NO2ID

Davenant Foundation School in Loughton, Essex, where pupils walked out of classrooms that were fitted with CCTV cameras – on the grounds that their civil liberties were being breached – and refused to return until the camera system had been turned off.

The school, a mixed comprehensive, is at the cutting edge of surveillance technology and has already drawn criticism from parents after introducing finger-scanning technology it its canteen. It is astonishing that schools are spending public money on these surveillance systems, which, whatever Straw says, are grooming pupils for life in a society in which they may expect to be watched at every moment of the day.