3-year-olds suspended for attacks on teachers
CHILDREN as young as three had to be suspended from school last year for attacking teachers and fellow pupils, figures revealed yesterday.
Primary-age pupils were responsible for 6,700 attacks on teachers and other adults at schools last year.
Four-year-olds carried out 420 of these assaults, while a further 140 were committed by nursery-age children who were three at the start of the school year.
Critics were shocked at the extent of violence among primary-school children aged 11 and under.
They blamed the Government for undermining teachers’ ability to deal with unruly youngsters, and called for a restoration of their powers to enforce discipline.
Shadow Children’s Secretary Michael Gove said: “Teachers need the powers to maintain order in the classroom and clamp down on bad behaviour before it escalates into violence.
It’s a damning indictment on the way youngsters are growing up and the lack of discipline.
“Ministers have eroded teachers’ ability to keep order by restricting their powers to deal with disruptive and violent children.”
Nick Seaton, chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said the figures reflected a growing lack of respect instilled in young children.
He said: “These figures are quite frightening, especially the figures for assaults against teachers and adults generally. It’s a damning indictment on the way youngsters are growing up and the lack of discipline.
“The very fact that children are assaulting and using threatening behaviour against adults is extremely serious. No young person should even dream of this.
“Over the past decade there has been too much emphasis on teaching children their rights. They can make their own choices about everything rather than being told what to do.”
In addition to attacks on teachers, there were 11,210 assaults on fellow pupils in primary schools. Of these, 300 were by four-year-olds and 120 by three-year-olds.
More than 45,500 primary school pupils were sent home for bad behaviour last year, the figures showed – equivalent to 242 each day.
The statistics, released to Parliament by schools minister Sarah McCarthy-Fry, revealed that the majority of the suspensions were for verbal and physical attacks as well as for persistent disruptive behaviour.
But there were 260 instances of “sexual misconduct’’ in primary schools, 350 of racial abuse, 60 drug and alcohol-related incidents and 560 of bullying.
The Department of Children, Schools and Families tried to play down the figures, saying: “Behaviour in the majority of schools is good most of the time.
“A recent survey of teachers showed that around nine in 10 felt behaviour was satisfactory or better.’’
