Figures on teacher assaults

[Corianda]

Listening to the local news today (I don’t usually) stated that a freedom of information request had divulged that 1300 public servants had been attacked at work in 2025 in the region - over 1000 of them teachers !!

This is D&Gslloway -a nice rural area.
I am just disgusted that the Gov thinks this is acceptable.

There was then a discussion about they number of primary teachers teaching in secondary schools in Aberdeen - not great.

My point is why does the SNP Gov get away with allowing this - and how badly is it affecting children’s’ futures

You’re not being unreasonable. The awful thing is that probably the figures only show the tip of the iceberg. It’s all very well deciding that punishing poor behaviour is not effective, but that doesn’t mean you just throw up your hands and say “Be kind”.

Shocking!
And where are the unions in this? Their number 1 priority should be the safety of their membership, so they’re clearly failing there if teacher assaults are the highest in the public sector, given the nhs has always had high numbers

I thought the main job of a teacher is to teach
I was taught by teachers that I should always do as I was told.
Why do teachers not teach respect and obedience these days?
If I was rude to a teacher I would have been told to write 500 lines or would have been in detention after school for several days.
Teachers need to do their job and teach children to behave.

Hopefully you were taught by your parents that you should do as you were told.
That you should respect the position of teacher if not the person.
Hopefully your parents taught you that if you got a detention that you would go to it.

Unfortunately the Scottish education system is such that the pupils have all the power and the teachers have none.
Even down to Exclusions which Scottish schools are no longer allowed to do.

I actually don’t know where to start with this. And frankly really hope that this is just a very poor attempt at being funny.

Teachers have absolutely no power or ability to impose other than very basic sanctions. Image. Taught for over 25 years. In recent years (yes, all post covid) I have been hit, kicked, had furniture thrown at me, been hit by furniture and been threatened seriously by scissors moment even starting the verbal abuse but I have been called the alphabet of obscenities. I have called the police and have been asked, ‘What do you expect us to do? It’s a child’. I expect them to protect me when I am being seriously abused and threatened. No one within schools has any power to do anything. Kids can’t be expelled. Many parents do not support schools at all.

Many of our children spend every day in classroom environments which are unsafe and feel constantly as if they could blow. They watch teachers being assaulted and abused. Think about that. Your child has a high chance of experiencing that in the classroom. Nothing will happen until someone is killed and even then I’m not convinced it will change.

And how would you make a child do as they're told. We'd all love to hear your suggestions seeing as teachers are obviously doing such a rubbish job.

Is this a spoof? When I went to primary school naughty boys were routinely put over the teacher’s knee and spanked with a slipper. I was quiet and well behaved as a child and I remember having to leave the lunch table to stand in the corner in front of the whole school as a punishment for talking at lunch, and having to sit under the teacher’s desk. I also remember being shouted at and humiliated in front of the class when I didn’t understand a piece of work.
These were effective methods of discipline that led to us being well behaved but teachers aren’t allowed to use them
any more.

As a secondary teacher of over twenty years, I can lay this blame at the feet of the parents.

Last year, a boy threw a chair at me and called me a fucking bitch. I'd asked him to underline the date using a ruler.

When his parents were called, their first question was about what I'd done to enrage him so much,

The parents of these abusive children are feckless and lazy.

I’m really surprised that any parents are surprised by this. Have you not been paying attention? It’s been an absolute shit show in Scottish schools for ages and getting worse year on year. Violent and disruptive kids need to be removed from mainstream schooling and educated elsewhere. I don’t care where. That’s the government’s problem. We cannot have 90% of the kids having their education destroyed by children who cannot and / or will not behave.

I feel the Gov could form small special schools for children who need extra help or are dangerous. I can see it would be expensive but it could just be an empty house with a garden but if it got the difficult children out of school with more one to one attention it would be something. They could return to mainstream once their behaviour is better.

To just let children's education be ruined and ignoring it is so unfair.
I'm a DGM and my grandchildren are in England so no kids at school here.

I suppose tutors are doing well out of it.

There used to be lots of schools like you describe @Corianda but they were all closed in the name of "inclusion".
It broke my heart to see some pupils who would have really benefited from some one to one support, missing out because virtually all our PSA time went to dealing with "challenging behaviour" - often with 2 allocated to one pupil in case of assault or allegations.

Our council would not exclude unless it involved a "weapon".

There are a large number of children and parents that refuse the sanctions. The parents then say that the child's behaviour is a result of an unmet send need so then the schoool cannot exclude.

There are a couple of issues going on here. First is the "inclusion" policies which have gone on for several decades now whereby children with all sorts of behavioural issues have remained in mainstream. There are no List D schools any more for disruptive pupils, so children with serious issues stay in schools and disrupt everyone else's learning.

Also there are no sanctions. Scottish government does not allow expulsion or suspension, so there are no consequences for most behaviour. Although if children are assaulting staff this should be reported to police every single time without exception.

And of course it's all down to funding, schools have no cash to employ extra staff to deal with the troublemakers.

As for the primary teachers in secondary schools - not great if they are being used to fill gaps on a permanent basis. But when I was invigilating during the exams, I worked with a teacher who was acting as a scribe, she was a primary qualified teacher who worked in the secondary school in learning support, teaching maths/english to children in S1 and S2 who were not up to expected levels when leaving P7. That makes sense.

English schools aren't different.

It's perfectly normal for primary teachers to teach in secondary school in SEN as the level some pupils are working at is primary. Some secondary teachers may be great at their subject but many find it hard to simplify the work so all pupils can access it. That's what primary teachers are good at because in primary classes you have to tailor the work to the pupils in your class.
At least in Scotland you never have people without teaching qualifications teaching classes which happens in England.

Unbelievable.

It's the parents' job to teach respect and discipline.

I'm a science teacher. I need to teach three GCSE subjects and A Level Physics.

The teenagers I teach should already know how to behave properly. But they don't.

Until the parents stop pushing every life skill onto teachers, the world will be full of entitled thugs - to the detriment of the whole of society.

😂😂😂😂 tell me you’re not a teacher today without telling me

Some schools are the completely wrong environment for some children.
Some parents are shit. Neglectful, entitled , “not my child” , “what did YOU do to make him/her angry” , nothing is ever their kid’s fault etc.
Some teachers are shit. Goady, ignorant, careless , or worse actively obstructive, ignoring policy/best practice, ignoring plans etc.

Each on its own can be bad enough, end up with a mix and it’s an absolute shitshow.

Of course they are. They allow permanent exclusion. As a result violence is much lower and attainment is much higher.

What does the qualification matter? Would your child get a better education in a calm classroom with a teacher with no teaching degree but a relevant other degree or in a classroom with the worlds most qualified teacher but a classmate who constantly threw chairs around? Hmm. Tricky!

Absolutely this. You only have to look at the number of posts on here asking if they can refuse a detention because the teacher must have done something to upset them or they just don't understand little jimmy.

@Finallyfiohr would you be happy to be treated by an unqualified doctor who has degree in something else?

You have no fucking idea…

Wish someone would have told my headteacher that.

Where did the chair throwing pupil go in the first scenario?