Advertisement

Seven-year-old boy threatened to stab pregnant teacher in stomach as union warns of rise in pupil violence

Pupil indiscipline and violence is a “significant and worsening problem” in schools, according to NASUWT - E+
Pupil indiscipline and violence is a “significant and worsening problem” in schools, according to NASUWT - E+

A seven-year-old boy threatened to stab a pregnant teacher in the stomach over a literacy lesson, it emerges as a union warns of a rise in children who do not respond to any form of punishment.

Pupil indiscipline and violence is a “significant and worsening problem” in schools, according to the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT).

Addressing the delegates at the union’s annual conference in Belfast, David Baxter, a member of the union’s executive in Northern Ireland, said teachers need to find a way to deal with “Teflon kids – the ones that no sanction seems to stick to”.

John Devlin, another member from Northern Ireland, described some of the shocking examples of aggressive and violent threats teachers have been subjected to. One pregnant teacher was told by a seven-year-old boy who did not want to do literacy “I’m going to stab you in your pregnant belly”, he said.

Meanwhile, another teacher  was left with a bleeding neck from a pupil attack and a third was punched in the face by a ten-year-old boy.

Russ Walters, the union’s honorary treasurer, said: “We cannot continue to put up with this lack of dignity, this absolute prostitution of our professionalism.”

Scott McGimpsey, on the executive in Scotland, added: “We have seen pupils say or do pretty much whatever they want.”

Emma Thomas, county secretary in Huntingdonshire, told the conference of a case where a pupil pushed a member of staff “with enough force that his arm went through a double glazed window”.

She said that violence is “getting out of control, not because of the way the students are but because way back somebody hasn’t dealt with the way they behaved.”

The number of “refusal to teach” ballots has doubled in the past five years, from four in 2013 to eight in 2017
The number of “refusal to teach” ballots has doubled in the past five years, from four in 2013 to eight in 2017

Alfredo Gualda, a teacher from Doncaster, said that families need to be held accountable for their children’s behaviour, explaining: “If your child is constantly disruptive, if they are violent, if they are abusive, I think it’s about time that schools and teachers question the parenting of those children. Because it does not happen”.

Teachers passed a motion that criticised some headteachers’  “unacceptable” attitude that violence is “part of the job” for teachers and even blame them for misbehaving pupils.

The motion called on the union to defend them from threats of violence “through all legitimate means, up to and including industrial action” when their health, safety and welfare is at risk.

Figures released by NASUWT earlier this year revealed that school staff are increasingly refusing to teach unruly children,  amid incidents of violence and sexual assault.

The number of “refusal to teach” ballots has doubled in the past five years, from four in 2013 to eight in 2017.

Under a “refusal to teach” ballot, staff in a particular school can take industrial action as a last resort, to protest against the behaviour of a particular pupil. They can also take action short of a strike, which could involve refusing to cover lessons for colleagues or take on voluntary duties.

Chris Keates, general secretary of NASUWT, has previously said that bad behaviour in classrooms is being fuelled by fashionable “restorative justice” schemes.

Some schools are interpreting restorative justice as merely having a conversation with a pupil about the incident, without any sanctions being applied, she said.

Poor implementation of the policy can lead to teachers becoming “disempowered” and discipline getting worse.