DISRUPTIVE children in any classroom are a particular form of hell, for the teacher and for fellow pupils.

So, news of a centre to remove such local pupils from the classroom and into a specialist unit is very welcome. The centre is aimed at younger secondary school pupils who are in real danger of exclusion, and offers one-to-one tuition.

The move is part of a £550,000 package of plans from Bolton education chiefs to combat classroom troublemakers which has now won Government approval. And it is a practical way of dealing with an enduringly difficult problem.

Equally sensible is a proposed partnership between Bolton College and local secondary schools to help pupils who miss school through boredom or a lack of academic skills. Recognised work-related courses will instead be offered during vital GCSE years.

Keeping pupils in the system, while allowing others in the classroom to continue their studies without distraction, is the only way forward and we applaud local education chiefs for their forward planning.

We hope that they will keep parents directly involved all the way alongany new system, and that there continues to be a means of rewarding those youngsters who study and achieve without causing trouble.

It would send out all the wrong messages if the difficult pupils received the incentives and the special treatment, and the hard-working ones got nothing.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.