THE verdict was stark: we are letting children down. That was the conclusion of a teacher who spoke to The Herald this week about discipline in Scotland’s schools. “I go into work every day and think ‘What are we doing to these kids? And what are we doing to the 97 per cent of kids who are well behaved?’”

These are good questions. The teacher works at Bannerman High in the East End of Glasgow, which has been making headlines for years about the allegedly parlous state of discipline at the school. It’s not the only one though. Schools across the country have experienced serious incidents of indiscipline and bullying. A 14-year-old pupil kicked in the head by another pupil. A boy knocked unconscious in a fight. A boy contemplating suicide because of the harassment he had received for being gay. The evidence is disturbing.

Many of the teachers who have to deal with such problems every day are at the end of their tether, and who can blame them? The staff who have been on strike in recent weeks are campaigning for a pay rise but they have also been consistently raising the stressful conditions in which many of them have been forced to work. Many believe the crisis is being made worse by flawed policies on discipline and ineffective leadership. Some say the situation in schools has never been so bad. Some fear for their safety.

The Bannerman High teacher is clear about where the blame for the problem lies and says a new approach to pupils is needed. “It’s how you manage them that counts,” said the teacher. “and it’s the management and policy that is very much the problem.” The teacher says that when a discipline problem arises, staff are expected to use euphemistic language and avoid terms like “consequences”. The teacher also criticised the no-exclusions policy which can mean young people remaining in class with their victims.

This is not an easy situation to resolve and it certainly isn’t as easy as saying we should go back to the way things used to be. The more caring, pupil-centred approach that has been developed in schools in recent years has much to commend it – no one wants to go back to the bad old days of the tawse. Many of the changes that have been introduced in schools are also helping to create a more reflective and emotionally mature generation.

But if crises such as the one the Bannerman High teacher is facing are to be avoided, schools must find an effective way of dealing with disruptive pupils – otherwise in some circumstances, teachers may be unable to teach which means everyone suffers, including, as the Glasgow teacher pointed, the 97 per cent of kids who are well behaved. The Commission on School Reform is one of the interested parties here that has warned indiscipline is affecting both pupils and teachers. The morale of teachers, says the commission, is through the floor because of it.

To find a way forward, there are a number of principles which should guide us. Firstly, teacher and pupil safety should never be comprised by unruly pupils. The EIS union has said teachers are bring encouraged not to report violent incidents and that data from local authorities is incomplete and that cannot be allowed to continue. Schools, councils, government – all of us – need to have an accurate picture of what’s going on in schools so we can assess the problem and decide what to do about it.

Secondly, while the softly-softly restorative justice model has its place, what may be appropriate in terms of discipline for some schools may not work for others, in disadvantaged areas for example. Indeed, the one-size-fits-all curriculum is at least partially responsible for some of the behavioural problems we are seeing in schools. It may work in places that have a largely middle-class catchment and low discipline problems but it won’t necessarily work in schools that face additional challenges.

Disciplinary problems can also arise because youngsters rebel against a constant sense of failure, so tweaking the curriculum to ensure children get a taste of success can be remarkably effective, and the success can be in sports or the arts rather than traditionally more academic areas. Organised in such a way, it can be a successful formula: schools that work hard to make youngsters proud of themselves and their community are more likely to find success. Parents and the wider community have a role to play too – it’s important parents routinely support teaching staff about when a line has been crossed and resist the temptation to engage in a social-media pile-on.

However, even a compassionate but robust approach can still break down occasionally, which is why a clear and consistent line of sanctions is so important. What a school expects of its staff and pupils must always be absolutely clear and it must be especially clear that any kind of violence is totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated. In modern schools, the use of exclusion has become taboo and to an extent it is understandable – excluding someone can make the situation for a pupil who’s struggling even worse. But a small minority of children cannot be permitted to ruin school for everyone and exclusion must still be available to the authorities to use as a last resort.

Applied appropriately, as part of a consistent but compassionate strategy, such an approach has the potential to make a great difference to pupils and teachers, such as the one who spoke to The Herald this week. The teacher criticised the lack of sanctions and the moratorium on exclusions, but they also expressed their concern that their school was setting expectations very low. What young people at Bannerman High, and others in Scotland experiencing similar issues, need is for schools, in the words of the teacher, to take control, establish boundaries and ensure that pupils know what is happening and what is expected of them.

It will not be easy to achieve because the policies which are failing pupils across the country are deeply embedded. But robustly maintaining good order shouldn’t be something schools are ashamed of – quite the opposite: good order should be, and must be, one of the pillars of a strong and effective system. That doesn’t mean a return to any kind of post-Victorian model in which teachers wield the strap and violence and fear rule the corridors. But it should mean a system that watches out for pupils who are struggling and in trouble and cares for them and supports them, but also makes it clear to everyone what is, and is not, acceptable and applies appropriate sanctions when necessary.

Used appropriately and consistently, the ultimate prize of a system that sets clear expectations and consistently applies encouragements – and sanctions – could be schools in which everyone can thrive. No pupil in a Scottish school should be kicked in the head or knocked unconscious. No one should be left contemplating suicide because of the harassment they receive for being gay. And no school – as the Bannerman High teacher fears is happening – should ever normalise such behaviour and fail to act on it. The teacher says we are letting the children down; we must start working on a system that can put it right.