Mozart's music strikes a chord in taming miscreants at school

But it can also, so it seems, help tame unruly schoolchildren, as one headmaster has discovered. Brian Walker, principal at West Park School, near Derby, has seen the number of misbehaving pupils at his school drop by more than half, thanks to the likes of Mozart, Verdi and Bach. Where youngsters in other schools might expect lines or a 30-minute detention, those caught breaking the rules at West Park have to

sit in silence for an hour listening to classical music on a Friday evening.

Badly-behaved pupils are also named and shamed, with their pictures plastered on video screens in the school. Those committing lesser offences can expect to be made to copy out William Blake's famous poem Jerusalem. This ingenious idea, dubbed the "Bach to Basics" regime, has seen pupils preferring to toe the line rather than being forced to listen to one of Mozart's piano concertos.

Classical music fans might shake their head in sad disbelief, but as Mr Walker says, it appears to be having the desired effect. "I can hear the groans as it starts but I always ensure the volume is high.

"Hopefully, I open their ears to an experience they don't normally have and it seems many of them don't want to have it again, so it's both educational and acts as a deterrent."

Personally, I'd much prefer to be made to sit and listen to Mozart than, say, Leona Lewis or any of the so-called stars from The X Factor, but each to their own.

There is a serious side to all this, though. Last year, the heart-warming TV series The Choir featured London Symphony Orchestra choirmaster Gareth Malone's attempts to bring music into the lives of schoolchildren by taking a group of kids who had never sung before all the way to the Choir Olympics. It led to a surge in the number of school singing clubs, although there are already countless innovative projects all over the country that use music as a way of engaging with young people.

Creative Partnerships, part of CapeUK, works with more than 80 schools across the region. Among these are a primary school in Keighley that has been working with a radio station in Bradford to create weekly broadcasts organised by the children, and a school in Leeds where pupils learn how to make instruments from professional musicians.

Madeleine Irwin, programme director with Creative Partnerships in West Yorkshire, says these projects are a way of using music in the

curriculum in a creative way

"Music, in particular, is an emotional trigger for young people and it taps into their interests outside of school. We think that music projects can often have a positive impact on young people's behaviour because they require teamwork, and bringing in professional musicians to work alongside young people and school staff is the best way of exploring this."

These aren't the only projects on the go. Next month sees the return of a week-long urban music festival for schoolchildren organised by North Yorkshire Youth Music Action Zone (NYMAZ) and Harrogate International Festivals. The scheme, called Divas and Djs, is aimed at tackling the ongoing problem of anti-social behaviour by getting young people, particularly those most likely to commit crime, involved in music who perhaps haven't had the opportunities in the past.

The scheme, now in its fourth year, is based around a series of

workshops run by musicians that lead towards a final gig organised by the kids themselves. It also involves youth offending teams and the police to make sure the right people are being targeted.

"It's about engaging kids who perhaps haven't been interested in traditional music lessons and using diversionary activities, because if they're involved in something like this then it means they aren't out on the streets," says Sharon Canavar, chief executive of Harrogate International Festivals. "But it's not just about the music, it's also about teaching them life skills and talking to them about alcohol abuse and how anti-social behaviour might be perceived by others – it's giving them messages for life."