To ask teachers if you are scared

[crochetmonkey74]

I'm a career teacher (25 years) and have always loved it.
In the last year, parental complaints over tiny things are very very common, and often aggressive. More and more students are making wildly false allegations. We have had 2 lockdown situations at my school (not drills) for armed intruders. The news today from Ammanford has really shaken me. I actually feel scared for the first time in my career. If you're a teacher, how are you holding up?

I'm in primary. I'm at a good school. Good both in terms of ofsted and in terms of SLT support. Workload is manageable because the school prioritises staff well being.

But pupil violence and parental verbal aggression is something we deal with (well, I'll add) on a daily basis. There are many parents we're not allowed to meet with on our own because of the very real threat of physical violence (based on past experience of those parents).

I'm in primary.
No,
I'm in no way scared.

I'm not scared, per se, just a bit more aware that where I am at a city centre college there are plenty of young people who may feel carrying a knife is something they need to do. I never thought about it before this.

Aware is a good word.
Levels of aggression from parents in primary as well (I'm secondary) is interesting
It's crazy how different the job is from when I started

We tend to have mouthy rather than aggressive parents. I work in a rural school, it is a very old fashioned everyone knows everyone and his nan type place.I may well feel entirely differently in an inner city setting.

I'm just glad all my Grandkids are home educated. It's a scary world out there in schools these days. One boy got stabbed at a local school only last week. All over a girl.. they were 13 ffs..

I started secondary teaching in Scotland in '84 and only do a little bit of supply these days.

Knives have been a problem for a few years now. Before I quit my permanent post 6 yrs ago, we had several instances of knives in school. Also one instance of a first year/Y8 boy holding a screwdriver to a girl's throat.

Since I started supply teaching, I've not had to deal with knives, but I've broken up fights and stopped assaults. I'm not as worried as I used to be - I'm in my 60s and I now have no immediate family, so if anything happens to me no one else is going to suffer.

I've been hurt in the past. Worst was when I was punched in the stomach whilst trying to keep my distance because I thought I might be pregnant. (Pregnancy was confirmed when I lost it the next day.) That was 20 yrs ago.

Primary, so do not feel under threat from students. Parents, however, is another matter... Aggressive and attempting to physically intimidate staff, we have protocol for teacher-parent interactions in the hope of avoiding confrontation. I've been physically threatened with violence by two dads, which was scary.

Scared? Not at the moment.
Weary and losing engagement? Yes.
Got one of the most exhausting classes I’ve vet dealt with right now. So many challenging children. My patience and ability to car is ebbing away.

I feel this, there's little to no responsibility from students to learn anymore.

Exactly how I feel.

My DD is a HoD in a rough area, kids/parents regularly go on the rampage in and out of school. A few weeks ago she and a few other teachers were out on the street forming a corden so kids with machetes couldn’t get to a lone boy, his father then came to the school and started smashing windows trying to get in and ‘kill’ the ones chasing his Son. Didn’t even make the local news, the local council estate is controlled by a few families and people don’t ever talk to police.

Or for parents to help teach outside of the classroom.

Or for parents to parent 😢

I don't personally feel scared of my classes, and my classroom is out of the way enough that it's unlikely that anyone on a rampage would get to it. However two teens have been murdered by teens with knives in the local area recently and some of my kids have known them, so I worry for them out of school.

I work in AP and special, and no, I'm not scared for my safety. My AP kids are hugely, hugely vulnerable though, caught up in very risky situations. I worry about them a lot.

I've talked down a kid waving a kitchen knife around (and then got bollocked by SLT for needing to take a ten minute break afterwards) and cornered in rooms by both students and parents.

I'd be more worried these days about the parents scaling the fence once they'd heard about it and adding to the confusion/getting more people harmed.

I worry for the students, not myself.

Well I had a student threaten to rape me, other students setting off fireworks on the school field, got punched splitting up a fight, worked with students that had been arrested for carrying knives the weekend before.
I wasn't necessarily scared but the general aggression and rubbish SLT are one of the reasons I left and I don't teach anymore, and have a lovely job within a different public sector organisation where staff wellbeing and respect at work is a priority.

Yes, I had a pupil who was known to carry a knife in School threaten me last year. The SLT in charge of behaviour told me he was harmless. I discovered after he left that no one had warned his one to one TA that he carried a weapon. Terrifying.

Primary here. Repeated threats from a yr 5 child that he will get a knife from the school kitchens and stab me and or cut my throat. SLT say he’s just verbalising his frustration. I’m scared.

Never scared. Just tired, overloaded and frustrated at times.

I am lucky to work in a lovely girls' grammar school. The parents are almost universally lovely and appreciative. Parents' evening is almost enjoyable! I have worked in considerably less nice schools. If I had to put up with what goes on in many schools, I would quit teaching. The only reason I can deal with the workload is that I'm not also trying to firefight behaviour. Sending and to everyone who is.

Not for myself in primary, no. My dh teaches secondary though and I do worry for him. He regularly deals with very tricky situations and would be the one putting himself in harm’s way to save others. They had bleed training as part of INSET recently (more thinking about potentially needing to help their kids who are involved in gang activities), have had police on the gates for periods of time more than once when things have been going on among local gangs etc. That I do think is scary and speaks to lots wrong in our society that this is where a huge number of young people are at. School should be a place of safety.

I have to say that it is hugely disappointing that this story is getting so little traction vs the number of threads moaning about school issues. Two teacher were stabbed by a pupil and nothing. But god help us all if someone feels like their kid didn't deserve a detention.

I left at Christmas (secondary teacher for 13 years) and I wouldn’t say scared was the right word for how I felt. I would say more aware and frustrated. The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was when a pupil threw a book at my stomach when I was 8 months pregnant and because my school (that was previously excellent at behaviour management) had started to go down the restorative conversation route, there was no punishment. And the pupil refused to apologise or have a conversation with me so that was that. I found it quite upsetting that despite the parents knowing what happened I got no form of apology (either verbal or letter) and that he didn’t even receive a detention, never mind an exclusion which is what would have happened a few years before, pregnant or not! So scared isn’t the word but worried about the direction some schools are heading in - absolutely!