1 in 5 teachers hit by a pupil

[MrsMurphyIWish]

AIBU to think it’s a low as that?

The worst encounter I have had is being pushed down the stairs when I was heavily pregnant with DS - luckily I grabbed the railing, however I was still expected to teach the boy. (He didn’t even get a detention). I teach in a different school now but swearing, general contempt (from some pupils), threats are still common. No physical violence though.

I put up with it as I’m in the money trap and waiting for mortgage to be paid off so I can escape but in’s worry if this doesn’t change we’ll have an endless cycle of ECTs who leave after a few years, continued missed recruitment targets, and behaviour will get even worse!

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-68674568 - * (post edited at OP's request to add link to BBC news site)

[Orang1na]

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

[MrsMurphyIWish]

Absolutely. The reason the OP is about my experience and musings is because the article is about article is about teachers. Can you imagine the data if it included violence against ALL school staff?

[ProfessorPeppy]

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.

[plinter]

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.

[Noicant]

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

[Whinge]

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.

[Idhavelikedtoknow]

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

[Thomasina79]

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.

[MushMonster]

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

[Didimum]

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.

[BCBird]

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

[liveforsummer]

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

[BCBird]

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

[Maggie93]

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

[PurpleFlower1983]

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.

[Whinge]

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.

[171513mum]

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.

[BCBird]

Rarely have a TA so was not aware how bad it is for u. I would push for the same as a TA. I have one TA who i spoke out for as i.was unhappy with injustice. Was thinking about being a TA nxt year when I.leave teaching.. Might have to reconsider

[SeulementUneFois]

@Didimum

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.

Yes I think we should have many threads on this.
It's a horrific social phenomenon.
If the Royal family can have multiple threads so can this.

Why don't teachers call the police, at least when it's teenagers? That would be a sharp shock for the schools / dept of education to have to do something.
(And yes that's a rhetorical question - not victim blaming - I understand that teachers have been completely cowed and emotionally blackmailed, and if they dared call the police on being assaulted it would be all about the poor kiddies and the teacher would be tarred and feathered....Why don't unions stand up to that?)

[BCBird]

Whinge it's true. The bad behaviour is usually verbal.

[Notmyuser]

I’ve been badly hit once, also when pregnant - someone threw a chair at me because I asked them to move seat for talking. No damage done but I was really shaken, and nothing was really done about it.

Being hit by things like pencils, jotters, etc is probably a twice yearly occurrence. Almost always accidental ( as in, it was intentionally thrown but I’m not the intended target) but rarely when covering a class or teaching kids I’ve not built a relationship with yet it’ll be intentional. Normally it’s dealt with and the kids gets a temporary exclusion from my class until we have a meeting and they do a detention, or they will get fully suspended.

[Whinge]

@BCBird

Whinge it's true. The bad behaviour is usually verbal.

Edited

I could understand if you had said it was a rare occurrence, but to have never encountered a single staff member who has been hit in over 30 years is unbelievable.

[Didimum]

@SeulementUneFois

Yes I think we should have many threads on this.
It's a horrific social phenomenon.
If the Royal family can have multiple threads so can this.

Why don't teachers call the police, at least when it's teenagers? That would be a sharp shock for the schools / dept of education to have to do something.
(And yes that's a rhetorical question - not victim blaming - I understand that teachers have been completely cowed and emotionally blackmailed, and if they dared call the police on being assaulted it would be all about the poor kiddies and the teacher would be tarred and feathered....Why don't unions stand up to that?)

The existence of multiple royal family threads are always questioned too.

Parent bashing on mass is not ok. Some teachers don’t seem able to accept that strength of school leadership is often the problem.

[ZipZapZoom]

I don't think they'd do it for TAs I don't know many in primary who haven't been bitten, kicked, hit or worse the figures would be astronomically high.

I'm genuinely surprised it's as low as 1/5 for teachers. I'm a supply and have been hit deliberately by a child on 4 separate occasions since September!

[Idhavelikedtoknow]

I have known hitting incidents but very rare and usually result in a permanent exclusion. Not always.

Verbal abuse was nasty at one point.