The NASUWT, a prominent teachers’ union, is raising alarms over a significant increase in violence and behavioral issues in schools across Wales. This news comes on day two of the NASUWT’s annual conference in Liverpool. Veteran educators like Sharron Daly, an experienced teacher, are making their voices heard with growing intensity over the overwhelming obstacles that teachers and students are faced with.
… life in schools has been made more challenging. Time and time again, educators are saying that kids these days are coming to school with deeper needs and behavioral issues than ever. Councils in Wales released data that revealed a 236% increase of alleged assaults against school staff. These incidents increased nearly threefold, from 2,483 in the 2019-2020 school year to an alarming 6,446 in 2023-2024.
“It’s not just upsetting for me as a professional, it’s upsetting for the other children in the class to witness that if the adult in the room, the responsible adult in the room, is being verbally abused,” Daly explained. This lament is symptomatic of a deeper frustration that most educators are beginning to have with the isolation that this kind of behavior creates for the rest of the classroom.
The NASUWT’s alarming findings confirm that social media and online influences are critical drivers of this crisis. A poll conducted by the union found that nearly three in five teachers believe social media use negatively affects student behavior. “Online influences are extremely serious and causing a great deal of damage,” said NASUWT spokesperson Mr. Butler. “They are certainly another one of the factors that’s driving this poor behaviour.”
Yet since 2019, violent acts committed by students on school grounds have almost tripled. This deeply concerning trend has led to desperate cries for action from the Welsh government. In response, the NASUWT will hold a national behavior summit in May. Educators will come together to connect with experts and one another in implementing strategies and solutions for healthier school environments. “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,” Butler emphasized.
The urgency of this issue is reflected in the response from the Welsh government, which stated, “Ensuring learners and staff feel safe and secure in the school environment is of the utmost importance.” More than 7,000 school-based staff members responded to our survey and they weighed in on these issues. With such deep participation, we are certain that the next VIP behavior summit will dig into the issues that educators care about most.
By this point, Daly said, most of these kids come to school without a defined structure and rules coming from the home. This loss of agency often manifests as disruptive behavior in the classroom. So many youth that walk through our doors have no limits or demands set for them in their home life. This vacuum of direction can certainly trickle into the classroom, southern border, she added.
“And one of the things that we are going to be looking at during the behaviour summit is whether we should see an end to mobile phones in schools,” he said.
