£600,000 in payouts to assaulted teachers

MORE than £600,000 was paid in compensation in the last two years to teachers injured by pupils.

A survey uncovered 48 payouts to staff between 2015 and 2017 – including one to a woman who was attacked with chairs and hit on the head.

In some cases, councils paid out tens of thousands of pounds for claims. A teacher in Bexley, south-east London, was paid £22,485 in for head injuries after a pupil kicked a door at her.

Many of the cases involved teachers trying to restrain violent pupils when they lost their temper and could have harmed their peers.

Experts believe the figures do not show the true scale of the problem as many town halls refused to give specific details on compensation cases.

The data was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act from 124 of 152 councils nationwide. Christopher McGovern, of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘These awards represent only the tip of the iceberg in terms of classroom violence and stress caused to teachers by unacceptable pupil behaviour.’