Violence Against School Staff: A Worsening Problem

 Jamie Sansom, a 27-year old mathematics teacher at Tewkesbury School, Gloucestershire, was stabbed by a 15 -year old pupil on Monday. Thankfully, his wounds were not life-threatening and he has been discharged from hospital. Quoted in Gloucestershire Live, Mr Sansom said yesterday:

 “On police advice, I can’t comment in detail about what happened, but I do want to address some misinformation which has been circulating in coverage of yesterday’s incident. It is simply not true to say that I was intervening in a fight between students. In my view, there was no point at which Tewkesbury students faced any direct threat."

In time, we will learn why the pupil turned so violent, and we all wish Mr Sansom a full recovery. However, this shocking attack has highlighted once again an abiding problem in our schools: that of violence against teachers.

Back in April, 2014, while still working as a supply teacher, I wrote of the murder by stabbing of Ann Maguire, a Leeds teacher murdered in school by one of her pupils, Will Cornick. At the time, I said that a Rubicon had been crossed, by which I meant that we could expect more lethal attacks on teachers, like that on Jamie Sansom. 

Some people, no doubt, will scoff at this, pointing out that these two attacks are separated by nine years. Superficially, it could be said that the Rubicon has only been crossed twice in nine years, so there's nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, such complacency is misplaced. Violence against teachers has worsened since the murder of Ann Maguire, even if there have been no fatalities. 

BBC Wales reports that there were  at least 5,000 recorded violence cases against school staff in Welsh schools from 2018 to 2022. NASUWT Wales says this was the tip of an iceberg. One anonymous teacher said:

"Colleagues have had hair set on fire. Pupils have violently attacked staff. Not just a single punch, but have continually gone at them".

Significantly, the teacher went on to say:

"Not all management will admit what is going on in their school."

SoloProtect says that 72,173 violent students were either excluded or suspended in England in 2019/20 due to physical assault against an adult or pupil. They go on to say:

"Moreover, a Labour Force Survey reported by the BBC stated that staff working in secondary education are "three times more likely to be physically attacked at work than the average UK employee".

I wonder how long it will be before parents realise that violence and other factors are affecting their children's education. Schools Week says the rate of teachers leaving the state sector for reasons other than retirement grew to a record high in 2022, with nearly 40,000 departures. They go on to say:

"New school workforce data, published today, shows that 39,930 teachers (8.8 per cent of the sector) left state schools in the 2021-22 academic year, up 7,800 on the previous year when 6.9 per cent left". 

The Rubicon might not be running red with blood, but it has definitely been crossed. Violence is an ever-present occupational hazard for secondary school teachers and, increasingly so, in primary schools. 

Violence against teachers is rightly covered frequently in the media. What is not highlighted, and should be, is violence against those essential support staff in schools: Teaching Assistants. UNISON, the union sets it out in stark terms: 

"Teaching assistants have reported being kicked, punched and spat at by pupils in mainstream primary and secondary schools, according to new research released today (17/10/22).
The analysis is the first to look at the violence and aggression faced by teaching and classroom assistants in England, Scotland and Wales. Extensive data already exists into pupil-on-pupil violence and aggression towards teachers and senior managers".
Members questioned described being the target of student aggression in a range of ways, including being hit in the face, punched, kicked and bitten. Researchers found that in several cases staff reported receiving death threats from pupils.
Physical injuries included cuts, a black eye, a dislocated thumb, a broken finger and ripped ligaments. Staff also reported a range of psychological problems, including stress, anxiety and depression. Two workers were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Disturbingly, the report went on to say:
"The report also noted that the response of schools to attacks was sometimes inadequate. Teaching assistants felt the message from their employers was that it was their job to manage pupil violence. This, combined with their low status, normalised violence against them".

When we discuss violence in schools, we must focus upon all school staff in the future. 

This is not the place to discuss solutions, nor am I suggesting that all our schools are hellholes - if any. There are many fine schools in all areas with robust policies for dealing with this problem. But if the problem of violence against school staff is not tackled more widely and more comprehensively, the school staff exodus will get worse.

By way of a footnote, I have been reminded that Ann Maguire was not the first educationalist to die violently at school. Philip Lawrence, seen above, was the head of  St George's Roman Catholic School in Maida Vale, London. The BBC radio presenter, Edward Adoo, a pupil of Mr Lawrence, wrote in glowing term of his old head in 2020, describing Mr Lawrence as

"...  a strict but approachable head who was utterly committed to his job, his staff and the kids in his school."

On 8 December, 1995, concern for his pupils cost Philip Lawrence his life. He was fatally stabbed in the heart as he tried to break up a fight between a 13-year-old from St George's and a gang of teenage youths. He left a widow, Frances, and four children. His killer, a 15-year old gang member named  Learco Chindamo, was released in 2014, the year that Ann Maguire was murdered. 

28 years separate the stabbings of Philip Lawrence and Jamie Sansom. It is a sobering thought that things have not improved during that time - and it's difficult to be optimistic for the future.