Schools demand ‘biblical right to smack children’
Private Christian schools must be allowed to smack pupils with parents’ consent, the Court of Appeal has heard. Forty schools, spearheaded by the Christian Fellowship School in Liverpool, want a change in the law to allow them to use corporal punishment. Their attempt to challenge legislation banning smacking in schools by claiming it did not apply to independents was rejected by the High Court last year. They claim it is part of a religious doctrine protected by the European Convention on Human Rights.