https://www.channel4.com/news/exclusive-how-uk-schools-are-getting-more-violent
https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/teachers-suffer-hundreds-of-severe-injuries-at-school-each-year-exclusive-data-reveals
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c243dv03296o
The above reports make grim reading and one fears the inevitable consequences before long.
I have personally been headbutted by a year ten pupil in a London secondary school who was angry at me because the snack queue was taking too long during break time. I was on queue duty, so of course it was all my fault.
I raised my voice at said pupil, asking him how dare he think that what he did was acceptable. The headteacher and another member of SLT happened to be standing close by…perfect opportunity to support? Alas no! The headteacher proceeded to raise his voice at me (in full view of other staff and pupils) basically telling me to stop being aggressive.
It took every fibre of my self-control to turn and walk away from the situation and continue the rest of the day teaching my classes as normal.
I had an emergency meeting with the headteacher at the end of the school day in which he explained to me that the boy in question was vulnerable, had anger management issues and was at the highest level in terms of being at risk.
The headteacher arranged a meeting between myself and the pupil in question -this was only several weeks later after I had written a very terse email to remind him that I still considered the situation unresolved.
The pupil attended the meeting (the headteacher never) which took place in a side office near the headteacher’s office.
The pupil was apologetic, far more pleasant and frankly reeked of marajuana. His obvious drug use was mentioned by me to the head and the response I received was tantamount to a sheepish look and a half shrug. This (as far as the school was concerned) was the end of the matter.
I learned later that this was not an isolated incident regarding this pupil or this school, and that another year ten had been permanently excluded for bringing a knife into school to ‘get’ another pupil, and a pregnant teacher had been shoved by a student who said words to the effect of: “watch your back if you want your f**king baby to live.” The pupil was ‘spoken to’ and the member of staff was offered two days stress leave.
I could regale you with further tales of goings on in this particular school, but this snapshot has hopefully given you an idea.
While we all accept that vulnerable school children need protection and support, those trained, employed (and often underpaid) to educate, protect and support them are also in need of protection and support.
It has to be from a top-down governmental level, irrespective of which political party is in power.
I’m interested to hear about others’ views and personal experiences.