Violence against teachers still 'widespread and harmful'

Violence against teachers in Aberdeen's schools remains "widespread, frequent and harmful", according to Scotland's largest teaching union.

The EIS said more than a quarter of its members in the city were physically assaulted in the past year, with more than a third seeing violence on a daily basis.

One teacher told BBC Scotland News she was afraid to return to work after being racially abused by pupils "every other day," as well as physically attacked.

Aberdeen City Council said improvements had been made, but there was still more work to be done, despite launching an action plan two years ago to tackle classroom violence.

The EIS survey of around 800 members in the city found the frequency of violent incidents "remains a serious concern".

It said incidents were still "overtly physical in nature", with teachers reporting pushing, shoving, being struck by objects, kicking, biting and spitting.

Some injuries resulted in staff requiring medical treatment and time off work.

Two teachers agreed to speak to BBC Scotland News anonymously about their experiences.

One secondary teacher said she had been racially abused "too many times to be able to say".

"Sometimes I have to ignore it, because how many times am I going to report racial abuse?" she said.

"So if somebody says something, I can pretend I didn't hear it."

The teacher said she often tried to ignore the abuse "because, maybe in the class, 95% [of pupils] are good".

But she said it affected her when she returned home at night.

She is currently signed off work and feels apprehensive about going back.

"I am really struggling with it now because I have done it for too many years," she said.

"Having to go through that abuse and then come back the next day and people feeling that it's ok...just get on with your work. Because nothing is being done."

A primary school teacher said she had been bitten, kicked, punched and spat at.

Often, no-one came to help.

"Some schools have phone, radios - some you just open the door and shout out into the corridor and nobody comes," she said.

"That's quite a scary situation to be in if you have a full class of small children and there's furniture being thrown."

She added: "I remember trying four different ways to get help. Four different members of staff that I knew should be available.

"But nobody came and nobody answered."

An action plan designed to tackle the issue was drafted by the local authority in March 2024.

EIS branch secretary Ron Constable said the survey showed violent behaviour in Aberdeen's schools was a prevailing issue.

He said: "We still have teachers experiencing on a daily basis, objects being thrown at them and being pushed, punched, slapped, kicked and bitten."

He said while the number of incidents reported had fallen slightly, he believed "the violence is probably deflected, rather than going down, because lots of teachers are developing strategies to get themselves out of difficult situations."

Martin Greig, Aberdeen City Council's education and children's services convener, said schools did have "a problem" with "violence, aggressive behaviour and misbehaviour".

He said systems for dealing with such incidents were "improving" and described reporting processes as "robust".

"We can't be complacent," he said.

"We have always got to be doing what we can to improve the existing processes.

"Teachers need to have confidence that we have their back."

An Aberdeen City Council spokesperson said: "We welcome the survey and can clearly see the impact of our shared work over the last two years.

"We look forward to meeting with EIS colleagues and other trade unions to consider how best to respond to the survey findings."