As an experienced primary teacher, member of the senior leadership team and leader of key stage 2, I am capable of dealing with the behavioural issues that arrive on a daily basis in school (both with pupils and parents).

Our behaviour policy has recently been reworked and we’ve introduced an electronic points chart across all classes in the school to reward positive behaviour and remove points for negative behaviour. It’s nothing new and, so far, it’s worked well.

My problem has arisen from the increasing amount of behavioural incidents that require the attention of an SLT member. It’s causing me to lose sleep.

For the most part in our school, “exceptional” behaviours are dealt with by our headteacher, effectively, fairly and appropriately. However, for a variety of reasons, the other senior leaders are not as present as they might be, and the situation with behaviour on the days that they’re not around has caused me much stress and heartache.

To cut to the chase, I am a Year 6 teacher, working full-time, feeling the pressure (as everyone else is) of maintaining progress, raising standards, achieving good Sats results, and all the while maintaining a positive, smiley, upbeat attitude to school life.

So what is the actual problem? During the many occasions when the headteacher is absent, often the deputy is timetabled for meetings. As a full-time class teacher, I’m contacted in class, while teaching, by the office staff to come and sort any behaviour of an “extreme” nature. While I also have a challenging Year 6 class of my own. To say the least, it’s not ideal, neither for me nor my class.

‘Caught between a rock and a hard place’

My lessons are consistently interrupted. I’m forced to spend time trying to find cover while I leave the class in the middle of a lesson to attend to the incident. The children are often left to muddle through a task, as I have exited mid-input or left with less support and live feedback than they are used to. Thank goodness for my wonderful teaching assistant who has done wonders trying to hold lessons together on these occasions.

Because I’m worried about getting back to my own class, I feel like I’m always trying to fix whatever incident has happened as quickly as possible. I know in my heart of hearts that there have been situations that I haven’t dealt with properly or even fairly. But I’m caught between a rock and a hard place.

I dread the days when I know that this is likely to happen. The situation cannot carry on and the powers that be are aware of my frustrations and sometimes visible anger.

But nothing’s changed, and me and my class struggle with the stress of it. I know that the progress of my children will drop. When they ask me why, will this missed time be a good enough reason? No.

The writer is primary teacher in the UK