Saturday 5 April 2008

Steve Sinnott

I was very shocked and saddened to learn of the untimely death of Steve Sinnott, at the age of 56. Whatever my views of the NUT union he led, he was always a decent, straightforward person to deal with. He was particularly influential, for example, in formulating the Steer Committee's proposals on strengthening the right of teachers to discipline pupils, which are now law as part of the 2006 Act. He will be missed. My condolences go to his wife and family.

1 comment:

oldandrew said...

If he helped toughen up the Steer committee's proposals then that's something.

However, the Steer report claimed:

"... most schools successfully manage behaviour to create an environment in which learners feel valued, cared for and safe ... in our experience, where unsatisfactory behaviour does occur, in the vast majority of cases it involves low level disruption in lessons. Incidents of serious misbehaviour, and especially acts of extreme violence, remain exceptionally rare and are carried out by a very small proportion of pupils."

This makes it the most blatant example of The Big Lie in British education.