Scottish Education Secretary insists they can 'turn things around' with issues facing schools
Jenny Gilruth spoke to us after we revealed the number of attacks against school staff have risen across Highland, Moray and Aberdeenshire over recent years.
Last updated 22nd Jan 2024
Scotland can "turn things around" when it comes to the current problems in our schools, according to Jenny Gilruth.
The Education Secretary spoke to us after we revealed how the number of attacks against school staff have risen across Highland, Moray and Aberdeenshire over recent years.
Ms Gilruth outlined how work is already underway to tackle the issue, as well as matters such as record low attendances.
Violence in schools "should not be happening"
We heard from one teacher last week who said she feared what was going to happen if violence wasn't clamped out.
She outlined how she was the victim of several attacks from one pupil and claims a colleague was lucky not to have been stabbed with a knife.
Ms Gilruth admitted this was unacceptable.
She said "They should not be in a position where they're putting their safety at risk.
"What I would say to the person you have spoken to is that should not be happening.
"She should be protected in her place of work.
"The local authorities who employ our teachers have statutory responsibilities to ensure that they are kept safe in their place of work. "
The Education Secretary outlined how she's held a head teacher summit looking at exclusions, and set out National Action Plan in November to help issues at a local and Scotland wide level.
She added: "I've announced support that will be spearheaded by our new Chief Inspector, who is going to ensure that every HM inspection of schools helps to support improvement in relation to behaviour.
"We've also asked for more accurate and robust reporting because I think there has been a fear to report challenging behaviour and incidents when they occur.
"There is a limit to what we can expect our schools to do, we need to think about that wider partnership approach so that includes engaging with parents and the wider community to help improve behaviour in schools.
Some youngsters have "really struggled" with school return post covid
Although the covid pandemic has been blamed for a stark rise in violence in some areas, Ms Gilruth feels there had been issues before then.
She said: "I don't think that some of these challenges of occurred as a result of the pandemic, if anything though they have compounded them.
"Some of our young people have really struggled with the return to formal education and some of that I think is playing out in relation to challenging behaviour in our classrooms."
Ms Gilruth spoke about other issues aside from behaviour in schools such a record low attendances and attitude changes towards the importance of going into schools.
She says there has been recent evidence across the UK to suggest parents are seeing less of a role for their kids needing to physically be in school.
"I am confident that working with COSLA and working with education partners we can upset that trajectory and we can turn things around," she said.
"This isn't just about behaviour, this is about things like attendance and engagement with the curriculum post-covid.
"We need to reset some of that relationship."