PARENTS and teachers in Worcestershire have welcomed new guidelines to take a tough line on disruptive pupils.

Education Secretary Ruth Kelly yesterday said that improvements had been made tackling serious bad behaviour but "low-level disruption" - such as pupils who back-chat or use mobile phones in classrooms - still affects one in 10 schools.

She pledged a "zero tolerance" approach and told inspectors from Ofsted to return to schools with poor standards within a year to check that progress was being made.

Headteachers will also have more powers available to them, such as taking disruptive pupils out of lessons or even off the school site to continue their learning.

At Pershore High School, teachers yesterday introduced their own hard line on foul language, in which pupils who break the rules have to explain why they swore to their parents and then have an after-school detention.

Headteacher Clive Corbett said Ms Kelly's speech tied in well with their own bid to maintain standards in education.

"We are fairly fortunate that it is not a major problem here and that our parents have been very supportive when needed, but it is certainly a move in the right direction," he said.

"If you stand back and allow disruptive pupils and poor behaviour to get worse, you start to find the standards you have worked hard to achieve soon slip."

The local education authority will now draw up precise "behaviour support" guidelines.

Parent Tracy Warner, who has a 14-year-old daughter at Elgar Technology College, said the plans were right in principle but was not convinced they would be rigorously enforced.

"It's a good idea as there are disruptive children in every school," she said.

"If they are taken out and taught separately it would stop them disrupting the lesson and mean they got the education they still need.

"I think all parents want the best environment for their children to learn in and would support the idea, but whether it works or not in practise is a different matter."