Teachers have been punched, kicked, shoved and spat at by pupils in the past year, research shows.
Two in five teachers have suffered physical abuse or violence from a pupil in the past 12 months, while 81 per cent feel the number of pupils exhibiting violent and abusive behaviours has increased.
Some 20 per cent of respondents to a survey carried out by the NASUWT teaching union said they had been hit or punched, while 38 per cent said they had been shoved or barged.
Around one in six said they had been kicked by a pupil, while 9 per cent said they had been spat at.
The findings of the poll, which involved more than 5,800 NASUWT members, have been released on the first day of the union’s annual conference in Liverpool.
Behaviour: rise in ‘extreme indiscipline’
Delegates at the conference will debate a motion on Friday that suggests reports of “extreme pupil indiscipline” - including incidents involving knives and other weapons - are on the rise.
The motion calls on the union’s executive to work with the government to ensure that teachers have the “unequivocal support” of ministers in taking action to secure “positive learner behaviour”.
It adds that the guidance on behaviour management should be strengthened to ensure that “no exclusion” policies are “not legitimised” across the sector, and mandatory time is introduced for teachers to access national CPD on behaviour management strategies.
One teacher who responded to the survey said: “I have had two children use a fire extinguisher as a weapon. One at my head, another to my foot.”
Another said: “This morning I was told to ‘Go die - I hope you die’.”
Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT, said: “Pupil behaviour has long been an issue for teachers, but recent years have seen an unprecedented surge in levels of violence and abuse in the classroom.
“Based on our latest data, we estimate as many as 30,000 violent incidents against teachers involving pupils with a weapon in the last 12 months.
“Many teachers are having to think about how they can survive in the classroom before they can begin to focus on their teaching and pupils’ learning.
Calls for increased school safety
“We are calling for the establishment of a national inter-agency forum on school safety and security that is led and chaired by ministers.
“We are also calling on the government to invest in properly funded services to identify and tackle the root causes of pupil violence and aggression.”
At the NEU teaching union’s conference in Harrogate on Wednesday, a motion on violence - which warned of “a crisis” in schools where some pupils behave in ways that are “dangerous” to staff - was passed.
But the motion, which noted “increasing levels of violence” in schools, called on the NEU executive to campaign to ensure that pupils involved in challenging behaviour are “not excluded” from the education system.
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