Find the best schools in your area

Sloppy dress is at the root of poor discipline in schools, David Cameron said yesterday in a policy document on education .

Teachers should act to stop children who walk around with their shirts hanging out or ties askew. The paper suggested that pupils should stand up automatically when a visitor enters the classroom, and that schools should all appoint head girls and boys.

Children’s good or bad behaviour could be logged as credit or debit points, then shared regularly with their parents. The paper said: “We have observed that the best-performing schools tend to have strict school uniform policies, with blazer, shirt and tie, and with zero tolerance of incorrect or untidy dress. Other best practices include a system of prefects and a head boy and head girl.”

The report also said that such schools normally gave an hour for lunch, as opposed to 30 minutes at many weaker schools, but did not allow children to leave the premises during the break. It said: “Schools must have the freedom to choose which specific practices will best suit their school ethos, and schools which choose to innovate in any area, and thereby improve outcomes, should be applauded, and learnt from.

“But those schools which shun best practice and also fail to deliver high standards should lose their alibis for failure.”

The report was introduced at Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney, East London, a borough where schools have a history of poor academic attainment. Mr Cameron praised the achievements at Mossbourne, which opened in 2004. It won plaudits from Tony Blair, was recognised in an outstanding Ofsted report and is now six times oversubscribed. Mr Cameron said that its practices exemplified how schools should be run.

The report said that clear boundaries should be set so that pupils recognised the absolute authority of teachers. Schools with good behavioural records often set up dedicated rooms for those removed from lessons for discipline reasons, it said, adding: “They [such schools] go beyond these rules to embrace other policies which contribute to an ordered and purposeful ethos, such as uniform requirements and insisting that pupils stand up when visitors enter the classroom.

“We suggest that there should be clearer reward schemes for good behaviour in schools. Schools can benefit from establishing credit and debit schemes, setting out clear rewards for good behaviour and performance, and clear sanctions and punishments for bad behaviour. The weekly record of credits and debits could be shared with parents, so that families are given a regular update on their child’s behavioural record.”

Andrew Haldenby, director of the independent think-tank Reform, said that the report was unlikely to be a success. “It proposes the dissemination of good practice, defined by government and checked by a stronger Ofsted, ranging from discipline to school uniforms to the length of lunch breaks. Government is not the best judge of what works in schools; there will be intense pressure to make such ‘good practice’ compulsory.”

Jim Knight, the Schools Minister, attacked the proposals, saying: “The Tories are proposing to cut £4.5 billion from the Building Schools for the Future programme, putting at risk hundreds of school-building projects up and down the country. There is no bar on new schools opening in areas where there are surplus places, but stripping local authorities of their role in co-ordinating education means that the Tories are attacking their own local councils, who would find it very difficult under these proposals to plan the improvement of their schools in a coherent way.”

Times recommends

• Undergraduates to get 'consumer rights'
• Schoolgirls think cosmetic surgery is normal
• Lying parents may face court over school places