Scotland’s biggest teaching union will pursue a “campaign to rid our schools of violence” after hearing that it is “endemic in every sector and every classroom”.
The EIS also stressed that a root cause of violence is underfunding for pupils with additional support needs (ASN), and that this is hampering every school in the country.
However, during the EIS annual general meeting in Aviemore, delegates also heard that violent pupils did not always have additional needs and that it was important not to stigmatise pupils with ASN.
In a motion passed at the EIS AGM this morning, the union agreed that it “condemns underfunding of ASN pupil support in all of our schools by the Scottish government and [local authorities’ body] Cosla, resulting in unacceptable levels of violence”.
Delegates instructed the EIS council to “continue to gather evidence to support a campaign to rid our schools of violence including the number of staff days lost due to violent incidents”; and to examine the methods for reporting violent incidents in all 32 Scottish local authorities, “with a view to publishing the information to encourage best practice in pursuit of a zero tolerance to violence in schools”.
Shetland EIS member Joanne Thomson shared her insight into working with pupils who have complex needs.
“We don’t have the right numbers of specialist teachers and assistants,” she said, adding that pupil support assistants (PSAs) are “shockingly paid for the invaluable role that they play”. Without the right specialist staff, she said, an increase in violent behaviour will happen.
“Parents and teachers are being hit, scratched, bitten, punched, slapped, spat on by five-year-olds, and also by 16-year-olds,” Ms Thomson said, adding that employers must “put better protection and risk assessments in place to create better sensory environments for these young people”.
West Dunbartonshire delegate Jim Halfpenny, a secondary teacher, said there was “a culture of resignation to much of this violence and aggression, particularly swearing, which appears to be endemic”.
He criticised “inclusion on the cheap” and staff shortages, and said that ”underinvestment in [additional support for learning] is having an impact across the whole learning population and is detrimental to the wellbeing of the teaching workforce and the wellbeing and educational experience for young people”.
Mr Halfpenny also said that school management “often play the blame game” with teachers, asking “what could you have done to prevent this?” and “how could you have organised your classroom?”.
He questioned whether violence and aggression would be tolerated in any other area of the local authority workforce, and whether ”elected representatives and senior managers would come to work in the knowledge that they may be assaulted”.
He added that teachers ”cannot be expected to overcome problems that are fundamental to our society that keeps more than a quarter of its children in poverty”.
‘This is not insulting, it is dangerous’
Edinburgh delegate Phil Pearce cited a survey of staff in his local authority that found that 46 per cent of teachers had experienced physical abuse at least once since August 2022, and that 67 per cent of classes were disrupted by behaviour on a daily basis.
He said: “We have a crisis in behaviour in our school, and there are those out there who would happily gaslight teachers into thinking is merely a matter of how we are doing our jobs, or it’s somehow just a temporary result of Covid - this is not insulting, it is dangerous.”
Aberdeenshire delegate Graeme Cowie said that pupils with ASN were no more likely to be perpetrators of violence than pupils with no additional needs, and that it was important not to stigmatise pupils with ASN.
He added: “Violence is endemic in every sector and every classroom, and affects every pupil and every one of our members.”
Speaking to a separate motion on ASN cuts, Aberdeen teacher Carole Thorpe said that teacher stress was “going through the roof”.
West Dunbartonshire teacher Laura Minto stressed the simultaneous impact on children, saying that as a result of underinvestment in additional support for learning, “every single day we are failing our pupils”.
She added that teachers’ focus was on “highly disruptive and violent” pupils, resulting in little support for other pupils with a high level of need.
“The worst thing you can be is a well-behaved child with ASN - because basically you’re going to get nothing,” she said.
On 24 May the Scottish government announced a “a summit focused on tackling violence in schools”, although it seemed to have been given a name change when education secretary Jenny Gilruth described it in Parliament yesterday as a “summit on relationships and behaviour”.
She was pressed for more details on what the summit would entail, but was not yet able to say when it would take place - although it looks certain to be after the school summer holidays.
