Professor John Robertson OBA
In the Mail today:
Teachers are quitting the profession en-masse, as they battle impossible workloads, toxic work environments, a ‘broken’ Special Educational Needs system, and surges in student violence. Earlier this year, the Teachers’ Union estimated there were 30,000 violent incidents involving a pupil attacking a teacher with a weapon in a 12-month period. Children as young as four have been found in possession of knives, while some school have installed metal detectors, or ‘knife arches’, in a bid to curb attacks.
According to Sky in February 2025: Almost one in five teachers have seen students with knives in England’s schools, Sky News survey finds
I wonder what ratio of Scottish Teachers will have seen students with knives?
From Police Scotland:
Having in a school an article with a blade or point
- 2023/2024 – 22 cases
- 2022/2023 – 25 cases
- 2021/2022 – 71 cases
- 2020/2021 – 48 cases
- 2019/2020 – 87 cases
- 2018/2019 – 76 cases
- 2017/2018 – 96 cases
Source: Crime data – Police Scotland
So, each incident might mean more than one teacher sees the knife possession – say, 4?
There are 54 000 teachers in Scotland and if say, every knife possession incident is seen by 4 of the staff, we can divide the above Police Scotland case numbers into 1 300 to get the rough ratio.
So, last year 1 in 590 Scottish teachers saw students with knives and 7 years ago it was 1 in 135. Some way to go to get to 1 in 5?
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There seems to be evidence of a deterioration in the behaviour of school pupils across the UK, and in the number of incidents involving pupils in abusive behaviour and violence.
There also seems to be an emerging consensus around complex underlying causes, including tho’ not necessarily limited to, the impact on young people of Covid restrictions/disruptions; the consequences of. coming from homes and areas experiencing disadvantage and poverty; the negative impacts of social media; under resourcing of publicly-funded education provision, especially for those with special needs.
In terms of societal, economic and under-resourcing causes, it’s hardly surprising that across the nations of the UK similar problems have emerged – albeit perhaps to different degrees – as these factors within each of the nations are all influenced by the actions (or inactions) of successive Westminster governments.
Question: does having the British Labour Party – governing with only devolved powers – avoid these problems in education? From what follows, the answer is clearly NOT! This is not whataboutery, it’s a search for causes and their origins. Note the multiple references in the reports below – directly and indirectly – to the need for more financial resources to come from the Labour-run Welsh government. But is that really feasible to any substantial degree? After all, on education funding as with funding for health and much more, when governing within the limitations of the UK’s devolved settlements, all paths do lead to Westminster!
Source: BBC News website (April 19, 2025) Violence and behaviour crisis in schools, union says‘
‘The number of violent incidents by pupils in schools across Wales has almost tripled since 2019, a teaching union has said. 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. (my emphasis)
“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.’
Source: Wales Online (March 22, 2025) Thousands of violent incidents reported in Welsh schools – see the staggering assaults and threats where you live – Teachers say they have been bitten, stabbed with scissors, stamped on and had large objects thrown a them with fighting a ‘daily problem’’
‘The data from teaching union NASUWT Cymru comes as separate figures under Freedom of Information reveal thousands of crime reports to police forces across Wales where a school was given as the location.
And: ‘Separate to the Nasuwt report data, more than 8,000 crimes have also been recorded by police in and around schools in Wales, including threats with a bladed object and serious assault. Schools were given as the location address to police for a vast number of alarming incidents reported in the three years 2022 to 2024.
‘Reports included threats to kill, possession and threats with a bladed object, assault, sexual assault, rape, arson and even one case of poisoning. There was also one report of a person carrying a loaded or unloaded or imitation firearm or air weapon with a school in north Wales given as the address.’
Source: The Teachers Union (March 22, 2025) Behaviour crisis in Wales deepens as teachers report pupil violence and negative impact on health
A senior union official in Wales is quoted: “The range of concerning behaviours seen in pupils has expanded to a worrying degree. Teachers report increases in misogynistic abuse, attacks with weapons, and online threats and allegations from pupils that cause severe levels of stress.
“We now face a moment of reckoning. The Welsh school system must be overhauled to reflect pupils’ increasingly complex needs. We need more specialist education facilities, and mainstream schools require significant resources and funding to put into place robust behaviour policies and increased lower level support for affected pupils.”
Source: Wales Online (May 8, 2025) Vandalism, vaping, and violence – a grim portrait inside Wales’ schools. Bad behaviour is on the rise, a chief inspector has warned
‘Defiant pupils and parents, mobile phone misuse, vaping, vandalism, refusing to work, and sometimes violence – the education inspectorate has listed some of the problems in Wales’ secondary schools. The Estyn document out on Thursday looks at how best to deal with the mounting behaviour problem and follows a damning report into problems in colleges last week.
‘Estyn cites reasons including the pandemic, economic pressure on families, and lack of specialist provision for increasing numbers of children with additional and emotional needs.
The report on Wales warns: “As there is currently no national system to collect data on incidences of poor behaviour in schools understanding the full extent of the problem remains difficult.”
Source: National Education Union (September 28, 2025) Violence against school staff is an issue across Wales
‘NEU Cymru, Wales’s largest education union, has concerns around the alarming and unprecedented rise in violence and abuse directed at school staff over recent years, and is calling for greater awareness of the root causes behind this rise in violence which include underfunded additional learning needs (ALN) provision, inadequate mental health support, staff shortages, and a lack of suitable alternative provision and training.
‘NEU Cymru is calling on the Welsh government to increase funding for additional learning needs and mental health provision in schools, and to ensure schools have more access to support services, more support for children with ALN and more support from local authorities.’
Source: Wales Online (September 25, 2025) Pupils in Welsh city to be searched for weapons – Cardiff council has issued new guidance in response to calls from head teachers amid growing concern about violence’
‘It comes amid growing concern about violence in schools and warnings from teaching unions. The Chief Inspector for Education has also described and warned about violence in schools in a damning report.’
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