1 in 5 teachers hit by a pupil

The nation as a whole is letting teachers down. Take Batley Grammar School where a gang of Muslim parents wanted to lynch a teacher (now in hiding for 3 years) for teaching a curriculum agreed by the school.

1 - The head threw the teacher under the bus.
2 - The Kahn report into the situation took 3 YEARS to complete.
3 - The government just say "oh dear never mind"
4 - The Police do nothing about the threatening mob outside the school gates.
5 - Other schools are now self censoring their curriculum.
6 - The Muslim parents have never apologised.
7 - There was little in the way of counter protest (and what was was of course labelled hard right)
8 - The teachers unions have done nothing.
9 - The general public just accept such mobs and death threats are part and parcel of multiculturalism.

Meanwhile the teacher is still in hiding with death threats hanging over him.

An extreme case maybe but symptomatic of how everyone that should be supporting teachers doesn't.

I am pushed most days yesterday teacher got punched in the head when to hospital
Every day personal verbal
One even told me to order two small coffins for my children

I taught in a secondary school years back that sounds similar to that of a PP where teachers were routinely assaulted. The union actually got around to organising to refuse to teach one pupil who after assaulting a teacher was put back in the same class and assaulted her again. The HT was largely useless.

That school was in an ex-mining community where there were huge amounts of deprivation and no jobs. The kids had nothing and education wasn't the way out.

We know that poverty has risen massively, particularly child poverty and the future looks bleak for a lot of people. Schools are a microcosm of society.

This. My children have been at three schools. Two with exceptional SLT and behaviour policies – one where it was severely lacking. Their behaviour immediately and dramatically degraded at that school (and only in school), the behaviour as a whole was abysmal, and I removed them after a full year of 'working with the teachers' – no amount of parents working with teachers can fix a broken class/school culture. It requires robust leadership over an extended period of time.

Yep, many serious assaults at the schools that I've worked at.
Staff being left with internal injuries and ptsd.

The boy who emptied the bookcase and threw the books at me had a diagnosis of ASD. He also was the one who wrestled me to the ground. The reason he did those things was because something had happened in school that he hadn’t been prepared for. It was one of those ‘oops’ events that we couldn’t have predicted. We had strategies in place for many events

The one who set fire to my department didn’t have a diagnosis, but he was learning impaired. He was excluded as a result of his actions and reinstated by the LA.

The boy who kicked me repeatedly was 5 and in Reception. He went on to complete his primary education in the school. He was NT.

Have you read my experience, in a shortened version and also the more detailed version on the last thread? Maybe read that before you comment on whatever you think my 'attitude' is.

Many years ago, dd and I went to see a play. It was on the GCSE syllabus, so schools were in. The school group sitting near us behaved abominably.

The next day, I had a job interview, HoD in a secondary. I attended assembly with the other candidates. Ooh, who led? The teacher in charge of last night's school group. I listened to her praise them for their excellent behaviour (which didn't happen). I should have run. I didn't.

I got the job and on my 'day in school' I was pushed on the stairs - fortunately I was holding the handrail. But that's how pupils treated staff, even strangers. The year? 1996.

I worked there nearly two decades. It was... as you might expect.

Same.

I lived and worked, sometimes as a teacher, in several different countries over the years. Now I hear what's going on in Britain and elsewhere from friends, children and (directly) from grandchildren. Worldwide, different countries have different problems with schools. Britain has a particular problem, given the structure of its education system.

In Britain recently, the general deterioration in public services has - of course - impacted schools as well as health services and elsewhere. Overall, this is political. Perhaps without realising it (!) a majority of you, my fellow citizens, consistently voted for governments which did this - accentuated the move towards, as J.K. G. said, long ago, private affluence (now in fewer and fewer hands) and public squalor.

(No, as I feel many of you itching to point out, the solution will not just require "throwing money". That will be a necessary part of any solution, though. Tax the rich and listen to Gordon Brown ...)

--But there's a particular difficulty in Britain which, for some reason, often gets less discussion than it demands. This is the unique educational apartheid which pertains here, under which a minority, including most of the wealthy and powerful, arrogate educational resources to themselves while denying them to the majority. (7% ... 93%?)

