A LEADING East Lancashire head teacher has welcomed new advice on using reasonable force to restrain pupils in the wake of national guidelines issued by the Department for Education and Employment.

Michael Humpreys, head of Our Lady and St John RC High School, Blackburn, and chairman of the Blackburn Secondary Heads Association, welcomed the advice from the National Association of Headteachers, published this week.

The group say reasonable force can be used where a criminal offence is being committed, where pupils may injure themselves and where actions on school premises threaten to disrupt order and discipline.

And, according to the advice, reasonable force may also be used by teachers in self-defence, where there is a risk of injury and where order and discipline is compromised.

But teachers are warned that the degree of force must be in proportion to the circumstances and should not include holding pupils around the neck, kicking, slapping or punching, placing them in arm locks, holding pupils by their hair or ear or restraining anyone face down on the ground.

Mr Humpreys, who recently welcomed Prime Minister Tony Blair, Education Secretary David Blunkett and Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw to the North Road school, said: "Anything that gives sensible guidelines and advice about how to handle difficult situations is very welcome. "These situations can be very hard to judge and any advice will be helpful to staff."

The new DFEE guidelines do not allow restraint to be used as a disciplinary action or punishment and that every incident where restraint is used will be examined on its merits. The guidelines go on to say staff should be extremely cautious about using restraint but that everyone has the right to defend themselves against attack provided they do not use a disproportionate degree of force to do so.

General secretary of the NAHT David Hart said: "For far too long teachers have been kept in a state of limbo by uncertainty over when they can use reasonable force to control or retrain pupils."

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