Teachers 'driven to despair' by unruly pupils

TEACHERS yesterday detailed the rising tide of violence they face in the classroom and called for greater support in dealing with attacks on staff.

The Education Institute of Scotland's conference in Perth heard stories of teachers driven to despair as they struggled to cope with disruptive pupils as young as five.

There were tales of school furniture being thrown around, of teachers being punched and headbutted, and of classrooms becoming places where verbal abuse, defiance and non-co-operation were "routine".

Willie Hart, secretary of the Glasgow association, called on the EIS to instruct its ruling council to "revise and update advice on incidents of violence and aggression towards staff in schools". He said he had spoken to teachers who were at the end of their tether because of the level of violence and abuse they faced on a daily basis.

"One of the most disturbing and saddest things I have to do as a local association secretary, all too often, is to deal with members who are absolutely at their wits' end because of the violent incidents and the violent conduct they are facing on a daily basis as they go about their work," he said.

"It is disturbing because of the frequency that these events occur. It's disturbing because of the nature of some of the events encountered and, in particular, the growing trend for children in the five-, six- and seven-year-old bracket who are out of control and acting in a violent manner towards their peers and towards their teachers."

He described one incident in which a teacher with 20 years' experience had been forced to take prescribed medication so she could deal with the behaviour of one disruptive child.

Mr Hart said the teacher had finally been signed off sick when the child punched her in the eye. He said staff were invariably told the ultimate responsibility lay with them, and this had a corrosive effect on teacher morale. "It becomes tempting for staff to despair and it becomes tempting for me to despair," he said. "It's very sad because there are children who appear to be wholly outwith the normal rein of society and because I am witnessing experienced professionals being destroyed on a daily basis by the conduct they are having to deal with."

Delegates unanimously supported his motion, and Susan Quinn, a delegate from Glasgow, said peer-on-peer violence was also on the increase. Local authorities were making it harder for schools to get additional support to tackle pupils' behaviour, and she argued it was down to the EIS to give teachers the tools to gather the type of evidence needed to overcome this obstacle.

She said: "We need to be sure how schools 'evidence' incidents, because many local authorities are putting together plans whereby schools have to prove to the nth degree that this child has an additional support need in the area of behaviour before they will provide the appropriate resources."