Highland Council data reveals ‘violent incidents’ in schools rose 150 per cent last session but draws a blank on teachers or pupils assaults and drugs or weapons
Highland Council is unable to say how many assaults on teachers or pupils took place, and how many times weapons or illegal drugs were confiscated in its schools.
But Freedom of Information requests – one by the Groat and another by Liberal Democrat’s far north candidate David Green – do show an alarming rise in aggressive behaviour.
Concerns about behaviour in schools have been growing since the Covid-19 pandemic. The deterioration of behaviour was confirmed in a Scottish Government-commissioned study, the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research (BISSR).
The 2023 study found more than one in ten primary school support staff said they had encountered use of weapons in incidents between pupils in the classroom in the last week, prompting the Scottish Government to publish a long-awaited action plan last summer.
• School staff in Highlands suffering average of almost 8 assaults a day, GMB Scotland survey reveals
• Highland teachers suffer 'physical violence' and abuse on a 'daily' basis
• Teaching unions Unison and the EIS hit out at Highland Council's treatment of staff
Scotland’s largest teaching union, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS), has continued to campaign vigorously for additional resources for education to help address the growing problem.
Mr Green said: “I have spoken with teachers who have felt abandoned in the classroom, fearing for both their safety and that of their pupils. That is beyond the pale, we must have their back.”
The limitations of the council’s teacher reporting system make it impossible, however, to determine whether assaults, verbal or physical, even took place as the council uses the term “verbal and physical incidents”.
And in three areas, the council said it does not hold the information requested “centrally” and so could not provide an answer. They are: drug confiscation, weapon confiscations and assaults on pupils. That means the education department is in the dark about exactly what is going on in schools and who is affected. The situation is no clearer when it comes to “physical incidents” or “verbal incidents”.
In response to an FOI by the Groat, the council said: “The council’s system records incidents and distinguishes between verbal and physical incidents but these do not specify whether an assault has been committed and it should not be assumed that a physical incident is the same as an assault.”
It added that some of the figures provided are “therefore for the number of incidents that took place within an education setting, not assaults” before adding that to get more accurate numbers would cost too much so it “is not obliged to comply with a request”.
Top Stories
What can be gleaned from the figures, though, is that there has been a sharp rise in violent behaviour of one kind or another.
The figures in the Liberal Democrat FOI, going back to 2019, show that in primary schools the numbers are relatively stable, averaging around 77 violent incidents a year.
But a new reporting system the council “designed and implemented” – the same one that cannot distinguish between violent incidents and assaults, or record attacks on pupils – was introduced in 2023/24.
There the figures take off, going from 76 in 2023/24 to 1798 – and 1137 for the current, ongoing session – but again it is difficult to know what is being reported.
For secondary schools, the figures are more concerning as they show that for the three years from 2019/20 to 2021/22 the average number of violent incidents stood at 161 – the next year they leapt to 402.
That was also under the old reporting system, indicating a concrete increase in violence that is the equivalent of a 150 per cent rise. Under the new system those figures fell slightly, after the steep rise in the last year, but were still more than double the average of previous years as the number of incidents reported stood at 342.
Highland Council said it was reviewing the operation of the new reporting system “so that we can be assured that we are recording reliable and insightful data”.
It added: “Tackling violence and aggression and promoting positive behaviour is a top priority for the council and we are actively working with our staff and unions in agreeing the way forward that ensures staff are protected whilst also supporting all young people to successfully access education and learning.”
David Green, the Scottish Liberal Democrat candidate for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, said: “It is deeply troubling that pupils are going to school afraid. School should be a safe place of learning and opportunity, not a place to fear.
“I have spoken with teachers who have felt abandoned in the classroom, fearing for both their safety and that of their pupils. That is beyond the pale, we must have their back.
“While I recognise the plan published by the Scottish Government last summer, these statistics suggest current efforts are falling short of the practical effect needed.
“To give pupils the best environment to learn, we need to support teachers with the resources they need.
“They need more specialist provision, such as classroom assistants and educational psychologists, alongside action to cut waits for child and adolescent mental health services.
“There is also a responsibility on Highland Council to better shine a spotlight on this issue. Teachers, pupils and parents are therefore due a timetable on when the review of the operating system will be complete so we can fully understand and then grapple with the scale of verbal and physical incidents in schools.”
