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)

@titbumwillypoo
I am absolutely not saying that children who have experienced trauma need punishment. What I am saying is that giving them treats or what they want is not what they need. They need to be taught ways of expressing their feelings in a way that doesn't physically or mentally hurt another person. They need to be taught that this behaviour does need to be addressed and cannot just be ignored because it does escalate.

Teachers and TAs in my previous school were trained in behaviour management and safe restraint but all I saw as a result of that training was that children were given anything to stop the behaviour at that time and that was it.

I am no miracle worker but we need to acknowledge there is a problem and do some serious research into how it can be fixed. We cannot keep passing the problem onto the next class teacher, the next school and then society.

In my current workplace, we have multiple children who hit/kick staff on a daily basis. Some also spit, pull hair and throw furniture. Generally, the children lack respect for those around them (adults and other children) so rudeness, name calling, theft and physically lashing out is common. The school before was exactly the same and that was an "outstanding" school (in a deprived area); we had multiple children in every year group who lashed out. One child used to throw tables, laptops, chairs and other things whilst screaming expletives at everyone around him (year 3!). Another Year 3 child attacked his one-to-one TA and left her with facial bruising and a broken rib. Another child, only in Year 2), managed to knock out the class teachers front teeth when he headbutted her in a rage. It was a very taxing environment and a far cry from the way I recall my own primary school experience being.

It is quite distressing to be around and makes me wonder what life will be like in the future. It has declined so much in the 15 years I've been working in primary education...

Was there a breakdown between primary and secondary staff? I’ve worked in secondary schools for 15 years, some of the toughest inner city ones as well, and never been physically harmed by a student.

What a horrid story. Was the boy particularly strong for his age or did he use a weapon?

It’s stories like these that make me glad I always had a zero tolerance policy. If any child had ever laid a finger on me or spat on me I’d have left. I had one boy threaten me in a high school where I was doing cover supervisor work and after that one day I didn’t return. I told the agency they’d need to find someone else. It was a very rough area and I suspected if things had escalated and I’d have got the law involved I’d have faced retribution.

I worked with children in care (aged 5-21) and despite their difficult and often deeply traumatic backgrounds they were on the whole amazing children, some did kick off and were hostile. Even swearing etc but never violent. This was over a decade ago though.

Interestingly enough around 2016, which was a few years after I’d left the education field, I had a job agency worker find my old CV on indeed and give me a ring.

They wanted me to “watch over kids” the hourly pay was relatively high and I began to be suspicious about the role as the agency worker was being vague .

After further probing I found out the kids were likely to be violent to me. I laughed and ended the call. The hourly pay was higher than normal for a TA role but not enough to be routinely kicked and punched!

It seems between 2014 and now violence has escalated in mainstream settings.

Did she? Who is she? What are you talking about?

p.s, no she didn’t.

Quote. ‘I have little sympathy for teachers.’

I’m admin staff in a large inner city school in a deprived area in the north of England. I’ve been there 18 months. In that time I know of two TA’s who have been physically assaulted by a student, a teacher who has been bitten, numerous incidents of destroyed property (our office was smashed up, doors / windows smashed, displays ripped from walls), daily incidents of kids fighting and attacking each other and daily incidents of verbal abuse towards teachers / staff.
Swearing is just the norm - you can ask a wandering child to return to class to have “f off you fing c*” shouted back in your face. I personally have been kicked in the shins / ankles.

the worst thing is, it’s primary! They are all 11 or younger. So yes I can easily imagine it’s more than 1 in 5 who get hit over their whole career.

It’s not a common occurrence in my school thankfully and we have a strong management though the times a teacher or TA has been hit has generally been from children with complex needs who are triggered by anything and everything. The vast majority of our pupils are respectful to staff luckily and parents are generally supportive. This is in a mixed secondary with 50% lower SIMD 50% higher SIMD though this doesn’t mean much in terms of behaviour. Last time I was physically hurt ( a pupil purposely balanced a stool on a shelf knowing that I would accidentally knock it down so it fell on me) was in my old school which was deemed a very ‘middle class’ school - the boy apologised and didn’t get any follow up consequence.

I think it would vary dramatically depending on the area and the school. It absolutely would be much lower than that at my children's school, the worst you ever really get is a bit of back chat to staff that would be swiftly dealt with. The school ethos resonates through all the staff, parents and pupils though and everyone seems to be on the same page.

Both my children have EHCPs and fairly significant needs but have never once hurt a member of staff/child.

There's another boy in my DS's year 2 class who has a diagnosis of autism and the parent seems to use this as an excuse for everything. School are desperately trying to tackle major issues. Child is 7, pulling his trousers down and defecating on demand in the classroom because he doesn't want to do anything. Parent says dont ask him to do something he doesnt want to do.

Graphic, obscene language (C word amongst others) constantly, like multiple times an hour constantly. Parent says to ignore it.

Sexualised gestures including thrusting, face and hand gestures. Parent says its okay as the other children don't understand.

Child will remove all his clothes and then trash the classroom as staff can't touch him naked and he has until parent arrives to do as he pleases.

Child has a right to mainstream which th3 LA are backing the parent on but this one child is having a direct impact on 90 other children. The obvious question is where on earth did the child pick up the language and sexualised gestures? But he's now taught 90 other 6 and 7 year olds. It's sexual abuse and just one child is having a huge harm on so many others. His autism makes it really hard for him to recognise the differences between home/school appropriate/inappropriate or to process his emotions correctly but he was still taught the behaviours he is showing.

In a way I don't think it is that behaviour as a whole has got worse, it is just that schools are less able to deal with it or move the children out to where they need to be. So the same children are hurting staff over and over and over again.

A friend of mine worked at a nursery and left because she was fed up being hit by the children.

Child is 7, pulling his trousers down and defecating on demand in the classroom because he doesn't want to do anything. Parent says dont ask him to do something he doesnt want to do.

Graphic, obscene language (C word amongst others) constantly, like multiple times an hour constantly. Parent says to ignore it.

Sexualised gestures including thrusting, face and hand gestures. Parent says its okay as the other children don't understand.

that’s outrageous, I couldn’t have coped with that kind of chaos as a child. my mum would’ve removed me anyway the minute she heard a boy is exposing himself.

I can’t believe the LA/ school are exposing other children to this? It is sexual abuse indeed. Hopefully the Parents can collectively do something about it.

I was a HLTA and cover supervisor from 2010-2016, towards the end of that period I decided I was either going to train as a teacher or leave education and retrain as something else altogether. Reading these stories, I’m quite glad I chose the latter. Things seem to have declined fast.

Majority of us teachers are parents too with kids in school. Its an ongoing problem for me as a primary school teacher (I'm seeing more violence in school now than when I started) and I also worry about my own children being caught in the middle too. The teacher next to my classroom had to put her class into my room on a number of occasions because a child in her class had been having a meltdown and throwing things. They were then able to return to their own classroom safely once he had calmed down.

The school genuinely are doing all they can, they are being threatened with an eye watering fine from the LA if they perm ex him, they can't afford it. LA keep reitering he has a right to mainstream.

My EHCP child can't cope with it, fortunately isn't in the same class so only gets it when classes are mixed for a lesson or whole school assembly but it's horrific.

This is the problem, people say exclude them but don’t realise it’s as simple as that.
The poor children in that class. Their entire education is being disrupted.