Brit schoolchildren as young as seven carrying weapons into classroom: Report

London, Sept 11 (ANI): Schoolchildren in Britain, as young as seven, are taking knives and other weapons into the classroom, a research has revealed.

According to the Centre of Social Justice report, a 'climate of fear' is gripping pupils at some of the UK's poorest schools and warns there is a 'profound failure' in some institutions to deal with disruptive behaviour.

"The extent to which pupils in some of our schools are feeling unsafe and the impact that weapon-carrying street gang activity and conflict is having on their behaviour is staggering," the report said.

"During evidence to the CSJ, the head of a primary referral unit cited a number of examples of 7-11-year-olds being sent to the pupil referral unit for having brought knives into their primary school."

"Often the children said that they had brought the knives in because they were being bullied in school, to scare someone, or because they were being bullied by older children or, in one example, by someone's father, on their way home from school," it added.

According to the Daily Mail, the CSJ's report also revealed that some schools try to hide their gang problems because of fear of damage to their reputation.

Other findings include warnings about the use of permanent exclusions by schools that struggle to cope with disruptive behaviour, claiming in 2009-10 there were around 5,700 permanent exclusions and 330,000 suspensions out of a pupil population of eight million, the paper said.

The think-tank urges the government to embark on 'radical reform on exclusion' as part of its drive to transform failing schools.

It also recommended that school's heads and teachers should be given special training in conflict resolution and police officers should be trained to work in schools with problem pupils. (ANI)