Created on: 30 Aug 2023
The focus of this theme is to build the skills, resources and school culture to address distressed, violent and aggressive pupil behaviour.
This will not be focussed on the pupils, but the support that teachers have, to foster good relationships and positive pupil behaviour, and how schools and councils respond to pupil behaviour incidents. It’s about prevention as far as possible and appropriate responses when violent, aggressive and distressed behaviour does occur.
There have always been issues with pupil behaviour in our schools. There has been a relatively low number of serious incidents, but this has begun to increase in recent years. Rising levels of poverty, social deprivation, poor mental health, social media influence, the impact of Covid and ongoing under-resourcing in schools have all contributed to an increase in distressed, violent and aggressive pupil behaviour.
Disruptive pupil behaviour is a serious health and safety issue. It is important to recognise that not only the most serious of these incidents must be tackled, but the ongoing lower-level disruption can have a cumulative stress impact on teachers and can be detrimental to their health and wellbeing in the workplace.
Local Authorities have a duty of care to all their employees, and it is important they take the necessary steps to ensure that our schools are as safe as possible, without damaging the open and welcoming environment that our schools seek to provide.
The vast majority of young people in our schools are positively engaged in their learning and, like their teachers, deserve to feel safe and secure at school.
