Cocaine, violence and refusing to attend class – our schools laid bare
TEACHERS in Wales have described some of the shocking abuse and violence they now face each day in schools.
From children caught with drugs to pupils swearing at and threatening to assault them – these are just some of the more extreme behaviours that teachers say have got worse since the pandemic.
They said the growing behaviour crisis post-Covid is among a minority of children, but problems are now more extreme and affecting the education of others. Verbal abuse is described as a “daily occurrence”.
Teachers claim schools are unwilling to exclude pupils, even when they attack or threaten others, because there is pressure to keep exclusions down and attendance up
ne teacher at a high school in Bridgend said lack of funding meant less support for children who need it, which means classes are more likely to be disrupted. She said in the average class of 30 seven or eight can’t cope.
She said her school had been supportive as she described how she reported a 16-year-old to police after he threatened her in a corridor: “I had a case just after Covid with a 16-year-old in Year 11.
“We were surrounded by a group of his peers jeering and he told me he would “f*** me up”. He was really aggressive and shouting in my face.
“My school is very supportive but some teachers don’t have that support. I reported it to the police because it was threatening behaviour and the police visited the boy at his house.
“None of us goes to work expecting someone is going to beat them up. In the worst cases it’s physical abuse, children hitting other children and teachers, swearing at teachers and boys making sexualised comments to teachers.
“In my school physical violence is not a daily occurrence, but verbal abuse is. I have taught since 1995 and back then if a child swore at you they were sent home, but not now,” she said.
The teacher, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, said she knew from colleagues elsewhere that verbal abuse aimed at teachers is a daily occurrence “across Bridgend, Cardiff, Swansea, Vale of Glamorgan, Merthyr – everywhere”.
In other instances teachers described being told to “go and kill yourself” by pupils, and a group of Year 11 boys who told a teacher they would “give her one” who were not excluded.
One teacher said: “I know of someone in a special school stabbed with a screwdriver, there has been head-butting and punching and kicking.
“In my experience it is predominantly a male problem and there is a lot of misogyny among teenage boys which is getting progressively worse.”
Teachers said schools were generally supportive but did not have the staff or specialist help for those children needing it. They blamed rising mental health and social problems spilling into schools.
“The behavioural support service in the last 10 years has been cut and cut and cut. If you can’t provide support and interventions you end up with teachers trying their best and children who don’t get help they need,” one said.
“I have been in situations where pupils have been excluded for attacking other pupils or staff and when they were excluded the safeguarding team criticised the school for not keeping them in.
“Absolutely it’s a behaviour crisis. My first school was in London. I don’t have a rose-tinted view of the past, but we have children with real issues.”
In another instance a teacher described how a male pupil hit a girl in the face with an iPad, earning him a one-day exclusion, and how a boy was kicked out for two days after punching a girl in the face.
Teachers said they did not blame the children. They said they were being “let down” after years of Covid lockdowns and the cost-of-living crisis creating pressure on families.
“The overwhelming thing for me is it’s not their fault. Many of these children are broken,” said one. “As a society we have let children down. There was an 18-month wait for a CAMHS appointment pre-Covid.
“I know of children coming in to school saying they are going to take an overdose – services to help are just not there. Teachers do our very best, but we are not trained counsellors or social workers and the powers that be are not taking this seriously enough.
“There is a disconnect between what policy-makers and officials think is going on and what is going on in schools. I would ask a head or the education minister to do our job for a week.”
One teacher from north Wales said Year 8 children had been caught in the school toilets with cocaine, while another claimed: “All schools in north Wales are struggling. Covid had a massive effect on children’s mental health.”
Teachers around Wales said some children have become “disengaged since Covid” and give up too easily.
They also described the growing problem of “internal truanting” where pupils come to school but won’t engage in lessons, won’t go into lessons, or walk out of them to roam the corridors.
“There are 500 children in my school and we have 25-30 regularly internally truanting in gangs in the corridors vaping and punching lockers,” said one secondary teacher from Wrexham.
“I am verbally told to f*** off every day. Some children have no respect and don’t care about being suspended. It is a minority. The abuse starts from Year 7s up. It’s commonplace every day to be verbally abused.
“It can be really draining on your mental health. It’s very difficult to be effed and jeffed constantly.
“It makes teachers not want to go out and challenge pupils internally truanting. People just stay in their classrooms and lock themselves in at lunch.
“I was nearly knocked over telling a group of children not to vape in school. It was a group of girls and they just began mowing into me. They tried to knock me over and as I would not move they put pressure on my chest, shouting, ‘You f****** b****’, and ran off.”
She said the incident was caught on CCTV and those responsible were put in isolation for an hour. In another incident a boy tried to leave a lesson, and when a teacher tried to stop him he squared up to them shouting: “I will just f****** knock you out the way.”
Teachers said the mounting bad behaviour is among a minority of children, but has become more extreme and is affecting other children’s education.
“This half-term some kids in the corridor with lighters tried to ignite a lighter near a teacher’s hair when she told them to stop. These were a group of clever boys who have become disengaged,” said another secondary teacher. “My message to politicians is that they have to listen. There is a massive behaviour problem in schools now. Children are coming in with these behaviours and we need more pastoral support for them.
“It’s heartbreaking seeing children who can’t cope. We have Year 8 children coming in with teddies. I have never seen this before. And children coming in with such low levels of attainment and literacy.
“It’s not back to normal, Covid is still affecting schools. Why send kids to Welsh and French lessons when they can’t read and write in English?
“We need some intensive literacy interventions. We see people coming to secondary unable to read and write or tell the time.
“We are getting children in high school asking us to tie their shoelaces. I work in a deprived area, but I was brought up on a council estate and it did not used to be like this.
“It’s the hardest it’s ever been – I see colleagues in tears every day.”
Responding to the descriptions of behaviour teachers are dealing with in Wales, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Where there are issues with a child’s behaviour, it is vital to find out if there is an underlying cause and address this, whether it be mental wellbeing, undiagnosed SEND, or issues they are facing outside school. Schools already take a leading role in supporting good behaviour, but they cannot directly address many of the underlying causes by themselves.
“Investment in support services is crucial to make sure the right help is available to schools and pupils when they need it.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We do not tolerate violence and aggression in schools and colleges. Protecting young people’s mental health is an absolute priority for us and we are continuing to work with partners to ensure that there is a wide range of effective support available.
“We continue to invest in a wholesystem approach to supporting children and young people’s mental health and well-being. With a focus on prevention and early intervention, we invested an extra £50m last year in school counselling, our CALL helpline, crisis support and rollout of the NYTH/NEST framework across Wales.
“Our guidance on exclusions from schools and pupil referral units clearly sets out the support schools and local authorities must put in place for all children who have been excluded. We are considering how we can improve this guidance and will be engaging closely with schools as we do so.”
Responding to the comments made by a teacher in Bridgend, a spokesman for Bridgend council said: “The local authority provides a wide range of support to assist schools in managing challenges such as behavioural problems. The impact of Covid-19 is now being seen across Wales as a whole and we realise the importance of making sure that help and support is available for both staff and pupils.
“Additional funds have been made available to increase the number of education welfare officers, who help schools manage key matters such as the attendance and behaviour of pupils. We also make sure school counselling is readily available and work with partners to offer many key projects to support staff and pupils.”