One bad apple

9th May 2003, 1:00am
Gail Robinson at large

Ofsted reports seem to specialise in telling teachers the obvious. The latest study reveals that in every school there is a hardcore of pupils that you simply can’t do anything with. According to the Chief Inspector, David Bell, there are some pupils “that lack social skills, are offensive in their language or actions and generally show little or no understanding of how to behave sensibly in the school setting”. There was an interesting fact hidden in there, though: the classes where kids are most likely to play up are foreign language and music lessons.