1 in 5 teachers hit by a pupil

It can be both though. It's not either or. Yes in many cases the behavior is largely the parents fault. They condone the way their child is acting and in some cases encourage it.

In many schools the approach to this behavior from SLT is also to blame as the sanctions are non existent but equally their hands are tied. It's not as simple as just excluding a child.

It's only going to change if the staff all leave

I think it’s just the same old story re TAs- undervalued and underpaid. Wouldn’t make headlines as nobody really cares about support staff.

Does your school have a behavioural problem?

Take it up with the researchers - write to the journal?

Totally the wrong approach - violence by an adult is never the answer - what message does that give. I’d have removed my DC’s from a school where corporal punishment was used.

Yet the narrative is that it’s the parents’ fault.

also how are staff supported post incident. A debrief is standard in my workplace.

In my experience, they're not supported at all. They're asked to log incidents, talk to parents, and then get back to work and act like nothing has happened.

This is the problem - whilst there’s so much resource ploughed at behaviour management there’s less on actual teaching. How much must it cost to have a 1:1 TA and what are they actually achieving if they’re just chasing kids round all day or sat with them in a rainbow room. The child isn’t learning and the rest of the class is missing out on vital funding.

also how are staff supported post incident. A debrief is standard in my workplace.

I do believe respect needs to be a three way thing, from teachers, from pupils, from parents.

I don’t just believe it I see it and feel it. And it’s extremely worrying. We need funding directed at support for those needing behaviour management looking beyond the behaviour to the cause. Not just pushing the worst behaved onto college moving the problem.

@MrsMurphyIWish I'm sorry you're having to work in that environment thats awful and worries me what kind of society we will have in 20 years time when a generation of children who are being excused responsibility for their actions hit adulthood

The social contract between schools and parents seems broken to me (covid, right-wing press...)

Parents just either don't care ( the local current Y11 cohort have some of the most apathetic pupils I've ever encountered, and their parents are the same...) or they abuse staff because there is no funding/staff/Interventions (thanks tories!)

There is no support for sanctions anymore. They tell staff that "they know there (sic) rights"

It's horrendous.

If only parents knew what their dc are witnessing daily, there would be uproar

I work in a ‘lovely’ school, and even my ‘lovely’ school has a whole host of problems due to short staffing, children with undiagnosed needs (who cannot get diagnosed because the waiting lists to be assessed are so long) and parents who literally will not accept that their child has behaviour issues or has ever done anything wrong.

The amount of teaching time that is lost due to behavioural issues is unreal. I see colleagues at breaking point because they have little to no classroom support yet are expected to hit ever changing targets.

There needs to be more not less posts about this until we can find a way through it. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the educational community is in crisis and it will affect all areas of society unless we can find a resolution.

Transgressions from this year alone include:

• Destroying a classroom ( tables tipped over/ displays torn off walls/equipment launched everywhere).
• Hitting, biting, spitting and swearing at staff or pupils.
• Deliberately breaking resources such as a computer/beebot.
• Threats of physical violence against pupils and staff.
• Trying to abscond the building because it's funny that lots of staff then have to spend time trying to stop them/ get them back into class.
• Deliberately flooding toilets.

The lovely treats can vary but include stuff like:

• Going into another class as a helper often Reception or Nursery so not having to do their work and instead they get to play.
• Reading a story with SLT getting 1-1 time.
• Feeding the school animals instead of being in class working.
• Getting to play with Lego outside the office to calm down.
• Going on a 1-1 walk with a staff member and the schools dog.

Bet you witnessed children being hit by adults though? In the 70's and 80's children were regularly assaulted by teachers, I was regularly hit with a ruler by one teacher for talking too much (hello undiagnosed ADHD). Not sure fear of physical punishment is a great way forward in education.

Also if the child's over 10 in serious circumstances it should be reported to the police as the child is responsible for their actions legally from that age

https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2022/oct/17/devastating-toll-of-attacks-on-teaching-assistants-revealed-by-study

This report indicates over half of TAs have been assaulted within the past year. Honestly my pay was a bit better as a HLTA but personally I really couldn’t justify staying in a job that paid like that or even less as in most cases if I’m getting kicked and spat on regularly. People can cite SEN all they want but my friends kid for example doesn’t have SEN, I suspect lot of these kids wouldn’t be so quick to violence if all TAs were males?

It wouldn’t deter all of them but it might deter some. Children are taught from a young age that women are deserving of less respect.

That said, I worked in a school for children with severe disabilities for about 6 months. I was working to set up parent support groups. I did a round of visiting classes one day but then declined to do any more. The reason being it was SO normalised and commonplace in that school for staff to be attacked by young people (11-18) and the children were triggered by the littlest thing eg. Your earrings or they didn’t like the colour of your sweater. It was just too much of a risk for me. I do appreciate the kids in those situations genuinely couldn’t help it and it wasn’t about being “badly behaved” But it wasn’t my calling to get kicked or punched by 16 year old boys. I honestly respect those who feel it is.

@MrsMurphyIWish your story echos mine, except I live in Scotland. I was hit, pushed and then trapped by a child whilst I was heavily pregnant. The ht didn’t remove the child from my class and I was still expected to teach him even though he regularly picked up his chair and threatened to hit me with it. He threw things at my daily and other children were going home and telling their parents what was happening which was causing them to complain. I was the one who was removed from the class.
I moved to a younger class and my first morning with them a child hit me in the stomach with a shoe.

I work in a big school in a fairly well off area, there is at least one child per class who displays violent/ aggressive behaviour.

After speaking to my union rep I was encouraged fo be signed off sick. I had to get signed off with stress to which my council said unfortunately there was nothing to be done as it’s the state of education these days.

I think the government have nicely promoted the shit parenting angle which means that always now comes up when children with SEN struggling to cope.

And it often comes up before the decimation of specialist provisions, support services and budgets.

It’s a massive part of what has let them away with the absolute decimation of services for vulnerable and disabled children.

A 9 year old threw a chair at me when I was in my second year of teaching. I quit the next day and feel incredibly lucky it happened before I was trapped by the money and therefore unable to get out. It’s an incredibly tough job at the best of times – once physical violence is involved, it just isn’t worth it. Hats off to those of you who have stuck it out.

I said school leadership – not the staff they are hitting. There is a difference. You can read my experience above, which is not unusual.