*(UK) Scotland: 27% of students are SPED; teachers face aggression/violence in classrooms

Feb 8, 2018, (UK) Scotsman: Tom Peterkin: SNP school shake up should be given chance to work https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/tom-peterkin-snp-school-shake-up-should-be-given-chance-to-work-1-4685550 The challenges facing Scottish education are considerable and action must be taken, writes Tom Peterkin. There can’t be too many jobs where being insulted in the foulest of terms, being kicked or threatened with a pair of scissors is part of a day’s work. Granted, prison officers must have to deal with such behaviour. … But dealing with physical and verbal threats should not be something that is readily associated with educating youngsters in our classrooms. Yet the anecdotal evidence strongly suggests that teachers are having to endure more and more of precisely this sort of behaviour. At the weekend, The Scotsman’s sister paper Scotland on Sunday reported accounts from several teachers outlining the challenges they face when it comes to teaching disruptive pupils. ... “I can see the impact of this daily onslaught of aggression, violence and mental health issues is having,” she added. “This impact is increasing staff mental health problems and causing huge anxiety to other children, who have the right to a safe environment where the focus should be on learning and personal development. “We are in the position where we have children with complex needs who are in classrooms with teachers who are wholly unprepared and lacking the skills to deal with them.” Her remarks did not paint a pretty picture of Scotland’s education system. In particular, they spoke to a specific problem that many teachers experience when it comes to meeting the challenge of educating disruptive pupils. At its heart is an ambition to try give as many pupils as possible a mainstream education, no matter the specific challenges some face. Since 2003 there has been a legally enforceable “presumption of mainstreaming” to ensure that children with additional support needs (ASN) are integrated in primary and secondary schools. The problem is not in the entirely laudable aim to give as many youngsters as possible a mainstream education. Rather it is a resources problem. The number of ASN pupils in Scotland now stands at 183,491 – 26.6 per cent of the school population and an increase of more than 55 per cent since 2012. … Teachers are stressed. Children without ASN suffer as staff struggle to cope with the more disruptive element. Worst of all the ASN children lose out because they do not receive the specialist help they require to thrive. … Of course it will take many years before these reforms bear fruit but what better legacy for Mr Swinney (and Nicola Sturgeon) than steering the Scottish education system towards excellence for all. In the meantime, there is the pressing challenge of ensuring ASN needs children are given the best possible help and education. Should that challenge be met, Scottish classrooms would become happier and healthier for the teachers and everyone they teach.