Trends: A rising tide of violence

As part of efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus, Scotland’s youngsters were sent home from school two weeks before the start of the 2020 Easter holidays.

And with the pandemic ravaging the country in the months after, they also missed out on 11 further weeks of education with the cancellation of term four.

Despite this, the number of violent incidents recorded in north schools last year had already outpaced that of the 2017-18 calendar.

By the end of March 2020, staff had logged 2,699 counts of aggressive behaviour towards them.

This was five more than the number reported between August 2017 and July 2018.

There was a rise from 561 to 594 cases in Aberdeenshire, 777 to 1,000 in Moray, 52 to 85 in Orkney and 39 to 91 in the Western Isles.

Aberdeen, the Highlands and Shetland experienced decreases between the two periods.

Due to the impact of Covid-19, the most recent school year cannot be directly compared to the previous session, 2018-19, when 3,634 counts of physical and verbal abuse were experienced.

Had the 201920 school year continued as normal, with a similar rate of violence, calculations show this total could have exceeded 4,000.