SCHOOLS are being encouraged to introduce hospital-style “checklists” aimed at improving discipline in the classroom.

It could see teachers displaying school rules, as well as using rewards and punishments for good and bad behaviour in class, and telling parents if their child has misbehaved.

The checklist has been drawn up by the Government’s behaviour adviser, Charlie Taylor, who is also head of Willows Special School, in Hillingdon, north-west London.

He said the idea for a checklist was based on a similar scheme introduced to hospitals by surgeon Atul Gawande.

The surgeon was concerned at the number of patients suffering serious complications after operations, and realised many of the cases were down to staff failing to follow basic procedures, such as not washing their hands.

He introduced a checklist to be read out before each operation to ensure basic, essential rules were followed.

The Department for Education (DfE) said the behaviour checklist was designed to be used by schools and teachers to run through in the morning and afternoon to check basic behaviour rules were in place.