A leaked briefing document from the Department for Education suggests the government is set to announce a raft of new strategies to promote good behaviour in schools.

However, all of the behaviour measures set out in the document - including the banning of mobile phones and teachers’ ability to use “reasonable force” to maintain discipline - are included in existing government guidance.

The briefing note, dated 22 August and marked “Official-Sensitive”, highlights DfE support for teachers’ use of “reasonable force” to improve pupils’ behaviour and backing for heads who want to ban the use of mobile phones.

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According to The Guardian, which has seen the DfE paper, it also suggests backing for headteachers in the use of same-day detentions, the confiscation of mobiles and the ability to suspend or expel pupils.

“This government backs headteachers to improve behaviour and will support them to create safe and disciplined school environments,” the document is said to state.

“We will back heads to use powers to promote good behaviour including sanctions and rewards; using reasonable force; to search and confiscate items from pupils (including mobile phones); impose same-day detentions; suspend and expel pupils; ban mobile phones.”

But none of the measures are actually new.

Behaviour: the use of ‘reasonable force’

Teachers and school leaders are already able to use “reasonable force” to maintain behaviour. Government guidance issued in July 2013 - Use of reasonable force: Advice for headteachers, staff and governing bodies - permits teachers to use force in a number of cases to ensure good discipline.

It says teachers may use “reasonable force” for a range of reasons, such as to prevent a pupil hurting themselves or others; to prevent pupils damaging property or “causing disorder”; to remove disruptive pupils from a class; or to prevent a pupil disrupting an event or school trip.

The guidance states that the “decision on whether or not to physically intervene is down to the professional judgement of the staff member” but explicitly states that force must never be used as a form of punishment.

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: “[Reasonable force] is not new, teachers are already able to use reasonable force.

“Teachers absolutely need discipline in schools but an announcement that they’re able to use reasonable force just raises more questions than it answers,” she told the BBC.

“I don’t know what [reasonable force] means and I suspect school leaders and teachers don’t know what it means - what one person considers to be reasonable another person may well not.”

Dr Bousted also said there were practical issues with the phrase.

“What does it mean to me, a 5ft 4in woman teaching 15-year-old boys over 6ft tall - how would I be able to exercise reasonable force? We don’t want teachers exercising reasonable force in schools, we want well-disciplined schools which are well-funded.”

Tom Bennett, the government’s behaviour tsar, who is leading a £10 million initiative to improve behaviour, retweeted a comment pointing out that: “Reasonable force is non-statutory and has been offered as guidance since 2013.”

Mobile phones

There are also existing powers for schools to confiscate or ban mobile phones. Guidance from the DfE published in 2018 - Searching, screening and confiscation - gives schools general powers to confiscate devices prohibited by school rules.

Teachers also have the power to search through a pupil’s mobile data where they feel the device may be used to commit an offence, or if they feel it is being used to disrupt teaching or break school rules.

Detentions and school exclusions

Thanks to statutory guidance on behaviour from 2016, schools also have the power to impose detentions on pupils without parental consent, although the guidance states schools must make parents aware that this is a sanction they use.

And headteachers have existing powers to exclude pupils, either as a fixed-term suspension as a sanction or permanently in cases of serious misbehaviour. The guidance notes that permanent exclusions should only be pursued in the case of a “serious breach” or “persistent breaches” of school rules, or where allowing the pupil to remain in school would “seriously harm the education or welfare of the pupil or others in the school.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, suggested that the government’s reported plans on exclusions appeared to fly in the face of the Timpson Review.

The review, set up by former education secretary Damian Hinds, recommended that schools be held accountable for the results of pupils they exclude.

“There appear to be mixed messages on behaviour and exclusions,” Mr Barton said.

“It’s a couple of months since Number 10 held a summit on knife crime where the link between school exclusions and gang culture was being talked about, and that was on the back of the Timpson Review, which did not call for an end to exclusions but did say this was an issue that needed to be urgently addressed.

“This does seem to be at odds with both the tone and content of what is being proposed here on exclusions, which is talking about backing heads’ rights to exclude. which could lead to more pupils being excluded.”