MR PENDLE: Tackling classroom terrors

And so it was last week when education secretary Michael Gove announced he would tackle a ban on the ways in which teachers can restrain or comfort pupils in school.

The National Union of Teachers, not known for agreeing with Conservative Party policies too often in the past, welcomed the move.

But then a previously unheard of organisation called the Children’s Rights Alliance for England - apparently it is a London-based pressure group set up in 1991 - said giving staff more powers could breach human rights and child protection laws.

Now let Mr Pendle make it clear he is not advocating allowing teachers to be able to physically punish pupils - that would be taking things much too far.

But let us remember there have been far too many cases in recent years where malicious pupils who have been disciplined manufacture totally unfounded claims against a teacher which can result in their job or career being wrecked.

Mud sticks - and there will always be those who suspect that although the spurious claims have been rubbished, there was some substance to them and the reputation of the teacher has been dented at the word of a mischief-making complainant.

And the same argument can be used to knock down CRAE arguing against teachers under investigation being granted anonymity.

If a teacher accused of a serious assault on a pupil is named, and the offence is later found never to have happened, fingers will still be pointed, tongues will continue to wag and reputations will be sullied.

Mr Gove said teachers should be able to physically restrain trouble making children and remove them from classrooms - and he gets 10 out of 10 from Mr Pendle for that.

QUELLE horreur!

So the French are upset at moves to make English the language of Europe?

The row stems from comments made by the Flemish Belgian education minister who said European integration might work better if there was a common language - and that the language should be English.

This naturally got up the noses of the French, who have always thought their own language should be the common tongue.

But English is accepted as the second language in many countries - from an economic and political point of view, it is the most important and most widely-used.

So if there is to be a single language used across Europe, the only logical choice is English - and if that upsets the French, then it’s just too bad.