Union members refuse to teach unruly pupils

TEACHERS are resorting to industrial action to keep violent and disruptive children out of the classroom.

Some are refusing to teach out-of-control pupils who have brought knives into school or threatened to set staff on fire.

Often, the children – some as young as eight – have been allowed to stay in lessons despite concerns about the risk they pose to teachers and classmates.

Figures from the NASUWT teaching union show the number of ‘refusal to teach’ ballots has more than doubled from three in 201 to eight in 2016. The industrial action involves the pupil being barred from attending classes taught by the union’s members. There were ‘many more cases’ where a ballot was threatened, but the school took ‘appropriate action’ before it went ahead.

Members of the National Union of Teachers also requested two ‘refusal to teach’ ballots last year, but none in 201 .

Among incidents triggering votes in 2016 was a Year Four (age eight or nine) boy in Essex who brought two pocket knives into school and threatened to use them on another child. Teachers at a secondary school in Belfast also took ‘refusal to teach’ action after a pupil made death threats against two members of staff. In Lancashire, a ballot was called at a ‘failing’ secondary school where staff were ‘exposed to violent behaviour’ and pupils were ‘out of control’.

In many cases, the action eventually led to the child being moved to another school. Dr Patrick Roach, deputy general secretary of NASUWT, said: ‘We only ballot when there’s been a failure of schools to deal with those problems. It appears to be intensifying.’

In a survey of 4,908 NASUWT members, half said there was a ‘widespread behaviour problem’ in their own school.

Malcolm Trobe, of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: ‘If a pupil has to be excluded, [headteachers] will exclude the pupil.’