A MOTHER heartbroken by the state of the area's schools has spoken of her first hand experience of the classroom chaos teachers face.

Supply teacher Dawn Adams says she has been so shocked by what she has seen in schools in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole she has decided to make a stand.

She has withdrawn her 14-year-old daughter from one school and plans to stand as an Independent councillor in next year's local elections in the hope of making a difference.

The 46-year-old from Charminster, who has worked in at least four different schools on a supply basis, says some students are allowed to run riot in the corridors, throw sandwiches, swear and kick in doors.

They openly smoke and fail to turn up for class, she claims.

Mrs Adams says she was made to sit and wait while teachers tried to locate the whereabouts of a "missing class" she should have been taking.

She was horrified when she was told that classes often went missing because teachers swap classrooms and did not inform anybody.

The mother-of-four is so disillusioned she has removed her 14-year-old daughter Lynsey from Summerbee secondary school to teach her from home. She claims her daughter's homework was not marked in the 18 months she attended and that teachers fled classes unable to cope.

"Common sense tells me there is something very, very seriously wrong with the education system. I want to change the system," she said. "I can only begin to do this as a councillor."

She said: "If I had not seen it as a supply teacher I would never have known what was really going on.

"It is heartbreaking."

Pratap Deshpande, head of learning and achievement at Bournemouth council, spent almost 30 years teaching in London and Birmingham. He said: "I have quite a wide knowledge of the types of issues that different schools face in different settings and I would not pick Bourne-mouth out. I would not pick this out as a particularly problematic area."

He pointed to a host of positive Ofsted reports. "I'm not trying to whitewash it. I'm not saying that behaviour is simply not an issue. I'm saying in relative terms we are better than very many," he added.

Steve Cleverly from Summerbee School said he did not recognise the school painted in the allegations.

He said: "Homework is regularly set and marked. That is one of our highest priorities. Teachers walking out of class would also be unacceptable. Senior staff regularly patrol through the school so we would know if that was happening. Our monitoring procedures are rigid. We have just been OFSTEDed and we were praised for the pastoral care of our students."

Although Mrs Adams intends to concentrate on education she is now appealing for members of the public to contact her to establish other areas of concern among locals. Call her on 01202 394470.

Is Dawn Adams' opinion the right one? Write to us with your views c/o Newsdesk, Daily Echo, Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, BH2 6HH or email using the link above.