Violence in schools: Teaching staff say classroom disruption is getting worse
Nearly seven months on since a report revealing the day-to-day violence faced by teachers sent shockwaves through the country, unions and teaching staff say nothing has changed – with many warning the problem is getting worse.
The study, produced by the Scottish Centre for Social Research for the Scottish Government last November, said there was an increase in “classroom disengagement behaviours and lowlevel disruptive behaviours” since 2016.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth gave a statement to Parliament outlining plans to tackle the issues, but both teaching staff and unions say that little to no progress has been made. Staff say the violence has intensified, with some now considering police involvement.
It comes as teaching union NASUWT had there annual conference earlier this week where they claimed that ministers had failed to address the issue. NASUWT members at the conference, which is being held virtually, said ministers have “failed to publish and implement nationally recognised clear behaviour guidelines” for all schools.
Dr Patrick Roach, NASUWT general secretary, said: “Despite the cabinet secretary professing to be deeply concerned about pupil behaviour in schools, all that she has done is announce a set of half-baked proposals that do not go anywhere near far enough to deal with the realities that teachers are experiencing day-in dayout in their classrooms.”
David Murray, 55, a former teacher who worked in a Glasgow secondary school, took early retirement due to the stress of an incident involving a student.
He said: “One of the pupils in my class kicked off in a big way and started to chase one of the other kids around the room for no reason and I stepped in to intervene. I managed to get the culprit out the classroom but he was really kicking off, lashing out. He made such a noise that other teachers came out to the corridor. The pupil broke away from the other teachers and was running into other workshops. This was a technical workshop we were in with chisels and other dangerous items and he was screaming he was going to stab people.
“The principal teacher appeared and went to find him, but the whole incident really messed with my head. I think the pupil was suspended for a period of time but then he came back.”
Murray said he continued to attend work for a week or two but quit his job when the stress became too much.
“I went off sick and that was the last I was teaching,” he said. “The boy eventually came back into the school and threatened other teachers. I wasn’t getting any better, so I then made the decision to retire early and take the hit with my pension. That was my road to recovery. If this happened outside a school, it would have been a completely different situation.”
Tom Bennett OBE, the UK Government’s adviser on behaviour in schools, said he heard stories of violence towards staff. He was told of an attack on a teacher with a weapon in the classroom. The student was not suspended and the teacher lives in fear of a second assault.
He said: “It’s so depressingly common and teachers in Scotland are dissuaded from talking about this in public, or they can lose their job. I get a lot of messages about this issue and it’s shocking.”
Mike Corbett, from the teachers’ union NASUWT in Scotland, said there was a vicious cycle operating in schools where employers do very little or nothing to respond when incidents of violence take place against staff.
He said: “This then results in fewer teachers reporting incidents as they have little confidence any effective actions will be taken by their school and even worry that they will be blamed for the abuse. This in turn creates a culture where pupils feel they can attack and insult teachers with no consequences and levels of poor behaviour continue to increase.”
GMB Scotland, which has non-teaching members across Scotland’s schools, said the level of threats and violence was already a national crisis – and was getting worse. Keir Greenaway, GMB Scotland senior organiser in public services, said: “The verbal and physical abuse that we know is happening every day in our schools is completely unacceptable, but is only the tip of the iceberg. This is a national emergency and ministers and education authorities must take emergency action.”
Scottish Conservative shadow education secretary Liam Kerr said that, although Jenny Gilruth was forced to confront the issue last year – which led to a series of summits – there have yet to be any meaningful reports or recommendations.
He said: “She has rejected offers of crossparty support to tackle the crisis and, most shamefully of all, implied that much of the blame for the violence lies at the door of our teachers. The Cabinet Secretary’s approach of slopey-shouldering the responsibility on to local authorities to decide how to deal with violent pupils is a shameful abdication of responsibility.”
The Scottish Government said: “The Government will be considering how to support better recording [of incidents] as part of the forthcoming relationships and behaviour action plan, which will publish in the coming weeks.”
Teachers don’t talk about this in public for fear of losing their jobs. I get lot of messages about this and it’s shocking