NUT vote not to report pupils about terrorism

Cue left wingers saying dont report, and right wingers saying report.

Not necessarily! I haven't worked in schools since this law was introduced, so I don't know how it works. I agree that the terrorist/terraced house story is ridiculous and the people involved really should have used some common sense.

Teachers are in a very good position to monitor children's and families' behaviour, but I wonder how many wannabe terrorists have been caught. I know that reporting of child abuse, which teachers were also supposed to do, didn't work very well. I reported a few cases, but apart from one when the abuser admitted his crime and was jailed, I don't think other cases were followed up through lack of staffing in social services and the police.

I seriously wonder where you draw the line. I don't suppose there are many children who tell their children that the spare bedroom is full of bomb-making equipment, but is it really suspicious when an uncle from Iraq comes to visit?

The Prevent Strategy is a sledge hammer and needs to be rethought. Like many recent policies it has the back-of-an-envelope feel. People are worried about radicalisation so this is used to tick a box without being fully thought through.

At the tiny rural primary school where I am a governor it has been hard to stick to the letter of the strategy without actually putting ideas into children's heads and making them scared. The approach has rightly been to try and strengthen the children's confidence (thus making the resistant to manipulation) and also introduce awareness of different cultures and the need to respect them.

I looked at it and thought it covers such a wide range of people that it has really little practical application particularly for primary schools -a one size fits all strategy that needs re-thinking. I did wonder if the little boy who had used the word terrorist instead of terraced hadn't been Muslim would the same thing have happened? Not sure about this.