It's true the education obtained by this minority is itself abysmal. (If you doubt which, look again at products of Eton, Westminster etc., and ask how come their awfulness is so ubiquitous; "by their fruits ..."?) Nevertheless, that these holders of the nation's purse-strings so solicitously keep their children so far from the nation's schools has had all-too-predictable results, including the woes adumbrated in this MN thread.

What to do? Well, Britain remains a democracy. Change is possible. Let us not despair.

Sorry this post brought tears to my eyes. Those poor y10 girls, and looking at the stories coming out about Nottingham grooming gangs, nothing will have changes for the girls coming after them. Would break my heart to be a teacher there.

Unfortunately, I think this is the attitude of a lot of parents. They don't want to hear about this and if they do have to hear about this, it better be made clear that it's in no way their fault and all down to the schools and the staff who work there.

I note that the teachers who say they haven't been assaulted work in secondary. I'd be interested to hear if there are primary teachers in state primaries who would say they, or others in their school haven't been assaulted.

One of my primary friends said that they'd been told by their HT that they were now in a job where they should expect to be assaulted. It seems to have got much, much worse in recent years. I'm not sure what's going to happen when those kids reach secondary and I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

No, apologies. That’s not the impression I’ve had from your posts.

My son used to be violent and now isnt.

The support he needed to not be violent was an extensive occupational therapy programme focused on interoception and proprioception, speech and language therapy focussed on social communication, anti anxiety medication, melatonin, iron tablets and a type of therapy called EMDR which is used for ptsd. It took about 2/3 years.

Its not something a parent could do or a mainstream teacher could do. It happened at a special school where half the hours were therapist led and camhs were involved monthly.

I also have another child who headboy/club captain/ volunteers with the scouts, never had a detention etc So i am also a bit fed up with the crap parent comments too.

I fought hard to get my child the support needed to make him into an adult that will cope in the world. Unlike a teacher, who might have my son for 39 weeks, I have to deal with him for the rest of my life. My need to get rid of any violence was significantly greater than theirs. Around 1 in 4 children with SN are violent to their parents. There is huge shame about it and its rarely spoken about.

I think its terrible mainstreams staff are having to teach children like mine without the support they need and my heart goes out to them. It fails everyone.

@Iamme1980 the media and some politicians have, of late, been doing a great job of blaming all the issues in schools on kids with SEN. It's depressing to see this on this thread too, along with some good old fashioned 'some of them can even learn things you know!'.

This.

I was assaulted by an enormous, physically imposing, 6'2 pupil and when I reported to his head of year she immediately used his 'ND/SEN' to defend him, and I let her know that that's not an appropriate response to a woman who has just been assaulted by a male. Medicalising violent children by labelling them SEN is not helpful.

Sorry to the permissive parents on here, but it's the truth.

Let’s not immediately scream ‘neurodiverse’ and autism when the issue of children’s behaviour comes up. It’s reductive and unhelpful.

I completely agree. I have never been sworn at or hit by an ND pupil to my knowledge.

Schools can feel unsafe at the moment. I’ve been punched in the face by a 14 year old boy and punched in the stomach by an 11 year old this year and also touched inappropriately in a crowded corridor by a 12 year old boy. There are no boundaries for some kids at all. They are often supported by parents to feel equal to teachers. The swearing and verbal abuse is in another level. I teach in a 40% FSM school in a deprived area. I have been here 25 years so I am teaching the children of former pupils. Some very challenging past pupils have very motivated and respectful kids, but for many the cycle of poor behaviour continues.

1/5 teachers have been hit THIS YEAR… ie in one term?? As others say, it’s likely to be higher than that on an annual basis, especially if you include other child-facing professionals, such as TAs. And we wonder why there is a shortage of teachers and some school operate like prisons?

Poor behaviour tends to come from a multitude of factors (eg inconsistent parenting, issues at home, psychological issues, bereavement, friendship groups, local social culture, puberty) regardless of whether a child is ND or NT. Both my kids are ND and neither has ever lashed out at a member of staff (verbally or physically) - in fact they are the first kid a teacher will give an ‘important’ job to and are very much liked by them - but a friend’s child (who is NOT ND) regularly does act out, toss chairs/desks and storm off grounds.

