A pupil smashed a window then threatened a teacher with a “dagger-sized” shard of glass, a teaching union has claimed. The incident at Abersychan School in Pontypool left the teacher and her class “terrified” and could have led to serious injury, Nasuwt Cymru added.
It comes after complaints from teachers at the school - and some other schools - that they face daily verbal abuse as well as threats of violence, according to Nasuwt national executive member Sharron Daly. Members of the union at Abersychan School will join those at Ysgol Nantwgyn in Tonypandy in walking out in continued rows over declining pupil behaviour at both schools on December 12.
Describing the “absolutely terrifying” incident at Abersychan School Ms Daly claimed: “A pupil put their hand through a window and threatened to stab the teacher with a piece of broken glass. The teacher called for help, but that took a considerable time to come.” You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
She added that teachers at both schools endured daily verbal abuse and threats of violence with a lack of action from senior management to address this. Pupils routinely tell teachers to “f*** off” and verbally abuse them with comments such as “f****** c***” and “f** c***” and large male teenagers have threatened to hit women teachers.
She said at Abersychan, which has just under 1,000 pupils aged 11-16: “There is a large group of year 11 pupils - 15 year-olds - who are excluded from lessons and refusing to follow instructions, roaming the school kicking doors and being defiant." She went on: “There are boys threatening to hit women teachers. We have had members of staff caught in the crossfire in fights between pupils.”
Mark Morris, NASUWT Cymru national executive member said: “There is horrendous verbal abuse on a daily basis.” He added that some schools had called the police when behaviour had got very bad and pupils refused to leave the sites when excluded.
Asked about the general behaviour problem as well as the alleged incident when a teacher was threatened with a shard of glass and strike action, Andrew Powles, director of education at Torfaen Council, said: “The local authority and the school are in discussion with the union about proposed strike action. We will continue to work closely with the school and union to support pupils and staff.”
Asked again to respond specifically to the allegation about the teacher threatened with the shard of glass the spokesperson then responded: “We are not able to comment on the allegations or any ongoing HR issues.”
The Nasuwt said it understood the pupil concerned had been excluded and it is now supporting the teacher who was themselves suspended further to the incident. Mr Morris, who described the glass shard as "dagger sized", said the teacher had been left extremely shaken.
Members of the Nasuwt will walk out in protest at Abersychan School on December 12 and members of the Nasuwt at Ysgol Nantgwyn will walk out the same day with further strike days then planned for January 15, 16, 21 and 29, and February 3, 13, 18 and 19.
The Nasuwt said children who wanted to learn were missing out on education they deserved because of the bad behaviour of a minority of very disruptive and badly behaved children who, it felt, were not being dealt with adequately by senior management. The union said the problems in Torfaen had been made worse for schools by the lack of pupil referral units in that county, a situation reflected across other local authorities too.
