The assistant headteacher said she had ‘walked away from the profession’ for her own health, adding: ‘I didn’t go to work to be hurt’
An assistant head of a Welsh primary school was kicked, bitten and had shoes and other items hurled at her in the classroom. She has now left her job as a result of the extreme behaviour of one pupil, she said.
The behaviour, combined with an alleged lack of support from the headteacher, meant she had no choice but “to walk away from the profession” or face serious detriment to her own health.
‘Three days a week, I was being kicked, bitten, having shoes, Chromebooks thrown at me. This is in a classroom where I was still trying to teach 16 other children. I didn’t go to work to be hurt,” she said.
Her comments are the latest in a long litany of testimony and reports from staff and unions on declining behaviour and even violence school staff face at work. Read the biggest stories in Wales first by signing up to our daily newsletter here
They are included in a Senedd committee report, published today (THURS JAN 29) looking at pressures on recruiting and retaining teaching staff in schools in Wales.
Staff, teaching unions and others gave evidence to the Senedd’s Children Young People and Education Committee investigation. They painted a dire picture of staff in some schools coming under attack, or feeling threatened at work. The comments follow an Estyn report listing violence, vandalism and vaping as issues in schools.
Some teachers have been abused on social media and criticised by parents in an increasingly confrontational environment, evidence to the committee said. All this was adding to the reasons some left the profession, or chose not to join it.
Other reasons include teacher pay, workload and relentless reforms, the 155-page report, Teacher Recruitment and Retention, says.
The document follows years of warnings about declining standards of behaviour, from education unions and staff.
Teachers have have walked out in protest over poor pupil behaviour, and what they claim is lack of management support to tackle it, at a number of schools in Wales. There is also increasing concern over the use of weapons in schools.
Other issues cited in the report include abuse towards staff from parents and toxic use of social media. This is all on top of workload, pay, additional learning need (ALN) and curriculum reforms which the report has said are added issues affecting numbers applying for jobs and remaining in them.
The Senedd Children, Young People and Education Committee took evidence from a wide range of people and organisations including headteachers, teaching unions, university experts, the Association of Directors of Education Wales (ADEW), the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), and registration body, the Education Workforce Council Wales.
Teaching union UCAC told the committee that in some instances teachers felt threatened at work as it cited the increase in violent incidents in schools. Education Support also said it had “many examples” where teachers felt unsafe at work.
The EWC told the committee that the impact of managing challenging behaviour was “undermining teaching and learning” while a Behaviour Survey of NEU members in Wales found that 87 per cent of respondents felt that both behaviour, and the way it was dealt with, had got worse.
The committee warned in its report that: “We heard about the challenging context in which schools are operating, in particular, increasingly difficult behaviour from learners, but also from families, and wider society.
“This impacts on both the perception of teaching and recruitment, but also the longer term attractiveness for staff already in the profession. It can also have a significant impact on teacher wellbeing.”
It said “urgent action” was needed to ease teacher workload and remove barriers to recruitment.
The Association of School and College Leaders Cymru told the Senedd’s investigation about the impact of social media on teaches saying groups of people used it to “mock … attack you, and it’s like hatred breeds hatred. So it gets bigger and bigger” .
Pupils using mobile phones, social media and vaping were also adding to general behaviour issues in schools, the report added.
Teaching union UCAC described parents challenging school disciplinary decisions, querying rules and simply not working with schools.
Sometimes this behaviour can be “challenging and threatening at times, (parents) appearing in schools without warning,” UCAC said,
The EWC described “strained” relationships in some areas which resulted in higher learner absence and “parental disengagement” which “can cause conflict and stress”.
Cardiff Metropolitan University said its research showed teachers reporting an “entitlement culture” from both learners and their families which impacted on sanctions and led to increased complaints against teachers who challenged behaviour
Other reasons for declining pupil behaviour given in the report included a decrease in support staff and reduced individual support for students.
The impacts of child poverty “in particular impact of hunger” added to poor behaviour as does high numbers of children with adverse childhood experience and lack of access to specialist services.
Inconsistent implementation of school behaviour policies was a problem, as well as what some said was a lack of support from school senior leadership teams, the report added.
Publishing its report, the committee called on the Welsh Government “to take immediate, practical steps to reduce pressure on staff and make the profession more attractive”.
It recommended issuing “clear” national guidance on behaviour. Reducing workloads should be a key priority and teachers should also be allowed to work off school site when planning, preparing and assessing, to help flexible working.
Other recommendations included that the Welsh Government ensured all promotional work about teaching in Wales made it clear that people who had done teacher training in England didn’t face barriers to moving to Wales to teach.
Huw Powell, headteacher of Mary Immaculate High in Cardiff, one of the staff giving evidence to the committee, welcomed the report but said it followed repeated warnings about pressure on schools and those in charge must now drive forward solutions.
Schools in Wales were losing staff and vacancies were unfilled in key subjects with no sign of this improving without making teaching a more attractive profession.
“We need someone with the political will to drive this forward,” said Mr Powell.
“This document shows the problems and solutions. They can’t afford not to act on it or it will become a political problem.”
He said whichever party was in charge after May’s elections should take note of this Senedd committee report and recommendations.
