Our School Policy Promotes Bad Behaviour

Christmas is now well and truly out of the way. All that's left are the fading memories, a bin still full of used wrapping paper, and the odd bit of tinsel stuck in the pile of the carpet (only because the Dyson vacuum cleaner does lose suction now and again... but I'm digressing already).

This time out I wanted a good old whinge about the policy of our schools towards truancy and bullying. A policy that fosters more bad behaviour, truancy and bullying than it solves. Here's the scenario that my daughter experienced a few weeks ago at her comprehensive school.

The school signalled, clear and loud, their intention to encourage the worst behaved kids (those that bully other kids to cover up their own insecurities or skip school because learning isn't important to their own future) to attend school and behave themselves by offering Christmas treats, mostly selection boxes, but there were other small gifts too.

Now my daughter received her school report last week (it's time for the final run-in to GCSE exams, and reports have their interim grades and where they're targetted, which is important for study planning) and this showed the grand total of 0 unauthorised absences and 0 unauthorised days late. Her record as a pupil is actually exemplary, despite problems between my former wife (her mother) and myself during this past school year causing some upset.

As a 'thank-you' from the school for behaving well she was rewarded with bugger all.

The school bullies who had made life unpleasant for the other kids, and those that had made study easier for the others by not being present only had to attend and behave themselves for the middle two weeks in December to earn their reward, be it a selection box, iPod, Playstation 3 or XBox 360, Ferrari 354, Euro-fighter, Space Shuttle, or whatever exaggerated gift I can think of. Mostly it was selection boxes, from what I gather.

My daughter, the first time I've seen her pissed-off like that for a long while, told me that the schools policy is clear - it pays to bunk off school and beat up on other kids. That way you get rewarded for stopping that behaviour mid-December. My daughter, who has behaved all year, and indeed tried extra hard to catch up on her poorer subjects, was rewarded with nothing.

This school policy is, quite frankly, utter bol***ks.