What does violent behaviour in schools look like? Those not working in education may have a perception that youth violence is restricted to the actions of just a few pupils. They might imagine older teenage boys who bring gang-related disputes into school classrooms and corridors.

Ask a teacher, however, and they’ll tell you that violence in schools can look very different to this, and problems can start earlier than much of the general public might expect. Indeed, responding to violent behaviour is not just a challenge for secondary schools, but for primary schools, too. 

Getting a clear idea of the scale of the issue at primary level is not easy: there is no official data being gathered about the number of violent incidents among children under 10. But anecdotally, according to Donna Molloy, director of policy at the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF), primary teachers are seeing plenty of children who are at risk of becoming involved in violence. 

“When talking to primary teachers and leaders about the extent to which they see violence as a problem, it’s less about instances occurring and more about the high numbers of children who are at real risk of getting caught up in future youth violence, gang activity and so on,” she explains. “There’s a sense of frustration: they feel powerless in getting the support for those children early enough to prevent that from happening in the longer term.” 

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And, looking at the data that is available, it seems that teachers are right to be concerned. According to the government’s Youth Justice Statistics, 19,000 10- to 17-year-old children were either cautioned or sentenced between April 2019 and March 2020. For around 11,000 of these children, it was their first time. Although we don’t know how many of the cautions or sentences were specifically for violent acts, we do know that in the same time frame, 4,400 knife and offensive weapon offences were committed by children within this age group. 

These statistics may shock you, but they are actually much lower than they were 10 years ago. The number of children who received a caution or sentence has fallen by 82 per cent over the last ten years, and the number of first-time entrants has fallen by 84 per cent since December 2009. Ideally, the statistics would be lower still, but they are, at least, heading in the right direction. 

But for how long? Last summer, experts and charities warned that the impact of the pandemic would result in a surge in youth violence. And last week, the Metropolitan Police revealed that London set an unwelcome new record of 30 teenage stabbing homicides in 2021.

The Youth Justice data ending in March 2020 is the most up-to-date that we have, so we can’t yet see the full picture of just how much the pandemic has exacerbated youth violence. But Molloy says that teachers are already apprehensive about the effects. 

“Teachers are very worried that pre-existing problems have been worsened because children have been confined at home and not had access to the usual support networks. Aggressive and risk-taking behaviour will have been exacerbated by lockdown,” she says.

“We’re only now starting to see the impact of the pandemic and these implications will play out over a number of years. It’s happening with mental health concerns and eating disorders. It feels very possible that’s the pattern we will see here as well.” 

So, there is every chance that teachers could begin to see an increase in incidents of violent behaviour in the coming months. 

The situation, however, is certainly not hopeless. Research from the EIF repeatedly finds that early intervention can reduce the risk that children will become involved in violence and can improve a range of short- and long-term outcomes for vulnerable children, including their mental and physical health, educational attainment and employment prospects. 

Primary schools, then, have huge potential to help in this area: by identifying those children at risk and putting effective inventions in place, they can help children stay on the right track.

Interventions around violence: what works?

So how can educators spot those who need support? And what do we know about the kind of interventions that work in this area?

Dr Kirsten Russell is a research analyst at the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit and she says that identifying those children at risk is really complex, as there are so many different factors that contribute. 

“You can look at risk in terms of a young person’s individual factors: for example, people with poor mental health are more likely to engage in violence, as are those who are involved in alcohol, substances, or those who have been a victim of violence in the past,” she explains. 

“There are also risk factors at relationship levels, so maybe if a young person is more isolated, or they don’t have a lot of family support, then they’re much more likely to become involved in violence, or become a victim of violence, especially if they’re involved with peers who engage in violence as well.”

In addition, Russell continues, there is evidence that young people who have had “adverse childhood experiences within the home” - such as witnessing violent behaviour from a parent - “are more likely to become a victim or perpetrator of violence themselves”.

Importantly, she says, none of these factors predict that a young person would “definitely become involved in violence”, but they do make it statistically more likely that they will.

