| SPOTLIGHT |
The Welsh education minister Leighton Andrews has signed the order giving schools and further education colleges in Wales greater powers to search their students for weapons and published new guidance for teachers in on how screening and searches should be carried out.
The new powers, granted under the he Education and Inspection Act 2006 and the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, enable schools and colleges to screen students for knives without their consent with a walk-through or handheld metal detector and to search pupils where they have reasonable grounds to suspect that he or she is carrying a weapon.
The guidance issued yesterday (1st November) also says that while schools should only use “reasonable force” against aggressive students as a last resort, they should not adopt “no contact” policies for their staff when dealing with pupils with weapons.
"Schools should never seek to inhibit the ability of staff to use force by adopting a 'no contact' policy,” the guidance says. “The power to use force helps ensure pupil and school safety and the risk with a no-contact policy is that it might place a member of staff in breach of their duty of care towards a pupil, or prevent them taking an action needed to prevent a pupil causing injury to others."
The guidance also sets outs teachers' rights to discipline pupils on and off school premises, use reasonable force to prevent pupils from harming themselves and others and in some cases of serious misbehaviour and clarifies the powers relating to confiscation of pupils' property.
However, the National Union of Teachers said that the guidance was not sufficiently detailed to protect teachers in all situations. Union official Stewart Williams told the BBC: "I would call for more detailed guidelines for teachers so they understand exactly when and what they can do and they do not put themselves in the position where they can be accused of any type of assault or any other accusation."
A copy of the guidance can be downloaded here: http://wales.gov.uk/docs/dcells/publications/101029safeeffectiveen.pdf