Let’s not immediately scream ‘neurodiverse’ and autism when the issue of children’s behaviour comes up. It’s reductive and unhelpful.

Trying really hard here not to state the obvious here... 😉

But to answer the question, I'm in primary. The children who assault will assault male and female teachers. The main difference is that I'm short and a 10 year old boy can easily be as tall as me in the way he's unlikely to be the same height as an adult male so it's harder for me to prevent it or protect myself.

The main reason fewer male teachers are assaulted is because, in primary at least, there are fewer male teachers for them to assault.

I had a very angry 10 year old boy push me against a wall and pull his fist back to punch me in the face. He was eye level with me.

All I could think was, "What if he breaks my nose/teeth." I didn't know what I could legally do to stop him or protect myself and wanted to get the other children out of the room so they wouldn’t see it/would be safe themselves. I just had to brace myself for the impact. I was actually terrified.

Fortunately, he was interrupted and let me go.

It’s rapidly approaching a perfect storm of:-
a recruitment and retention crisis
unmet needs of various kinds
chronic lack of funding to provide the expertise, conditions and environment necessary to meet those needs
academy chains with chief executives who have no knowledge, understanding or competence to manage behaviour
early career teachers who are overwhelmed and leave, because why would you stay and face verbal and physical aggression
a mental health crisis
parents who can’t or choose not to set boundaries and expectations.

The last is a contributory factor, but a smaller part of the whole.

As a career teacher, I have been physically hit, had a bookcase of books thrown at me, wrestled to the floor, strangled by my lanyard, had an attempt to set my department on fire and kicked so badly that the bruise that developed went from foot to knee and lasted for six weeks.

Not all were pupils with SEND, but most were.

You don’t think it’s the fact it’s private, rather than international, that might be the problem?

The biggest problem is poverty, in its many guises.

I started teaching twenty one years ago, and I walked back into school just six years after I left it (I went to a sixth form college for my A levels.) It was a pretty different setting already in that time. Good old Tone had come in and saved the day. That seems to be the narrative on here: things were just wonderful then the Tories came in and ruined it and it’s all gone to dog shit since.

As much as I agree that the current government are a shitshow, education has always been a shitshow and probably always will be. It’s just been different types of shit.

Back in 2003, English was assessed with a system that was 40% coursework (marked and often written by the teacher) 20% speaking and listening (organised by the teacher, assessed by the teacher, paperwork completed by the teacher) and 40% exam. The workload and stress levels were horrendous and I actually feel sick at the thought of going back to that. Whatever else Gove may have done or not done he was right to address that. I’ll probably get torn to shreds on here for that but my final dying gasp will be Gove Was Right. So there 🤣

Behaviour was fucking awful. I do laugh a bit wryly when people say it’s horrendous now and can only think they started their careers in more leafy schools than the one I worked in, which was an EAZ (education action zone.) Kids walked in and out of lessons, giving a casual ‘fuck off’ if you tried to get them to stop. The fights were terrible. I had a cupboard in my classroom which was a through route to a German classroom and I remember cowering in there with two pregnant Year 10s, a year 7 and the German teacher while a fight happened outside. That was the worst but fights were a daily occurrence . The bullying was hideous. Gay was thrown around constantly ‘that’s so gay, I need a different pen miss, this one’s gay, I’ve got a detention … gay.’ Racism was kind of on its way out in terms of being acceptable but still there. I mentioned the pregnant year 10s and we had a lot of them, usually by older men, being groomed but hey, they were just tarty girls, right?

Like I say, I don’t want to claim that the current shitshow have been good for anything, but I think we’d be wise to remember that what preceded them was awful and what preceded them was shite as well. Probably a slightly negative viewpoint (!) but when I started teaching the TES boards (remember them?) were full of tales about twenty years ago things being different. I believed them then. Now I don’t. We’ve just forgotten. I will never forget, my first school was way too traumatic for that!

Not all schools are like this. Secondary teacher here. Good support from SLT and robust behaviour systems in place that are consistently followed by all staff with follow through from senior leadership. Children and their (often very difficult parents) will get the message. I have never experienced violence or been sworn at and have been teaching 14 years.