – the King’s Science Academy, a secondary led by teacher Sajid Hussain, and Rainbow Primary which has been set up by not-for-profit enterprise organisation ATL. Both schools will be based in a former independent Muslim school building in Manningham as a temporary measure.

King’s Science Academy plans to move to the Lidget Green area of the city – which faces a shortage of secondary school places - from September 2012.

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Mr Hussain said: “As part of our character and knowledge motto and vision students will be aware that the development of good character, organisation and manners are just as important as achieving academic success.”

It was slightly oversubscribed in its first year with more than 150 applications for the 140 spaces available to 11- and 12-year-olds.

Rainbow Primary will have just over 30 pupils across four year groups when it opens on Monday. Its backers originally wanted to site the school in the city centre with a catchment area across Bradford.

Schools Minister Lord Hill has hailed the launch of both projects which will be the first free schools to open in Yorkshire which have been started from scratch.

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He described King’s Science Academy as “raising aspirations for children, improving choice for parents and giving power back to teachers.”

Lord Hill said Rainbow was a “positive step forward for Bradford, giving more parents the chance to send their child to a school with good community links and a strong academic ethos”.

Two other free school bids in Hull and Birkenshaw have been given initial Government backing.