Teachers facing 'gathering storm' after 'damning report': 'Something has to be done!'

"Yeah, when I taught for 35 years, I was one of those teachers. I wasn’t assaulted, but there’s no doubt it’s a deteriorating situation.

"Some people will say, 'Well, it’s Covid, it’s smartphones, and so forth.' And that’s all true.

"But let me reassure you: in any classroom, someone is always in control. It just helps if that someone is the teacher—but too often, it isn’t.

"Teachers on the whole, do a great job. They’ve got a hard job, but it’s a very rewarding one. It’s a fantastic job.

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"But there is a breakdown, and we’re not really dealing with it. And I think, probably, next year we’ll be back again, talking about the continuing breakdown.

"So we have to look at what the underlying causes are, and we have to deal with them. Because this situation can’t continue.

"We simply won’t be able to recruit teachers into the classroom. So we’ve got a gathering storm here."

The damning report by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) found that four in five school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have suffered abuse from parents in the past year.

The problem has become so severe that 42 per cent of surveyed leaders had banned parents from school premises.

Nearly a third (32 per cent) have reported parents to the police. In Wales specifically, 82 per cent of school leaders reported being subjected to verbal, physical or online abuse.

Nearly a third of Welsh school leaders said they typically experienced abuse from parents every month, with 14 per cent reporting weekly incidents. The survey revealed that 86 per cent of school leaders believe the problem has worsened over the last three years.

School leader Debra Walker recounted being slapped across the face by a parent and threatened with murder by another.

She described how one parent "screamed in the face of a teacher who was seven months pregnant" over a missing coat.

"Another colleague was spat at," she added. "These are really horrible things to suffer."

McGovern offered two immediate solutions to address the problem: "First thing to do, get rid of mobile phones. Ban the mobile phones from the classroom. It's an obvious thing to do, but the Government doesn't have the courage to do it," he said.

He also suggested making the curriculum "more relevant to the older children" with vocational options for non-academic students from age 14.