Meeting of the Parliament 06 March 2024 [Draft]
Presiding Officer,
“Assaulted when 5 months pregnant—resulted in a bleed and hospital visit”;
“I had a mild concussion last session, due to being struck with an object”;
“PSAs are being used as punching bags and their and teachers mental health is awful.”
Those are just three of the many terrifying quotes in the recent “Violence and Aggressive Behaviour” report by the Aberdeen local association of the Educational Institute of Scotland. The report says that one third of teachers have been attacked in class, that two thirds have experienced assaults in the past five years and that more than 40 per cent see a violent pupil every day. It is a harrowing and sobering read.
A similar survey from November last year shows that incidents of low-level disruptive behaviour, disengagement and serious disruptive behaviour are taking place and are increasing across the country.
Indeed, there is plenty of qualitative data out there. Data from last year shows that three teachers were hospitalised after attacks by former pupils; that a primary school teacher was left with a life-changing disability and in severe pain daily, unable to hold her baby daughter, after being attacked in the classroom; and that teachers are reporting being spat at, head-butted, punched and kicked, and having furniture, including chairs, thrown at them.
Quantitative data shows that nearly four in 10 teachers reported experiencing violence or physical abuse from pupils in the previous 12 months; that more than 27,000 teachers and school staff have been signed off with stress or poor mental health in the past five years; and that the proportion of secondary school support staff who have experienced violence between pupils has risen from fewer than one in five to almost one in two. In survey after survey, huge numbers of teachers report that they are seriously considering leaving the profession. That is truly terrifying.
Such behaviour lies at the root of so many of the issues that our education system faces today, but I get from my conversations with many stakeholders the sense that people see little practical action being taken and are rapidly losing faith in the Government’s willingness or ability to solve the problem.
I cite as my authority the fact that, after last summer’s Conservative motion that demanded action on violence in schools, the Government called several behaviour summits that have yet to report. People need to know that the Education, Children and Young People Committee asked to have representatives at those summits, but the request was refused.
Shortly after that, Willie Rennie, Pam Duncan-Glancy and I jointly wrote to the Government and pleaded to be included. We explained that we wanted to put politics aside and help by bringing our own experiences and the testimony of our constituents to the table. Our request was refused. We learned in committee last week that one group that really understands the point about behaviour as communication and thus can really add value—the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists—has also not been engaged in the behaviour summits.
That sense of drift was reinforced in November. During a ministerial statement, it was suggested that the problem lies with teachers, in so far as they are not sufficiently well trained to deal with it. The statement set out plans to make an action plan. Months passed in which nothing meaningful happened until, on 20 February, the EIS published its report. The accompanying press release talked of teachers reporting broken bones and post-traumatic stress disorder.
I would have moved heaven and earth to get my hands on that report: indeed, I did—I have it here. However, six days later, the cabinet secretary confessed on live television that she had yet to read it. The following day, the First Minister confirmed that he had not got round to reading it, either.