Many parents in the UK want a return of corporal punishment, to deter disruptive pupils.

It is not going to happen. But, in the absence of the slipper or cane as a final sanction, how do teachers maintain an orderly classroom environment?

This was part of a plea for help posted on a teachers.net bulletin board on Friday:

"I have never had a group that has been so disrespectful and talkative. Nothing I say seems to get them to be quiet and they talk right over me when I am teaching.

"Detentions do not phase them - in fact, most of them do not even show up and the administration does not do anything to help. Calling parents has not helped, either. ...

'Nervous breakdown'

"There is a group of them that will feed off of each other, even though I have them seated in different parts of the room. They will make noises, such as snorting or coughing and then together they will get into a rhythm as I try to teach.

"I love teaching and I love students, but my blood pressure is sky high and I cry in my car all the way home. Something has to change before I have a nervous breakdown."

One method that is widely used was developed by an expert in behaviour management, Lee Canter. It is known as assertive discipline.

The approach works best when adapted to individual circumstances but essentially offers pupils simple choices on an escalating system: pupils who are causing trouble are initially reminded of the rules - without being told off as such - then given a series of notices for bad behaviour leading to a final warning.

The idea is to give the student plenty of opportunity to back away from confrontation, but without a public about-face.

Humour

Ultimately they can be told to leave the lesson to go to the headteacher's office, but teachers say most do draw back before getting into such serious trouble.

Teachers who have an aptitude for wit are often able to defuse potentially rebellious situations by their natural charisma - but that can backfire badly if it tips into sarcasm, or if it is laboured and unfunny, when it seems like an attempt to appease.

In the UK, the Department for Education and Employment believes schools should decide what is right for themselves when it comes to tackling discipline problems. There is no set method - something of a complaint among trainee teachers.

John Robertson has been training teachers in how to handle classroom discipline for some 25 years. He has written on the subject and works for Keele University and Homerton College, Cambridge, among others.

Mr Robertson argues that the preventative approach is best.

"When disruption occurs you deal with it clearly and firmly: make the student accountable for their actions, but not in personal, vindictive ways.

"When you have to correct behaviour, when you have to impose consequences - and I use the word consequences, not punishment - you do it in a professional manner not a personal manner.

'Do it privately'

"Until you get to know them, when it's much more difficult to depersonalise it and it becomes a thing which you might do with some regret. Your disappointment can show then."

A key feature, Mr Robertson says, is to handle the confrontation privately - not by bawling across a classroom.

"You always try to keep the interventions as private and respectful as possible, so that if you can't deal with something quietly and incidentally - if the student is not responding to a clear direction - it's better to follow this up either by taking them quietly aside outside, or see them after the lesson.

"Students have an identity to protect. If you are doing something publicly it's quite risky for them to suddenly not be the outrageous one or the 'hard man'. They will be considering the effect on their friends as much as complying with you.

"And when you do see them on their own the majority will be quite reasonable and see your point of view.

"The bottom line I would say to teachers is that you may not actually be able to improve the attitudes or the behaviour - some of them are so entrenched and their backgrounds are so difficult to work with - but you really should avoid making them worse.

"Some teachers do make it worse by expressing dismissive, disrespectful attitudes towards the students - and you can understand why because it really does get you down. It's a lot to swallow, day in and day out."