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Children branded troublemakers

Children can go through school with an unfair reputation for being naughty - because the teachers dont like their parents

Children can go through school with an unfair reputation for being naughty - because the teachers don't like their parents, research claims. Parents judged as neglectful, indulgent, anxious, unco-operative or interfering are seen as failing to adequately prepare their son or daughter for school. This in turn feeds into teachers' perceptions of that child's behaviour as a 'problem', according to Professor Maggie MacLure and Prof Liz Jones.

The researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University said once such reputations are formed they will be used to read children's day-to-day behaviour. And, when the reputations spread to classmates and other parents, it becomes very difficult for such children to be recognised as good.

Prof Jones said: "Some cherished principles of early years education may also have unintended consequences. The principle of strong home-school links, for instance, may contribute to certain families being identified as sources of their children's problematic behaviour."

'One of the main functions of the reception year is to form a crowd of individual children into a class and tolerance of diversity is generally low. Classroom discipline is a very public activity and children who do not conform to the rules will be publicly marked as different.

'Young children are very impressionable and are influenced by how people see them so if they are considered naughty this can stay with them for the rest of their school days - and it becomes circular so as they get older their behaviour gets worse.

Read more in the Daily Mail