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 think this sums up how I feel - I don’t feel scared but more and more frustrated. We seem to have forgotten that schools are a place of learning. Instead, we are expected to fix all of societies ills and tolerate more and more abhorrent behaviour from students and parents. There are too many excuses given for this behaviour instead of admitting it isn’t good enough and protecting teachers/other staff.

This is what really irks me.

Maybe he is just 'verbalise his frustration' but in no other job would you be expected to just accept that level of aggression or threat.

I mean, maybe if you'd gone into the prison service, you might expect some degree of it (although not to accept it without question) But you didn't. You became a fucking primary school teacher!

The problem is that there is no one but us now. All those support services were cut back so far that they barely exist anymore, meaning that seriously traumatised children are now going without support and parents are no longer being held accountable.

What ever happened to parental accountability? We are accountable for everything we do but if parents don't want to play ball with behaviour and supporting their child then there seems to be nothing to do about it. I come across so many of these parents now- can't be bothered/ too busy/ aggressively dislike education. No wonder the child is so disruptive/ unreceptive.

An interesting if depressing thread. I admire anyone who teaches and when you throw in the worsening pupil and parent behaviour I can't envisage how things will look in a few years.

Some excellent points on this thread and @Combattingthemoaners point about being expected to tackle all of society's ills pretty much sums it up.

Primary. I'm definitely on edge most days. More at risk of flying furniture or being hit than knives but it's not completely unlikely to happen in Primary at some point.

This year is the hardest of my 15 years.

It’s been headline news all day long, what are you on about?

I worked in primary some of parents are worse than the kids id say.
A few parent for sure one that almost hit me because i told her 8 year old off she saw this as abuse because she never yells or raised her voice at her child.
Her child climbed onto a chair and stood next to an open window throwing books out.
Another because her son didnt get class star of the week as i tried to tell her all children will get it but I went down a list so it was fair.
The dad that said he will follow me home if his daughter did not get the good part in the school play.
The last few years I worked i was blamed for abuse every week if i told a child off.
The school gate mums we had few kick off at each other im thinking this is a school for kids and they are acting like teenagers.
The one i will never forget was a lady that always said its because im an older mum isnt it no its not she always made it about her and not her kid.
Always being told that the child has SEN or being tested.
I had an 9 year old tell me he would get his dad to murder me.
Ive been spat at pushed shoved sworn at threatened.
I left in 2020 enough was enough with entitled parents and children i now work in cattery and love it.
Many of my friends have left as well.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-wales-68890153
Branwen Jeffreys' 'analysis' following the story is unbelievable. Don't worry, schools have lockdown plans. And 'In the UK, violence on school premises is so rare the incidents linger in public consciousness'....it's not rare. It just rarely makes the news.

Quite scared yes. A lot of the kids these days are just not ok and there is nothing for them.

Parents appear to have no idea of the reality in schools these days - the kind of things they email about (in the middle of the night sometimes) or are preoccupied with seem like missives from another world sometimes- A world where there are enough teachers, not lessons to be covered every morning, where teachers have time, where there is funding, where the days aren’t filled with filing reports on truancy, swearing, abuse, safeguarding issues…. The world that teaching used to be 30 years ago or more.

My late husband was actually followed and threatened by a father and his friend after he'd retired. (The father had a substance abuse problem.)

When my husband saw the father's death notice in the local paper, he commented that at least he'd no longer have to watch his back.

I am tired. I
we have reached the point where all behaviour is excused for ‘needs’. He punched you, well he has needs. He tried to set you on fire-unmet needs. I am not joking.

I’m a secondary school teacher in an inner city school and I’m more concerned than scared. Some of our older boys are known to be caught up in gangs and county lines, I recently learned that some wear those puffy coats because they can conceal knives in the long pocket at the front. One of our former students is going to be on trial for a machete attack actually - I feel sorry for his sister who I taught years before and was the sweetest girl.

I don’t feel at risk, but I wouldn’t be shocked if there was a similar incident, which is depressing as anything.

The vast majority of the kids I teach are lovely young people - I try to focus on that.

I get what your saying i had this it was always SEN.

