By stewartb

The BBC Scotland Education Correspondent’s article (June 18) on the BBC News website headlined: ‘Will new school rules help cut violence in the classroom?’ has a number of additional characteristics typical of BBC Scotland’s output.

It politicised a topic in ways not replicated in BBC articles on the same topic concerning England and Wales. It was devoid of context, devoid of perspective and of course, without comparative analysis. It devoted more space to critics, most notably a Tory Party MSP, than it did to informing readers on the actual content of the new guidance and importantly, how – informed by what expert input – it had been created.

However, without inducing moral panic, there does appear to be a growing and widespread societal issue here!

Back in March 26, 2013, the BBC News website published an article with this headline: ‘Disruptive behaviour rising, teachers say’. It reported: ‘In June last year, the government’s adviser on behaviour, former head teacher Charlie Taylor, told a committee of MPs that some pupils in England were too disruptive to fit into regular school life’. (my emphasis)

After over decade of Tory governments responsible for England’s schools, the BBC News website (April 18, 2024) could still use this headline: ‘School suspensions: England set for highest number in school year’. The BBC reports: ‘England is on course for the highest number of school suspensions in a single year, figures show. According to data from the Department for Education (DfE) there were almost 264,000 suspensions in spring 2022/2023 – the largest number on record for one term. Persistent disruptive behaviour is the most common reason for children being suspended, or excluded, from school.’

And also this BBC News website headline (July 23, 2024): ‘I was hit, kicked, bitten and sworn at by pupils’. This tells the experience of a teaching assistant in a Sussex primary school. The same BBC piece reports that there were 52,237 suspensions in England for children physically assaulting an adult in school in 2022-23, which is 33% higher than the 38,986 in 2021-22. Verbal assaults on an adult in England’s schools rose from 112,615 in 2021-22 to 148,831.

So after more than a decade of Tory governments in Westminster, it seems that England’s schools are still searching for a solution to this societal issue. On the face of it, imposing record levels of suspensions and exclusions are NOT it! One might have hoped – (I’m not being serious!) – that a BBC Scotland Education Correspondent might have put dismissive comments coming from a Tory Party MSP into ‘context’ for her readers rather than uncritically amplify them.

The same BBC piece from July 2024 reports that some schools in England are taking a different approach: ‘using external companies to carry out de-escalation training with staff to reduce the risk of violence. Jonathan Newport from Team Teach says he encourages staff “to change mindsets”. “Thinking about your body language, thinking about your tone of voice – it’s where you put yourself in the room,” he said.‘

‘Shears Green Junior School, in Gravesend is one school which uses external behaviour specialists as a preventative measure. Matt Paterson, the school’s head teacher, said: “As staff we try our hardest to try to support the child in identifying those reasons for that behaviour, and de-escalating them so they come out happier and ready to learn. We have got to be better equipped to deal with the wide range of behaviours and needs we are seeing,” he said.’

This BBC article, notwithstanding its headline, does not politicise. It does report a trade union’s critical view of resourcing and that of individual school staff: it also reports statistics for context and examples of innovative school responses to this societal issue. But no space to amplify an opposition politician using the term ‘waffle’ dismissively!

On April 19, 2025, the BBC News website had this headline: ‘Violence and behaviour crisis in schools, union says.’ This refers to the state of schools in Wales: ‘The NASUWT requested data from Wales’ councils to find out how many incidents were reported by school employees and found cases had risen from 2,483 in 2019-20 to 6,446 in 2023-24.’

“We can clearly see that we have got a crisis in behaviour in our schools, and we are asking the Welsh government to step up and do something about it,” said Neil Butler, its national official for Wales.’

‘The Welsh government said: “Any form of violence or abuse against staff or learners in our schools is completely unacceptable.” It is due to host a national behaviour summit in May with unions.’

The BBC Wales article refers to the views of a teachers’ union and individual teachers on underlying causes. It is not politicised.

Returning to the BBC Scotland article: ‘‘Will new school rules help cut violence in the classroom?’ it amplifies the Tory’s use of terms hardly designed for serious discourse on such an important topic – ‘waffle’, ‘blob buzzwords’ in the guidance. The Tories appear to view more school exclusions as the solution: the BBC Scotland’s Education Correspondent passes on this message without any examination of the effectiveness or otherwise of rising rates of suspension and exclusion on solving the ‘problem’ during over a decade of Tory governments responsible for schools in England.

But then the BBC Scotland piece culminates in sharing this from ‘some parents’: ‘Some call for a return to the days of corporal punishment in schools, when unruly children were disciplined by “the tawse”.’

By the way – for completeness – what follows is extracted from a Scottish Government press release (June 17). The BBC Scotland Education Correspondent will of course have seen this: might reporting more of what follows been of more value to the public than reporting on those who want the belt brought back?

‘New guidance setting out a range of approaches for schools to consider when responding to behaviour has been published.

‘Developed with input from headteachers, teaching unions, local government and educational psychologists, the guidance promotes building positive relationships and behaviour across the whole school community. It focuses on improving outcomes by reinforcing positive behaviour and working to reduce the likelihood of negative behaviour occurring in future.

‘Various approaches are available to schools, ranging from classroom management approaches, to support strategies and the use of exclusion as a last resort.

‘The guidance has been developed in collaboration with the Scottish Advisory Group on Relationships and Behaviour in Schools (SAGRABIS), which is jointly chaired with COSLA, to reflect that it is local government who have the responsibility for delivering education in Scotland.’