Shropshire primary school teacher reveals shocking level of classroom violence

Kelly Watkins, who teaches at a primary school in the Oswestry area, said she is repeatedly called into classrooms to restrain and deal with violent pupils.

The 38-year-old told told the NASUWT Conference in Birmingham that a child even tried to strangle her with her own scarf.

"In the last two years, behaviour in children has increased to an extremely violent level," she said.

Ms Watkins specialises in helping children with special needs, and has the role of Senco – or Special Educational Needs Coordinator.

She added: "As a Senco, you have that magic wand to be called to a classroom to sort out the problem. As a pregnant Senco I'm still called to the classroom."

Speaking after delegates agreed to call on the union's executive to consider industrial action to protect staff from violent pupils, Mrs Watkins, who is 18 weeks pregnant, described being "spat at, bitten and pinched" during her day-to-day work.

She said she needed to call for help from a colleague after a pupil tried to strangle her with her scarf.

"They pushed the scarf up and said they knew what they were doing," she said.

"I had to get a colleague to go and get a pair of scissors to get the scarf off.

"Fortunately we didn't get to that point because I managed to get the scarf off. But it was a learning curve for me because after that it was take off anything - scarf, lanyard, cardigan, necklace - anything that might be used as a weapon."

'Violence is getting more and more prevalent'

Mrs Watkins, the only dedicated Senco at her school, said she was repeatedly called to deal with a four-year-old boy who "scratched, gouged eyes, pulled hair".

She said: "It's increasingly hard to get children into the right provision because of the hoops needed to get them into the right place

"We are a very good mainstream school and we are getting a lot of children moved to us - equally, we are a mainstream primary school, not a special educational needs school.

"In Key Stage One violence is getting more and more prevalent - more now than ever. The last two years have been the worst I've ever had in my 16-year teaching career.

"If you haven't got the funding to buy in, you can't get diagnoses."

Chris Keates, NASUWT general secretary, said pupil behaviour was "one of the top concerns" that teachers raise about their jobs.

She said: "Evidence shows teachers are not receiving the support to tackle these issues.

"Where a pupil is known to exhibit violent and disruptive behaviour, a risk assessment should be undertaken and action taken to support the pupil to address their behaviour and to protect other pupils and staff.

"In too many cases no effective assessment is ever undertaken.

"Employers who fail to disclose safety information leave themselves vulnerable to legal challenge and industrial action, but more importantly they are behaving recklessly with the health and well-being of staff and other pupils and this simply cannot be justified."