@Abbimae I swear if I hear the word dysregulated one more time when it comes to a kid being a dick in lessons I'll explode.

Put the onus back on the kids and parents. Stop judging schools on results and start judging kids.

I’m not scared for my life, no. But parents are becoming increasingly more challenging to deal with. The level of entitlement from some is off the scale, they want a private school education for free, which just can’t happen with the resources we’ve got. Nothing is ever good enough. They are so quick to complain, but rarely say thank you. It’s got so much worse over the years.

@RandomButtons but there aren’t huge number of posts on it on here. You’ve got to wonder why as these buildings are where many posters have their children, and threats of this type of behaviour is becoming more normal.
We should be worried

Yes. I was scared doing supply in secondaries in South Wales. I quit.

Whilst I was (visibly) pregnant with my first a year 5 punched me in the stomach. Thankfully everything is okay now but I did go into early labour about 4 days after - at 34.6. I'll always wonder if its because of that child, I used to have nightmares about them coming at my stomach with scissors.

I've been spat on, had my hair cut, been kicked and had one year 6 threaten to rape me. Had Parents verbally abuse me, i had one follow me home. I've had to call the police on parents for colleagues. Behaviour is absolutely horrendous.

I'm also a "nice teacher", and one the najority of parents feel they can connect with as I'm not posh/ don't speak English properly 100% of the time and grew up on the estate a lot of our children come from.

I'm leaving at summer and counting down the days.

I'm scared for my own children in school, I'm scared for colleagues, angry at SLT and I'm sad for the children who are so let down by their parents.

In all honesty I'd quit. There's no point staying in a job where you fear for your life.

I'm not scared for myself, but I am for the students I teach. Even though we are rural, a young person in our local community was stabbed and killed in the last year. Some of my students were friends with him. I worry that some of them could end up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Although I would describe where I work as a "nice school" we have our issues with drugs and students who do get involved with county lines etc, and I do worry about them.

There are very few services able to help, and meanwhile we have a lot of students we are trying to support for all sorts of reasons ranging from involvement in crime to serious mental health issues to major problems in their home lives. And we are increasingly stretched thin, it's getting harder and harder to help.

I've just left secondary to be a SAHM for a bit. I wasn't scared. I taught in a deprived area with high levels of crime. We did several lockdown drills so I knew how to reasonably deal with a threat, although I know that doesn't always guarantee success. I think the reason I wasn't scared is that I knew my priority would always be to protect the children and so I think fear would always have to take a backseat in my mind, if that makes sense.

I feel very sorry for those affected by what has happened in Wales. It's a terrible thing and something nobody should ever have to suffer, not least in their workplace or place of education.

As a parent and friend of several teachers I’m very concerned yes. The rise in violence is terrifying.

Ammanford isn’t a big inner city. It’s a tiny sleepy town in the middle of farmland.

I've had (over a long teaching career) a bomb scare, a person carrying a wrapped up samurai sword through the open school grounds, a parent trying to get past the head teacher to get to me, numerous students telling me their dad was going to 'come and see me', an accusation of assault by more than one student, a student repeatedly slamming a door on my ankle, a parent shouting at me aggressively at a parent's evening.
I've been called all of the names under the sun at one point or another of my career.
I don't feel particularly unsafe, but I am aware that there are students in mainstream schools whose behaviour is unpredictable. It's only when these students really lose it that action may (or may not) be taken for the safety of others.

Not necessarily scared for myself, but I'm a tough old bird. I do worry for my colleagues both their physical and mental health.
Last year I was physically attacked by a year 6 child, it left me with quite a bit of bruising that I had to conceal from my own children for a few weeks so as not to worry them.
Only today a parent accused me of bullying their child - apparently I regularly shout at them for no apparent reason. I know this is not true, and it is merely a deflection tactic from the parent.
However, it is ridiculous that we have to put up with these attacks on a regular basis.
I'm sure any parents reading this thread would think, oh my lovey school is nothing like that. My school is a lovely middle class, over-suscribed primary school, I think parents would be shocked at what happens in school.
We talk about a teacher shortage- there is no teacher shortage (apparently there are more qualified teachers no longer teaching than teachers in school) just a shortage of teachers willing to work in the modern day school!