This week Education Minister Rod Bryans lodged an amendment to the Education (Jersey) Law 1999 to make it clearer when physical intervention can and cannot be used in schools.
If the amendment is approved by the States, staff in Island schools will be able to use reasonable physical restraint to prevent a child from committing an offence, causing personal injury to themselves or others, or damage to property, or prejudicing the maintenance of good order and discipline.
But Louise Regan, the national president of the NUT who visited Jersey this week, said schools should already have behaviour management policies in place before resorting to physical intervention.
She said: ‘My view is I don’t like staff members using physical restraint because it can be very hard on them and very stressful for the child. It’s about dealing with each situation as it evolves.
‘If a child comes into a school with a weapon, then they should be restrained in some way but there should be enough in place to stop it getting to that point. Any reasonable person would do something to stop that happening.
‘Physical intervention should only be used as a last resort to prevent further injury to a person, but good policies and behaviour management should be in place within schools to make sure it doesn’t get that far.’
The amendment to the law has been proposed after Island teaching union representatives highlighted the issue in meetings with officers from the Education Department.
If the amendment is approved, then the Education (Jersey) Law will bring Jersey legislation in line with the UK law in this area.
