Britain’s strictest headteacher claims UK parents are too afraid to discipline their children which is leading to bad behaviour.
Barry Smith, who is known for his controversial military-style discipline tactics, has blamed “afraid” adults for the lack of “common courtesy” shown.
The Regional Director at Community Schools Trust in London would reportedly put sick buckets in classrooms and force students to walk with their shoulders against the wall in a “mandatory smile” regime.
But he has now insisted that “parents need to teach common courtesy” so that teachers don’t need to pick up the slack.
He told The Sun: “I don’t think that all parents are doing what they should be.
“Some parents are. When you don’t support the school, you don’t support your child in many cases.”
(Image: Twitter/Barry Smith)
Barry’s tactic first came to light in 2017 when he took over a failing high school and relaunched it as Great Yarmouth Charter Academy, Norfolk as he ordered pupils to walk in single file to lessons, be asleep at 9.30pm and up by 6.30am every day.
He also warned pupils that they would be given a bucket to throw up in if they felt ill in class to cut down on them skiving classes leading parents to brand it “army-like” behaviour as their children would fear going to school.
Earlier this year, parents claimed Barry called pupils at Hackney New School, East London “detainees”, with youngsters complaining of a “toxic environment”.
But the head has attempted to justify his actions as he adds: “”I think we bend over backwards to accommodate children and I think instead of accommodating this behaviour we need to promote good behaviour. We need to be more active.
“We live in a society that thinks stricter is negative. Teachers are abused on a daily basis. They are ignored, they are belittled.”
He also believes a lot of bad behaviour comes from kids not knowing where they fit in as they question who has the authority – but Barry wants the kids to know the teachers run the school and not the pupils even if it “takes strong leadership.”
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