This week, thousands of 11 and 12-year-olds have gone to their comprehensive school for the first time.

For the majority of these children this is a daunting experience, coming from a primary school with 200 or 300 children and moving to a school with more than 1,000 is not easy.

It can't be easy for new pupils to find their way around, which is why I was concerned to hear from two nervous 11-year-olds who, when they were unable to find the science lab in their new school, came to a door that said year eleven and staff only.

Not sure what to do, they were suddenly shouted at by a teacher to come away from there. They were too nervous to say they were lost.

Surely any good teacher would want to encourage the best standards in young children and set the tone for future behaviour.

This is how the problems begin in our comprehensive schools. For these two boys this was unpleasant - they are not used to teachers shouting or being unhelpful.

The teacher, on the other hand, has long experience of rebellious youngsters and expects all children to be up to no good.

Julienne Ford, an American educationalist, wrote in the Seventies that "children live up to adults' expectations".

My two daughters-in-law are teachers and they were looking forward to the new term. One teaches in an inner-London primary school but her original degree was in psychology, which has helped her deal with parents and children.

The other teaches in a large comprehensive school in Nottingham, where there are many challenges.

For many of our children today life at home is not easy, with unemployment, ill-health or family breakdown, they have many unresolved issues which can affect their education. This is not always a problem in smaller schools but does become one in larger schools.

The transition to the large comprehensive needs careful handling as it can have major effects on the child's education.

We would not get away with talking to another adult the way some children are spoken to inside and outside of our schools.

We need to change the way we treat our children. After all, they could be providing your pension or looking after you in hospital. They are our future.

-Councillor Anne Jones MBE, Burgess Hill