In a recent report on the need to protect younger pupils in secondary schools (The Times – Tuesday May 4th 2021) there are references to “behaviour management,” “educational technology training” and “controlled environments,” more appropriate for prisons rather than schools.
Schools invite the trust of parents and with this trust goes the expectation that schools will keep children safe and make good use of their time in school. There is of course a corollary to this; schools must be able to trust parents to have brought up children to behave responsibly and considerately with other children and to cooperate with their teachers.
As the report suggests, large school buildings and the frequent need for children to move around provide opportunities for bullying and intimidation, enhanced no doubt by access to social media, but this would matter far less where the disposition of children lay away from the mistreatment of more vulnerable fellow pupils. As children grow up they need to learn to live unsupervised, for other’s safety and for their own development as responsible adults, but schools alone cannot be expected to achieve this.