Teachers in Yorkshire facing violent attacks every day from pupils

The region has been at the forefront of concerns about school violence over recent years, following the murder of Leeds’ teacher Ann Maguire in 2014 and the stabbing of Vincent Uzomah in his Bradford classroom in 2015.

A child was caught carrying a knife in school somewhere in the region every single week on average, an investigation by The Yorkshire Post revealed last year, amid a stark rise in reported crimes.

Now, as polls reveal more than 90 per cent of teachers in the region have suffered verbal or physically abuse in the past 12 months, there are concerns over the safety of schools as a working environment. One in 20 Yorkshire teachers, polled by union NASUWT, stated they were attacked on a daily basis, while one in four said they faced violence at least once a week.

“It is simply unacceptable that employers are failing in their legal duty of care to provide a safe working environment,” said Chris Keates, union general secretary.

“Why is it that hospitals, job centres, railway stations and many other workplaces are now littered with posters in which employers make clear that abuse of staff will not be tolerated and yet the most teachers get is fault finding and blame?”

The poll, released today ahead of the union’s annual conference, surveyed 400 teachers across Yorkshire and Humber, and 5,000 nationwide.

A third of teachers said they had been hit, punched or kicked, while over a fifth had their property damaged. Almost three quarters of respondents felt they did not have the resource or support to meet the behavioural needs of all the pupils they teach.

Analysis shows that in some areas, such as Leeds, there was a 43 per cent annual increase in the number of children facing fixed term exclusion over physical assault in school in 2017. Across Yorkshire, more than 3,000 children were suspended over the course of that academic year for physical assault, a 14 per cent annual increase. Now, there are warnings from teachers that this picture has deteriorated.

“This year has been the worst in quite some time,” one Yorkshire teacher said, another adding: “It is commonplace to be shouted at, abused for asking for quiet or asking to put a phone away.”

A Department for Education spokeswoman said: “Teachers and school staff have a right to be safe while doing their jobs and any form of misconduct, particularly violence towards them, is completely unacceptable.

“The majority of schools provide a safe environment for pupils and teaching staff, and it’s important that they remain as such.

“We are committed to tackling bad behaviour in schools have made great strides in empowering teachers to tackle this issue and have recently announced a £10 million investment to support schools to share best practice in behaviour management.”