Thousands of violent incident reports from schools have been officially recorded by councils across Wales and the number has soared in recent years. 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.
The Nasuwt's Violence and Aggression in Schools report, published today (SAT MARCH 22) and shared exclusively with WalesOnline, comes amid growing concern about behaviour in schools. It shows there were 6,446 violent incident reports from schools in Wales in 2023-24, compared to 4,714 the previous year.
Teachers are not adequately supported to deal with the assaults, and the crisis may be contributing to increased numbers of teacher absences from work due to poor mental health, the Nasuwt said. The report will be officially launched at the Plaid Cymru conference later today (SAT MARCh 22). You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
The Nasuwt's Violence and Aggression in Schools report found that:
The findings come ahead of a planned Welsh Government "behaviour summit" and follow a number of high profile attacks and assaults at schools around Wales. Staff have also taken industrial action and walked out in protest of behaviour policies in some schools.
Violent Incident forms returned to Local Authorities from schools in Wales 2019-2024.
In November 2024, Nasuwt Cymru raised a Freedom of Information request with the 22 Local Authorities in Wales to discover how many "Violent Incident Report" forms had been returned by school-based employees in the local authority since 2019.
The responses are shown below with the years 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22 , 2022-23 and 2023-24 in brackets
Blaenau Gwent ( 102, 60, 72, 109, 209, 552)
Bridgend (102, 48, 50, 62, 99, 361)
Caerphilly (63, 44, 224, 253, 222, 806)
Cardiff (157 ,124, 210, 459, 529, 1479)
Carmarthenshire (129, 136, 158, 139, 198, 760)
Ceredigion (7, 50, 31, 46, 104, 238)
Conwy (34, 26, 40, 50, 104, 254)
Denbighshire (97, 32, 124, 142, 80, 475)
Flintshire (26, 27, 42, 33, 52, 180)
Gwynedd (0,51 ,130, 221, 363, 765)
Isle of Anglesey (61, 33, 41, 68, 149, 352)
Merthyr Tydfil (0, 2, 10, 11, 4, 27)
Monmouthshire* (57, 57)
Neath Port Talbot (338, 176, 231, 231, 269, 1245)
Newport ( 193, 285, 372, 634, 854, 2338)
Pembrokeshire (22, 16, 28, 43, 54, 238)
Powys (0, 49, 169, 114, 159, 491)
RCT (648, 421, 591, 835, 1299, 3794)
Swansea (500, 222, 594, 772, 1092, 3180)
Torfaen * (118, 118)
Vale of Glamorgan (NA, NA, NA, 441, 383, 824)
Wrexham (4, 4, 43, 51, 48, 150)
Total for Wales during five year period (2483, 1806, 3160, 4714, 6446)
* *Torfaen and Monmouthshire could not retrieve data for the entire period.
Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the Nasuwt said more than half the teachers in the survey said they had considered leaving teaching due to poor learner behaviour: “It is clear that learner behaviour in Wales has reached crisis point. Aggression from pupils is now commonplace in schools.
“Our schools must be safe environments for teachers and pupils. This is a basic requirement for any place of work or learning. If we want to build a world-leading education system, we should not be forced to spend our time fighting for basic rights.”
Neil Butler, Nasuwt national official for Wales, said: “We cannot allow violence and aggression to be normalised in school settings. Government inaction has left teachers and pupils vulnerable to physical and verbal abuse. Without access to adequate support, pupils exhibiting aggressive behaviour are likely continue down that dangerous path."
The Welsh school system "must be overhauled to reflect pupils’ increasingly complex needs", Mr Butler said.. More specialist education facilities are needed as well as moreresources and funding for mainstream schools to have have robust behaviour policies.
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.
School leaders urged caution responding to the data saying schools were overwhelmingly safe places. And while schools are given as the location, not all the reports involved people in the school community or were found proved.
But the worrying data from police, obtained under Freedom of Information requests form by WalesOnline, reveals reports of offences also including racist and sexual assault, up-skirting, blackmail, malicious communications and possession of controlled drugs among others. The total number of offences where the location was recorded as a school in the three years from 2022 to 2024 were 4,904 in the South Wales Police force area and 3,324 in the North Wales Police area.
North Wales Police said that among its cases were 1,088 reports of violence against a person with schools given as the location from 2022 to 2024 along with 160 sexual offences and 26 reports of possession of a weapon. Incidents of burglary, theft and criminal damage were also reported with schools as the address.
Among incidents where a school was given as the location to South Wales Police from 2022 to 2024 were 981 assaults with injury, 22 reports of rape of a child under 16, 57 cases of possession of an article with a blade or point, 24 cases of possession of “other” weapons and nine racially aggravated abuse cases.
The figures were provided in response to all four police forces in Wales being asked to provide the total number of crime reports in their force area where the location is recorded as a school. Dyfed Powys Police and Gwent Police did not provide data saying they were exempted owing to the cost of doing so.
North Wales Police did not provide outcomes of the crime reports it received where schools were given as the location, but South Wales Police did. Of the 4,904 reports in the South Wales Police force area between 2022 and 2024 a total of 58 resulted in charges or summons and in 1,617 cases there were “evidential difficulties.
Of the rest 163 have not been recognised with an official outcome and the rest resulted in cautions, community resolution or prosecution was “prevented”, the South Wales Police force said. Neither force was able to provide data for which incidents resulted in prosecution or the outcome and were also unable to name the schools identified as the location of the reported incidents.
The forces both added the caveat that sometimes schools are used as the location for reports of crime when the cases do not involve the school or people from the school. Releasing the data both South Wales Police and North Wales Police said: “The information provided will include incidents reported at or in the vicinity/grounds of the premises and will include crimes reported about members of the public who are in no way connected with the premises.
“It includes incidents where it may be found after investigation that there was actually no crime committed.”
Responding to the police data school leaders urged caution saying most schools are safe. But they said there was a lack of rescources to help deal with some "very challenging behaviours" and childen with complex needs.
Laura Doel, National Secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT Cymru, said: “While these figures do seem alarming, it is important to remember that schools are overall still incredibly safe places, and violent or criminal incidences are very unusual. "
Claire Armitstead, Director of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Cymru, said: “Schools are overwhelmingly safe places and school leaders work very hard to keep all children in safe by having robust behaviour policies in place and educating students about the dangers and consequences of using weapons and other forms of violence.
“However, they are dealing with some very challenging behaviours and children who often have very complex needs. There are huge issues with the lack of resources and capacity in external services such as mental health and social care, as well as a lack of investment in special educational needs support, and in schools in general. We have to get better at supporting these children much earlier and public services must be given the resources they need.”
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: "Ensuring learners and staff feel safe and secure in the school environment is of the utmost importance. Any form of violence or abuse against staff or learners in our schools is completely unacceptable.
"We will continue to work with learners, parents, staff and other partners to identify and implement ways of dealing with challenging behaviours over the coming year. Part of this work will include a National Behaviour Summit which will take place in May.
“The data released by two police forces under FOI relates only to general crime rates. No inference can be made that the police incidents recorded are linked to pupil behaviour as there is no breakdown of who was involved in the incident, whether the incident occurred during the school day or if it happened on school grounds.”
Sion Amlyn, Nasuwt Wales casework and policy officiall said it was likely that many of the police callouts to schools could have been avoided if the education system was set up to tackle and prevent extreme incidents of behaviour.
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