1 in 5 teachers hit by a pupil

Also a SEN parent and there is some truth to what you say - but there are also a good number of children who just aren’t suited to the environment of mainstream and can’t cope - and hence act out. I think this is especially true in primary. Children have to totally fail before they are considered for specialist schools and even then only if there’s space. I have an older child in specialist school (he started there).

As I’m typing I’m thinking of my DS4’s friend who is a sweet boy (I have him round my house and he is a delight) but in a busy classroom with no escape he does act out - he gets totally overwhelmed. He has been suspended (he’s in reception) which has done nothing as he hasn’t acted in anger but overwhelm. His Mum works in SEN schools and has for many years - so she cannot be accused of not parenting, he is a prime example of what I’m thinking about.

Another child in my DS’ class has needs too great, I believe, for mainstream. Yet there he is. I went to a stay and play recently and he just wasn’t engaged in any activity and was sat at a table eating playdoh. My son says he bites other chidlren and hits them. I see him struggling with PU and DO.

Neither child will thrive in a class of 40 children. It’s too much.

I also think this is a problem that’s going to get massively worse because of the number of teachers leaving the profession, which means in years to come there will be a shortage of HTs who have real long term experience teaching.

The quality of a HT, and their experience, is often the main factor in how good a school is overall.

I've never been hit by a child but have come too close to flying objects and swinging sticks. The poor tas and especially 1:1s though, it's too regular. No-one should have to accept these conditions, especially for such poor pay. We struggle to recruit for any position now.

That's what any reasonable person would expect, but - at least round my way - it seldom happens.

The only advice that I ever got from my union was to take a day off with stress, because otherwise the assault wouldn't show up in the LA stats.

I'm a 1:1 TA for a child with special needs, working in an outstanding primary school. I've been hit, kicked, had things thrown at me and spat at. When I first worked with him it was almost daily but has got a lot less frequent now thankfully.

If I was to CPOMS all that happens in my classroom as it happens I wouldn’t be able to teach. I seriously worry about the progress when even just one child gets out of control. Waiting for a team to come and talk to them often takes a while and when they’ve sat next to them in class for a while they wonder what the issue is. Lack of support!
At parents evenings, the overarching trend seems to be “not my child- they must be being bullied, not the other way round.”
More families work against the school rather than with them.

Yes me! And it's awful...very little support in all honesty. I'm in primary and those '1 in 5' figures are much higher in our school...but nothing is ever reported anywhere outside of school as we are told to basically 'suck it up' and 'think of the children' and 'it's not their fault it's their ACES'. Which is true in some cases but doesn't help or make it better for us when a child is beating the shit out of us with a chair, or sinking their teeth into us, or stabbing us with scissors (which happened to my colleague only yesterday!)

Behaviour in some (many/all 🤷‍♀️) schools now is shocking...absolutely bloody shocking!! I'm in my 30th year of teaching and I am done!

Parents should be seriously worried about their children...and yes, their parenting - because something has gone horribly wrong over the last 10-15 years! I have genuinely NEVER experienced anything like this in my entire career!

@EyeOfTheCat

We run detentions daily and I would say 80% of the kids in there each day are send. I’ve raised it millions of times…

This.

Or kicked, spat at, bitten. I have visible scars from one girl's bad day.

Mostly, scar time included (that happened in front of the head), I don't even get an apology.

It’s the levels of SEN that are in mainstream now. Many many children that would have been in SEN schools previously are now “integrated” in mainstream schools.

whereas previously you’d have 4/5 children with SEN in a mainstream school you now have that per class.

Also the options used previously aren’t acceptable anymore. My brother spent most of his schooling on a chair in a corridor. That just doesn’t happen anymore, and nor should it, but that means the disruptions in the classroom are more frequent and more serious as there’s nowhere to remove children to.

I worked in a PRU for a term. It was generally calmer. Children had work at an achievable level they engaged with, functional skills level. They felt better, included and focused better. Classes were smaller, so less flashpoints. They were a bit out of area, so away from gangs and other troubles that were triggers. Less students to clash in outside play.
Basically if you are in an environment to meet needs better and creates less sensory overload it’s easier funnily enough. A major factor is children not accessing the curriculum in mainstream, and lashing out for various reasons, outside pressures such as family issues and the general noise and intensity triggering them

But often they are often in the immediate line of fire as the trickiest kids are often off loaded on to TAs to teach elsewhere heightened and struggling.

Pretty shocking if this isn’t recognised.

Luckily my school as no tolerance to violence against staff- it’s an instant PEX

I agree re the behaviour would shock most people. Think.people would be shocked to know that often supply staff, are unqualified and in some cases have no teaching experience.

I'd quit then in all honesty. Why would anyone stay in a job theu get assaulted in on a regular basis

Why don’t they know?

I was talking to my DH about private education - if it were abolished there would be much greater impetus on improving state school.

Is it not the same with behaviour? I find the lack of respect for teachers utterly appalling. I can’t believe the way teachers are viewed by some parents/kids. My son’s teacher describes us, as parents as “valuing education” (she made a comment at parents evening) I know what she means - some don’t and that makes her life difficult. I would want a true picture of the classroom to help change.

@EyeOfTheCat as a SEN parent, I think it's parenting. People assume that when their child has a diagnosis, you don't have to do any parenting anymore. I see it all the time. These children don't need specialist provisions, they know what they're doing, they need consequences and parenting.

I think this is a big part of the problem.

Combined with the absolute decimation of school staffing budgets and support services, the minimising (by parents and senior school staff) of a 4 or 6 year old lashing out because it doesn’t tend to do damage ends up just pushing the problem down the road where a much bigger 10 or 12 year old becomes a serious problem.

One of my last days working in schools I was slapped by a 6 year old and the HT of the school told the child he had to “stop being a silly billy”. That was it. I don’t even think the child’s parents were informed.

There’s also a lack of information flow to parents sometimes as well. I knew my DD wouldn’t cope in mainstream. Nursery knew. I fought. But mainstream was where it was insisted she went. There were so many incidents school stopped telling me, even though I said I needed to know every single one as I was still fighting to have her moved. Schools are often resigned to just managing problems rather than fighting for change, which is understandable for them but disastrous for individual children.

in the end I asked other parents on the class WhatsApp to complain, vociferously, about my own child when she disrupted the class or if she had a meltdown at their child because that was the only way the school re-engaged with my fight to have her moved.

The research probably didn't ask TAs.

But why does SEN automatically equal violence now? When I was at school we had children with special needs, none of them were violent.

I'm surprised it's not higher. Working in a
secure unit, and then talking to a relative who's a primary school teacher, I think she got whacked, kicked, punched way more.

I would be interested to know how many of these children have SEN. With the increase in SEN in mainstream I’m not at all surprised by this stat. I imagine it’s higher for primary teachers.