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

I don't think any of us want to go back to schools where children were disciplined by the strap or belt. But the other end of the spectrum - where kids can pretty much do as they please and are just asked to think about their behaviour and make better choices - isn't working either.

The Primary School where DD was a student teacher in a P5 class had a male member of staff who was employed as a "troubleshooter". Promoted post, DD isn't sure whether he was a senior teacher or deputy head or what, but he did not have a class of his own and his job was to swoop in and remove disruptive children at the first sign of real trouble. Worked well, but he was only employed on a 0.5 contract so for 50% of the time the kids just carried on being abusive or violent.

Children do have rights but again the pendulum has swung too far. I live very close to a primary school and last term saw three members of staff trying to coax a child to return into school after playtime. Kid was probably P3. It is not abusive or disrespectful of that child's rights to pick them up and carry them into school rather than try to negotiate with them. Well behaved, motivated children also have the right to learn and enjoy school in peace without having their education disrupted but that appears to have been totally forgotten.

So in brief. More funding. Bring back the List D schools or pupil referral units. Get rid of this "we don't expel pupils" bollocks. Managers/senior leaders in schools to have the backs of their staff. Police involvement EVERY SINGLE TIME someone is assaulted by a pupil in school - whether that's another student, teacher, office staff, the janny... Zero tolerance.

Sorry, where did I say that?

My son does supply.

Yes they are. Or they were when I retired two years ago. I did the FOIs.

Sorry, what do think "verbal assault" actually means? A child calling a teacher a silly sausage? 🙄

No need for the patronising reply. I know what it means. I hope you’re not a teacher.

Good for him

THIS. The gas lighting is madness and what i found most upsetting.

My informant tells me the intake for S1 in a couple of weeks is 22 whilst the next nearest school has a larger than normal intake of 182

What’s the usual S1 intake?

Btw, in Scotland you don’t just get in to your next nearest school. You have to apply and they won’t employ more teachers for placing request children.

It’s a biggish new school so maybe 100 - as they’ve never had a decent intake yet I don’t know what it should be
drspite small in take there is still a problem with aggressive kids

I lived in Texas for a while 2000s - it was the parents job to get the child to school. Parents called to the school from work for missing school and bad behaviour.

The children who went to the other school couldn’t have all got in as school budgets are set for catchment pupils only. So I think your informant is telling porkies.

For the whole council I should add as someone has called me a liar and a man on another thread over this. I can see why they had problems with young people.

I agree but unfortunately, these days, parents will take the side of their child and not back the teacher. Like you, when I was at school we did what we were told and heaven help us if our parents found out we had misbehaved 😄 however that was because it was our parents who taught us to behave, as it should be. It's the teacher's job to teach.
Number of assaults on teachers back then = 0.
Mind you...the down side of that was that some teachers were on power trips, and it would have been good if the parents had actually intervened!

Not all parents back in the day were on the side of the school. My mum, who was a primary teacher, had quite a few tales... One was of a child who was in trouble for swearing. The parent marched in with the child and said to the head, "My kids don't bloody swear!"

On the misbehaviour front, I don't remember assaults on teachers, but I do remember one of the older boys (about 10, maybe?) running across the library roof next door chased by police, while we were sitting in class watching out of the window! Worse, one boy did something terrible to the school rabbits (my mum wouldn't tell me what) and they had to be euthanised. I don't have any idea what the parents of those boys were like, though I do remember visiting a friend and their kitchen had page 3 girls pinned up on the wall. Nice.

I guess I was generalising 😄 I bet your mum did have a few tales to tell! That's funny about the boy running across the roof chased by police 😂 when I think about it there were a few naughty kids at my school, but they were mischievous rather than full on naughty.
My best friend had a few issues. She probably would have been diagnosed with something like dyslexia today. She was not at all stupid but was labelled "thick" and put in the lowest set. She would get frustrated and upset and run out of the school, to somewhere like the train station, and I'd hear about it and go chasing after her to bring her back. 😢 she was incredibly beautiful and a lovely person but was bullied for it 😭 I often wonder what became of her.

The informant works there regularly

But not a full time member of staff?

If a student has a PDA profile - pathological demand avoidance or a more positively phrased pervasive desire for autonomy- it can be seen that they have a green light to attack anyone or anything. They simply can’t cope. But they must be in school.

Not true.

Are you calling me a liar?

In Scotland, you automatically move up from your primary school to the associated high school - provided you live in the catchment.

If your child has an entitlement to be educated in a faith primary school, then the child automatically transfers to the associated faith high school (unless the parents have made other arrangements). Entrance to faith schools is slightly more complicated than entrance to non-denominational schools but straightforward for families known to the local priest (assuming it's a Catholic school).

In smaller regions there are sometimes only one or two state secondary faith schools, so most of their pupils are bussed in.

Schools have transition weeks before the summer holidays in order to facilitate the bedding in process. Placing requests are only required when you live outwith the catchment or when a whole-school transfer is agreed and only then would staff numbers and school accommodation be taken into consideration.

As all Scottish parents know, you also notify primary schools within a specific time frame of a new entrant to P1 or nursery, assuming you live in the catchment. There are only complications when it's a faith school or if a family lives in a rural area where the council is looking to close down a village school. Occasionally, there can be confusion because of a catchment boundary change or the construction of a replacement school, but - yes - the norm is for children to be enrolled in their nearest primary school and then to transition to the associated secondary.

During transition weeks, you'll sometimes see children who will actually be going to another high school (following a placing request) turning up at their associated high school with their primary classmates, but some primaries do keep those children at the primary for that week or organise for them to join in transition at their desired school if it's at all possible.

But yes - the norm is for children go to their nearest school, particularly at the primary stage. The catchment boundaries are sometimes more complicated in larger towns.

Calling me a liar twice. 43 years in education and a coward calls me a liar. Someone who isn't involved in the placing request process as they work in a school rather than HQ who make the decisions regarding numbers, budgets and who write the policies and deal with the appeals.