TEACHERS FEAR GOING TO WORK

Years of cuts lead to chaos in our classrooms

- LUCY THORNTON

HORRIFIC stories have emerged of teachers facing violence and abuse, with pupils as young as seven ripping posters from walls before storming out of school.

It is the kind of behaviour that has led to suspensions almost doubling in England since 2016/17. In the 2016 autumn term there were 129,151 suspensions in all school types, rising to 247,366 in the 2023 autumn term.

Mark Morris, of the NASUWT, revealed he had been contacted by teachers forced to lock classroom doors to keep violent pupils out.

Mr Morris said: "None of us went into this job to be abused.  Teachers are scared of challenging groups of kids because of the abuse.

"They are also getting misogynistic behaviour from boys and girls, putting up with sexualised language." He said one teacher had described behaviour so bad he thought she worked in a special unit. He said: "She said, 'No, this is a mainstream school.