BOLTON'S headteachers were given a lesson in good behaviour at a major conference to discuss the future of teaching.

More than 100 heads and their deputies from primary and secondary schools across Bolton listened as pupils delivered their advice on how to make education better.

Withins School pupils David Hogan, Vikki James, Roger Maurins, Jonathan Smith and Sarah Henry, who has now left school, said successful teachers were the ones who built relationships with young people.

Teachers need to listen more and discover the ways to make learning enjoyable, they were told.

The conference at the Jarvis Hotel, Blackrod, was designed to examine ways of building social inclusion projects through schools.

Delegates discussed initiatives to encourage and help pupils who felt excluded within their schools and communities.

Claypool head Glenys Evans, who chairs the group responsible for pupils' attendance and exclusion, said it was important to realise the wider implications of disaffected pupils.

Cheryl Eastwood, assistant director of Bolton Social Services, said initiatives such as the Sure Start Scheme would help build better communities throughout Bolton.

The pilot scheme which would be launched in the next few months would concentrate on the area bounded by Blackburn Road, Halliwell Road, and Chorley New Road.

Up to £2 million would be spent introducing projects to improve the education of young children from the day they were born. "We'll be pushing Books for Babies and improving children's health and play activities," she said

Joan Hearne, assistant director of Housing, said that some communities in Bolton were suffering because of the trend towards greater home ownership. She said: "People were quitting traditional council homes to buy houses in 'better' areas. That was having an affect on school numbers and the reputation of council estate areas.

"As pupil numbers fall, confidence in those schools does too," she said.

A chilling picture of what can happen if pupils go off the rails was delivered by Graham Mallinsen, a training consultant working within the Healthy Schools Initiative.

A former teacher in Bolton, Mr Mallinsen told of how some of his former pupils were now prostitutes in the town's Red Light area, and he revealed how in a neighbouring local authority a nine-year-old boy was regularly injecting heroin, and the suicide rate among men was the highest in Britain.

The Healthy Schools Initiative was one way of tackling the problems which surrounded disadvantaged pupils. Mr Mallinsen said: "Teenage pregnancy is higher in Bolton than the national average. Part of our initiative is to talk to pupils about sex and relationships, as well as their health and emotional well-being. "When I see ex-pupils working as prostitutes in River Street, that hurts."

David Moore, spokesman for the Education Inspectorate, delivered the keynote speech at the conference, but requested that the Bolton Evening News and other media be excluded.

Councillor Frank White, the spokesman for Social Inclusion and Community Safety, said: "For social inclusion to be a success, it's less to do with political power or politics, it's everything to do with total commitment, unfading motivation, and lasting determination, to accept nothing but fair and equal opportunities for all."

In the past, Bolton experienced approximately 100 permanent exclusions from school in any one year. Now as a result of an agreement reached between heads and the Education Department, this figure has been reduced to 39.

Cllr White said: "Regrettably 50 per cent of this figure is represented by one school, which deserves our full support and resources for the efforts the staff are making.

"Many children excluded from school are children in the care of the local authority, and here we find some of our greatest and most difficult challenges."

Cllr White also spoke of the New Opportunities Funding, which enabled the council to tackle the disadvantaged across the Borough.

He added: "As a council we are well aware of the need to target smaller pockets, where, because of their size, they have not qualified for external funding.

"Today's conference gives us a social inclusion focus, but we do need a plan to share practice that is proving to make a difference."