Schools have the backing of ministers to suspend or expel unruly pupils to enforce “proper and full discipline”, the education secretary has said.

Children will not get a decent education if they are in schools with poor behaviour, according to Gavin Williamson.

Speaking in detail about the issue for the first time, the secretary of state also said a “crack team” would be working with schools that struggle with behaviour to help set disciplinary standards.

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Speaking to reporters on a visit to St George’s Bickley CofE Primary School in Bromley, south-east London, at the start of the new academic year, Mr Williamson said there was a small number of schools that are “really stuck” in terms of behaviour and discipline.

“Sometimes those schools are in the most difficult areas in the country,” he said. “And if we’re not able to ensure the very highest standards, and make sure that there is proper discipline going through these schools, then actually you’re capturing those children into a cycle of where they’re not going to be able to achieve their best.”

‘We have teachers’ backs’

“It’s got to be clear to every single teacher that we have their back,” Mr Williamson continued. “That actually the government, the Department [for Education], me as a secretary of state, will back them up into ensuring that there is discipline in classrooms.

“And you do look at some of the results of what Ofsted has produced. There is a cohort of those schools that really have that problem.

“And that’s why it’s vital that we have a crack team that is able to go into those schools making sure that the discipline that is so vital for their success is something that is going to be - the teachers will have the tools in order to be able to enforce that. And you can start to turn schools around very, very rapidly.

“If you do not have that in a school, it’s never going to be possible to have a type of education that we aspire for every child to receive.”

The education secretary also spelled out his backing for exclusions. “Any headteacher who makes the decision to either suspend or expel a pupil because they need to do it in order to be able to enforce proper and full discipline in their school, and making sure that they’re protecting the whole interests of the school, will always have my backing,” he said. 

“Because we have empowered them to make that judgment. We have empowered them to make sure that they protect the interests of all the children in that school. That’s what I will always and consistently do.”

He added that suspension and expulsion was not the “first course of action” and many schools have “well-structured discipline for children that means that the whole school has succeeded”.

‘Tough talk doesn’t help’

But Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT headteachers’ union, said: “Tough talk on exclusions doesn’t help the pupils most at risk from it. Neither should we consider exclusion as a standalone problem.

“Exclusion is a legitimate, but limited, response to very challenging behaviour, physical violence or repeated disruption of learning.

“School leaders have a duty to make sure that they provide a safe environment in which all pupils can learn. It is a last resort, but there are circumstances where it is the only appropriate response to extreme pupil behaviour.

“But a school’s best efforts to avoid exclusions are seriously dented by a combination of cuts to education funding as well as the impact of cuts to the health and social care services on which they desperately rely for support.”

Mr Williamson, who went to Raincliffe School, a comprehensive secondary in Scarborough, and then the University of Bradford, also said he wants to “constantly fight” for every child in the country, regardless of where they come from or their parents’ jobs.

“I always recall the school motto that we had at Raincliffe School which was “learn to live”, and that’s so much of what you get when you’re at school, learning about life itself and how can we inspire every generation to reach, to be the best in whatever they do. And that’s what our school system at its best always does, and I want to make sure I deliver that for as many young people as possible.

“It doesn’t matter what background they come from, what their mum and dad do, it doesn’t matter what school or university, we’ve just got to constantly fight to get the very best for every child in this country, and that is what I hope will typify my stint as secretary of state for education.”