He became a teacher in 1950, and later a head teacher, first at Lea Bank Secondary Modern School in Cloughfold, Rossendale (1955–61), then at Robert Montefiore Secondary School, Stepney, London (1961–66), and finally from 1967 to 1974 at Highbury Grove School, a new all-boys' comprehensive in Islington, North London, of which he was the founding head teacher; in this capacity, and subsequently as an MP, he was outspoken in support of the retention of corporal punishment in British schools. He opposed what he perceived to be lax discipline, both in modern education and in the wider society, and at Highbury Grove he introduced an unfashionably traditional regime, with strictly enforced uniforms, caning for misbehaviour, and a house system. He claimed in his book that this proved so popular with local parents that the school was consistently oversubscribed.