Chris Abercrombie: PPTA President on the growing rate of violence in schools

Teachers say they're struggling to deal with increasing violent incidents due to a lack of learning support. 

New data shows 12,300 students have been disciplined for physical assault on teachers and students this year – a 49% jump from 2019. 

PPTA President Chris Abercrombie told Francesca Rudkin teachers have been given increasingly more restraint training to deal with these incidents, but the main problem is with students' unmet needs. 

He says our children are coming to school with complex needs, a lot involving mental health issues. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So schools are dealing with more fights and assaults than
ever before. This year, there have been over twelve thousand
incidents of students being stood down, suspended, excluded, or expelled
for physical assault on other students and staff. That number
has risen forty nine percent in the last six years.
PPTA President Chris Abercrombie joins me. Now, good morning, Chris, How.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Are you good morning? Good?

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Thank you excellent. How widespread is this issue?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
From my understanding, it's pretty widespread from primary to secondary,
and it's a real concern that these numbers are increasing.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
The teacher's well trained to handle a violent or difficult
situation like.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
This increasingly, so there was an element of restraint restraint
course that teachers had to do. It was online. But
there's a real concern about the significant unmet need in
our schools and this is an expression of that.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
What is a significant unnet meat une unmet need?

Speaker 2 (01:00):
We know, we know our children are coming to school
with incredibly complex needs, way more complex than when I
was at school, and you know, mental health, bed other issues.
You know were understanding how brains work a lot better.
But we know our schools are under pressure, and this
is an expression of that, thank sure.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
And Chris, do we know why there's been an increase
over the last six years of course, which takes us
back to just pre COVID.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Well, I think again there's a unmet need. We know
our populations increased significantly. We know we've got feature shortages,
we know class sizes are increasing. All of these things
just put pressure on the system and you know, and
sometimes unfortunately that pressure shows itself in this way with
these young people.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
The government's twenty twenty five budget included seven hundred and
forty seven million boost for learning support, which seems pretty substantial.
Is that going some way to help I mean, does
that get to get more teacher ades and classrooms to
help out?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well? There for primary, yes, that there will have out
that that was specifically a primary focus. There wasn't much
for secondary in that, and so you know, that's one
of the things the Ministry has said is that this
year's budget, well next year's budget sorry, it is going
to be a secondary teacher focus or a secondary focus.
So we're really hopeful to see that support we need
there because you know, no young person decides they're going

(02:20):
to come along and you know, get into a fight
at school or the teacher or something like that. You know,
there's lots going on in these young people's lives and
sometimes we need to make sure we can support them.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Is that what it's going to take. You need to
have sort of two things on the go here, Maybe
a little bit more support in the classroom with the
teacher aide, and then more better accessibility to you know,
whether it's counselors and psychologists and the people that these
children need to help sort their situations.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Absolutely, absolutely, yeah, particularly that pastoral care support or something
we've been asking well for a long time because we
know this is something that teachers have been saying to us,
is that you know, our young people have really, our
children have really. You know, it's a lot more there's
a lot more complex world than when I was at
school in the eighties and nineties, So you know, young
people are dealing with a lot of issues that a
lot of older people does never never even considered.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
To stand down steal with the problem at all.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yes and no, yes and no. So in a sense,
you know, often it can be a nice catalyst for
a young person. You know, you can get support for them,
you can you know, it can bring about change and some,
but sometimes it's a sort of a cool down period
for everyone involved, and unfortunately too. I mean I grew
up in a small school area and I taught in
single schools and their oly school in the community. Sometimes

(03:35):
that student has to come back to that school. There's
no other choice, there's no other school for them to
go to. So sometimes it's just pausing the problem, but
sometimes it is also a catalyst to get more support.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Chris as always really appreciate your time this morning. Have
a lovely Christmas. Thank you so much. That was PPTA
President Chris Abercrombie.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
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