1 in 5 teachers hit by a pupil

This does not surprise me in the least. I am only in a year 1 classroom for three hours a week and I was deliberately kicked by a child this week. (Who also told me "my mum says you're not allowed to touch me" - the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.....) The child in question was deliberately stopping other children from entering the classroom and refused to move, when I gently pulled his arm he kicked me.

I've been teaching for 30 years, and fortunately do not know anyone who has been hit.

Really? I honestly can't believe that.

Like other posters our poor TAs experience this at least once a week. In addition to this quite a few of our teachers have been hit, spat at, pushed, kicked and had to remove the entire class due to furniture being thrown.

We have violent incidents multiple times a day - staff punched, kicked, spat at, furniture thrown, scratched, it’s awful. Large, mainstream primary in a village.

I am a TA and have lost count of the number of times I've been hit at work.

If a child hit me I would take it up with my union. Would expect parents to be involved and some sort of exclusion

Maybe accurate for teachers but as a TA, being hit l, bitten, kicked is a weekly, if not daily occurrence for every one of us. Last week one colleague was bitten 4 times, another given a bleeding nose, I was spat at, hit, kicked, had a a chair and books thrown at me and threatened with a knife. The teacher of my class has been hit out at once this school year so the data understates the problem ime

I've been teaching for 30 years, and fortunately do not know anyone who has been hit. The behaviour is gettung worse without a doubt, but unfortunately there is a lot of denial about this with SLT

Do we need another thread on this? There was a huge one only a week ago, and it descended into bashing working parents.

For every school with significant behaviour problems, you will get another which has very few.

Can you please link the article? It is not showing.
I must confess I was not aware this could possibly be that bad.

I agree with the statement that parents must work with the teachers and not immediately defend the child’s behaviour. This was a given when my children were at school 10/20 years ago.

I found behaviour much worse when I started teaching. I always seem to be in a minority on these threads, though.

Can you imagine the data if it included violence against ALL school staff?

I suspect it would be at least 3 / 5 if not higher.

I work in what many would consider a lovely school, but the behaviour is horrendous. I often wonder what would happen if a parent could be a fly on the wall and see what happens their child's class. I honestly think many would decide to remove them from school.

Dear god thats awful, I’d be horrified if Dd did something like that.

This sounds pretty accurate for my primary. It's an outstanding school in a leafy suburb, and I think the parental body would be shocked at what teachers have to deal with.
In our case it is almost all children who are neurodiverse or trauma. The mainstream class room is very overwhelming and triggering for them which leads to meltdowns. We have a lot of push back from parents of these children about what we have done to trigger the meltdowns.
I think lots of people think a primary child lashing out isn't that much of a problem for an adult. In the past year I was assaulted by a year 6 child who repeatedly punched me. I had significant bruising for 3 weeks.
In the past month we gave had staff scratched enough to draw blood, bitten and have equipment and furniture thrown at them.
We have lost staff who find this behaviour very triggering.
I really do t think those who work outside education understand the current situation.

I teach in a ‘leafy comp’. Behaviour is fairly good, but that is because (most) parents and school are on the same page.

I cannot imagine what it’s like in places where the social contract has broken down. When I was teaching at an inner-city school, I once heard a Head of Year saying to a parent, ‘We - the adults - need to work together to help your son instead of you automatically defending his behaviour, which isn’t helping him’. I admired her candour at the time, but now I think it’s an urgent conversation all schools need to have with parents.

We are the focal point for safeguarding in the community, and this is failing if teachers’ safety is at risk.

Can we remember the TAs too who are often the staff who work the closest with struggling children- on really poor wages.