English schools are increasingly turning into battlegrounds. Teachers know it – this week it was reported that nearly one in five has faced physical violence from pupils this year, a startling snapshot of the mounting misbehaviour teachers face each day we cross the threshold of our school gates. Pupils know it, too – this startling statistic tells us that vulnerable children are suffering, as such lawlessness speaks of schools where bullying and intimidation thrive.
For those who may feel the language choice of battlefields and frontlines is a little hyperbolic, pause to consider the words of the new head of Ofsted, Martyn Oliver. In January, he talked about taking on wrecked schools when he was leader of an academy trust, including one in which students stopped staff, saying: “This is a no-go corridor, it belongs to the children.”
