Fast food treat for violent pupils

Violent behaviour by pupils is being rewarded with trips to Mcdonald’s, Labour activists heard.

A union official said teachers are not being protected from thousands of classroom assaults every year.

Jane Peckham, NASUWT’S national officer for Scotland, raised the case of a school where there were 10 violent attacks on staff in one day and “nothing is done about it”.

“I actually heard that a member today (Friday) was attacked again for the second time in two weeks by the same pupil,” she told a fringe event on pupil indiscipline.

“No action has been taken this morning. There is no-one in senior management to give a debrief or to take on any kind of responsibility.

“And that pupil, along with another one who spent the morning trashing the deputy’s classroom, are at Mcdonald’s. That is not acceptable.”

“The concern is that pupils are being rewarded by schools for bad behaviour.”

The number of classroom assaults on teachers is on course to exceed 7,000 for 201819, according to data obtained under Freedom of Information.

Richard Bell, an NASUWT executive member, said: “The likelihood is that the overall picture is under-reported, but even with figures like that you can say we have got a crisis.”