Does that mean that interventions can be tailored to those children who are most at risk? Or should teachers take a whole-school approach? Russell recently published a report, pulling together international evidence on school-based approaches to violence, and found that in particular, there are two whole-school approaches that work really well: social and emotional education and anti-bullying programmes. 

Social and emotional education is all about developing life skills: problem-solving, critical thinking, communication, relationship skills, empathy and how to cope with stress and emotions, explains Russell. She recommends Barnardo’s PATHS Programme, as does Molloy. 

Molloy says that most teachers recognise the importance of social and emotional learning, but not all use evidence-based approaches. However, the evidence around PATHS and other interventions like “Fun FRIENDS”, “FRIENDS for Life” and “Positive Action” is “very strong”, she says. 

“The best programmes are teacher-led, and teach children strategies for managing strong emotions like feeling angry [and] how to deal with that in a high-conflict situation,” she explains. “Children are given opportunities to role-play and practice some of the skills that are taught through the programme. This has very good evidence of improving a range of outcomes linked to improving children’s mental health, ability to control emotions and links to future involvement in things like crime and offending.” 

And when it comes to anti-bullying programmes Russell highlights the Olweus Bullying Prevention Programme as one most widely researched and best-known interventions. 

It recommends implementation of clear school rules and management structures for bullying, training for staff, regular discussions with children around bullying, raising awareness with parents, improvements to the physical school environment and the use of evaluation tools. Russell says it has been tested and used widely across Norway and the US, and has been found to reduce child reports of both perpetrating and being a victim of bullying behaviour. 

Crucial to the success of both approaches is that they occur throughout the school in every age group, stresses Russell. 

“The rationale behind a whole-school approach is that the whole school shares the same vision towards reducing violence,” says Russell. “Headteachers, teachers, administrators, staff, students, parents and the community need to all work together with a shared goal and a shared vision. That whole-school approach was shown to increase the likelihood that prevention programmes were effective.” 

The importance of discussing violence at primary 

There will, of course, be some who are wary of talking to primary children about violence at all. But Nicola Noble, co-headteacher of Surrey Square Primary School, thinks it’s crucial to create a safe space for pupils to talk honestly to staff. When she invited a mother whose young son was stabbed to talk to Year 3, 4, 5 and 6 pupils, people were shocked. 

“It wasn’t intended to scaremonger and it didn’t scare children, but it really made them think. It really got the discussion going. I think that often, we were scared to have the discussion with our pupils. But if we’re not talking about it, our children aren’t having the opportunities to talk about it,” she says. 

“It’s really important that they feel they can talk about these things and explore them with you because, again, if not, where are they finding information? How are they processing the things that they’re hearing or seeing?”

Whether they’re entirely comfortable with it or not, primary teachers have a responsibility to embed preventive measures. But it’s not something they need to do alone, stresses Noble. 

At Surrey Square, they have fostered partnerships with a number of community agencies, including the police and the local youth offending service. 

They also work closely with the London Bubble Theatre Company, who come into the school and put on an interactive performance for the children, specifically on youth violence. At several points throughout the production, the actors stop and ask children what choices they should make. Seeing these choices played out gives children an insight into the consequences of their actions, says Noble. 

“We are really trying to educate pupils to think about the choices they make: so many of them think they’re invincible, and aren’t aware of what the repercussions of their actions may be, on themselves, their friends and their families,” she adds.

Clearly, none of these interventions are free; implementing things properly requires time, money and dedication from schools and teachers. But it must be a priority, stresses Noble - because if not, the risks are simply too great. 

“I had to stand up in front of the school and tell them about the murder of a former pupil they knew. That was a line in the sand moment for me. I thought, how has it got to this? We can’t let this happen again,” she says.

“It goes back to that saying, it takes a village to raise a child. It’s really important that we, as schools, do this work, and that’s difficult because we have a packed curriculum already, and so often this can get sidelined. But it’s really critical that we prioritise it, and continue to prioritise it, because this is life for some children.”