Two in five teachers have experienced physical abuse or violence from pupils in the last 12 months, according to a survey by the NASUWT teaching union.
Findings released by the union on the first day of its annual conference in Liverpool show that a number of teachers have been punched, kicked, shoved or spat at by students.
Of those surveyed, 81% of teachers said they felt the number of pupils exhibiting violent and abusive behaviour has increased.
A fifth (20%) of respondents said they had experienced being hit or punched by pupils in the last year, while 38% said they had been shoved or barged.
Around one in six (16%) of the 5,800 NASUWT members surveyed said they had been kicked by pupils, while 9% said they had been spat at.
One teacher who responded to the survey said: “I have had two children use a fire hydrant as a weapon. One at my head, another to my foot.”
Another said: “This morning I was told to, ‘go die, I hope you die.’”
Delegates at the NASUWT conference passed a motion on Friday which said that incidences of “extreme pupil indiscipline” – including incidents involving knives and other weapons – are on the rise.
The motion calls on the union’s executive to work with the government to ensure teachers have the “unequivocal support” of ministers in taking action to secure “positive learner behaviour”.
It added that the guidance on behaviour management should be strengthened to ensure “no exclusion” policies are “not legitimised” across the sector, and mandatory time is introduced for teachers to access national continuing professional development on behaviour management strategies.
NASUWT general secretary Patrick Roach said: “Pupil behaviour has long been an issue for teachers, but recent years have seen an unprecedented surge in levels of violence and abuse in the classroom.
“Based on our latest data, we estimate as many as 30,000 violent incidents against teachers involving pupils with a weapon in the last 12 months.
“Many teachers are having to think about how they can survive in the classroom before they can begin to focus on their teaching and pupils’ learning.
“We are calling for the establishment of a national inter-agency forum on school safety and security that is led and chaired by ministers.
“We are also calling on the government to invest in properly funded services to identify and tackle the root causes of pupil violence and aggression.”
At the National Education Union’s (NEU) conference in Harrogate on Wednesday, a motion on violence – which warned of “a crisis” in schools where some pupils behave in ways which are “dangerous” to staff – was passed.
But the motion – which noted “increasing levels of violence” in schools – called on the NEU executive to campaign to ensure pupils involved in challenging behaviour were “not excluded” from the education system.
Deteriorating relations between parents and schools ‘affecting pupil behaviour’
Delegates at the NASUWT conference warned that parents are abdicating responsibility for their child’s behaviour and should face consequences.
“It seems that a lot of the behaviour we have from our students comes from much parental behaviour,” Delegate Gary Upton, from Buckinghamshire, said.
He added: “Teachers find themselves at the mercy of these unscrupulous disciplinary procedures just to appease parents.
“I even know of one colleague who is writing policies about when parents can email, when parents can come into school, and stage one, two and three procedures to try and keep violent parents outside of school reception.
“It seems to me if it’s OK for the NHS to express zero tolerance towards this behaviour, it’s OK for us.”
Delegate Lindsay Hanger, from Norfolk, said: “Appropriate sanctions are needed to encourage and require parents to support the schools, but this is not the case in many places today.
“I think the government needs to go further, with a strategy to ensure that all parents of school aged children are expected to uphold the behaviour strategies or risk their child being denied their place in the classroom.
“To this end, it would seem that the right of every child to an education needs to be more robustly followed up by taking responsibility away from the small minority of parents who are abdicating this responsibility for their offspring.”
Delegate Andrew Dunkley, from Buckinghamshire, said teachers are seeing “an increasing number of parents that want to run our classrooms for us”, claiming they “encourage their children to be defiant and refuse sanctions” or resist school policies.
Mr Dunkley added: “Parental engagement has always been positive. We have always wanted parents to support pupils and to engage with us as a school. However, their role, and the limits to their role, has become misaligned as a result of the pandemic.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “All pupils and staff should feel safe and protected at school and should never face violence or abuse.
“The government inherited a broken system and these shocking figures highlight concerning issues with behaviour in our schools.
“That’s why the Education Secretary is committed to a comprehensive programme of behaviour support for schools.
“Our Plan for Change places a relentless focus on giving every child the best start, no matter their background, including establishing free breakfast clubs in every primary school, proven to improve behaviour, attendance, attainment, wellbeing and readiness to learn.”
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