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)

I have little sympathy for teachers. Growing up in the 80s and 90s they couldn’t hit us, but they did abuse us.

screaming fits, wooden dusters being thrown around etc, over absolutely nothing. A lot of them were chronic alcoholics with bad personal hygiene and they expected respect no matter how they behaved. And they would play the victim whenever anyone stood up to them.

not all of them, but a solid 50%. The good 50% turned a blind eye but I don’t think they had much choice.

im sure it is different now and I have 2 kids at primary who thankfully behave well so we don’t have any issues. But….I have been in the position to overhear and see certain things that are eyebrow raising to say the least. The way some of them behave and speak to kids when they think nobody is watching can still be something to behold.

there is clearly a problem but one aspect of the problem that is never explored is that of poor teachers and bad leadership. Every other aspect is fair game, but not this, for some reason.

>I had a bad teacher so all teachers are bad, abusive, violent alcoholics and the mass exodus is their own fault

My, my.

I have little sympathy for teachers. Growing up in the 80s and 90s they couldn’t hit us, but they did abuse us.

As someone who attended school from the late ‘80s to the early 2000s I don’t recognise this at all. Obviously there were some abusive teachers around as there still are now but I attended 3 schools and I didn’t even encounter one teacher who behaved in such a manner. Even the few that I wasn’t very fond of didn’t behave like this.

I don’t think you can read. Seems teachers let you down.

You never witnessed verbal abuse by a teacher?

One of the biggest problems is British 'parenting'. I teach in an international private school and none of the kids here would DREAM of assaulting one of their teachers, or even raising their voice at one.

Our parenting culture is rotten to the core.

'verbal abuse' is a very uncharitable rephrasing of a teacher doing their job.

Of course, teachers never overstep the mark. They are always the victim despite them being the adult and the children being in their care.

You never witnessed verbal abuse by a teacher?

Nope. Raised voices were often necessary but there was no abuse. Nothing said that was offensive.

There was one teacher, not mine, I was scared of as a child in my first years of primary because she looked so stern and had a firm manner but evidently she wasn’t as bad as she looked because my best friend, who was in her class, loved her.

It's so disturbing that you're not the only teacher here who's been assaulted while pregnant. You think these punks would ever try that with a male teacher?!

I'm really offended by people saying that children with additional needs that can be violent are because there parents can not be bothered!
I have 3 children with sen and out of all them the youngest is the only one who is violent.
He has ASD and ADHD there is no medication for him at the momment due to the shortage.
We are just as desperate as the teachers (who I will say are absolutely amazing and do there best under extreme pressure).
We get hurt on a daily basis and unfortunately school is a massive trigger for him.
He is bad enough for a 1 to 1 but not for specialist.
I do realise that there are parents who will not parent but in most cases they really do try but unfortunately you get a diagnosis for your child and then left to deal with it without the tools to do so!

I'd like to know why the behaviour is so bad. My DD comes home with stories of horrific behaviour at school and is genuinely scared to go in some days.

Kinda sounds like you were just badly behaved and are still salty about it 30 years later because your teacher reprimanded you.

1/5 seems high, but it's even worse when you consider this doesn't include other staff within the school and other pupils.

Violent incidents are extremely rare at my school, despite us having a large ND population and many children who have experienced trauma. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, there is a high level of support and reasonable adjustments in place for children who need it so they don't become overwhelmed to the point of lashing out. Secondly, because violence is simply not tolerated. Any violence towards a member of staff means a Fixed Term Exclusion, threats of violence result in an internal exclusion (escalating to FTE if the offence is repeated) and children hurting other children is treated equally seriously. LT simply do not accept that being assaulted or verbally abused is part and parcel of working in Education. Any parents who think it should be (there are some unfortunately) are told very clearly that our stance is not going to change so if they don't support it other schools are available. There are too many schools where LT are willing to throw staff under the bus to avoid pushback from parents IME. There are also too many schools who don't create a safe and inclusive environment for SEND children and then wonder why their behaviour is so challenging.

Yep, I think support staff get it the worst. When I was a TA I had a hardcover book thrown at my head by 2 different pupils.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.