By Gemma Fraser
Head of content
“I want out,” Linda Donaldson*, a senior teacher with almost 20 years in the classroom says during a frank discussion about behaviour in Scottish classrooms.
“I can’t wait to leave. I used to love my job,” she adds, with a tinge of sadness in her voice.
And she’s not alone.
A major national study of teacher workload carried out last year revealed 37 per cent of principal teachers are considering leaving the profession purely because of behaviour.
Although it has been a growing problem for those at the chalkface for years, it recently became a political flashpoint due to a combination of rising incidents of violence and a backlash over how the Scottish Government proposes to address this issue.
Its new guidance centres on “building positive relationships and behaviour across the whole school community” and “improving outcomes by reinforcing positive behaviour and working to reduce the likelihood of negative behaviour occurring in future”.
Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said the guidance takes account of the concerns raised by teachers about behaviour and described it as “an important tool in ensuring that they are properly supported in our schools”.
But it has been ridiculed by opposition parties, with Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay branding the 49-page document “tedious, hand-wringing nonsense”, forcing First Minister John Swinney to defend its contents.
For teachers, though, political mud-slinging is of no help to them as they continue to battle challenges in classrooms up and down the country.
Earlier this year, teaching union NASUWT declared a pupil behaviour emergency after publishing its UK-wide Behaviour in Schools survey of more than 5,800 teachers.
It revealed 20 per cent of surveyed teachers had been hit or punched by pupils and 38 per cent had been shoved or barged, with 25 per cent experiencing pupil violence at least once a term.
And almost all teachers – 95 per cent – experienced rudeness from pupils, with more than a quarter suffering verbal abuse several times a week.
But despite rising violence, the number of temporary exclusions has dropped in Scotland by almost 75 per cent according to the most recently published government statistics, from 44,794 in 2006/07, to 11,676 in 2022/23. And the number of pupils expelled has gone from 248 to just one.
“Primary schools are really restricted on exclusion. It’s really, really hard to exclude or to suspend,” says Donaldson.
“You get really extreme behaviours, children who can destroy property when they’re angry, pull things off walls, and you can’t really intervene because they can be extremely violent.
“They wouldn’t have a punishment – maybe sometimes you’d have them go in and tidy up once they’re calm but this is fighting a losing game. This is why I want out of teaching.
“We’re not allowed to punish or remove children. It’s all about understanding their feelings.
“It’s not even called challenging or disruptive behaviour anymore. You call it distressed behaviour. And all behaviour is communication apparently and we have to find out what they’re trying to say, regardless of all the other children in the room.”
Professor Moira Hulme, from the University of the West of Scotland’s School of Education and Social Sciences, led the 2024 Teacher Workload Research Project for the EIS teachers’ union.
Primary school teacher
A total of 1,834 teachers were surveyed from all 32 local authorities in Scotland.
Her findings are stark: rising disruption in classrooms is having an impact on learning, reducing quality teaching time, causing burnout among teachers, and is leading to long-term risks of behavioural problems continuing into adulthood.
“While the majority of educators report satisfactory conduct among students both in classrooms and on school premises, concerning trends have emerged since 2016,” Hulme’s report said.
“The post-pandemic period has influenced these patterns, with teachers across all sectors observing notable changes in student engagement and classroom dynamics.
“Daily classroom experiences reveal the scope of behavioural challenges facing teachers.
“The frequency of disruptive incidents has increased significantly, with most teachers encountering low-level disruptions on a daily basis.
“More concerning patterns include regular instances of verbal aggression, physical conflicts between students, and occasional violence directed toward staff members.”
Hulme’s research highlights the fact that Scotland has moved away from “punitive to relational approaches” which, while generally supported by teachers, have not been matched by adequate support and training.
This was also expressed by the EIS following the publication of the Scottish Government’s recent guidance.
“While welcoming the intent to address the issue, the EIS has been clear in relation to both the national behaviour action plan and the consequences guidance that policies alone will not address the serious issue of violence and aggression we are seeing in schools across Scotland unless they are accompanied by additional funding and dedicated investment in education,” said Andrea Bradley, EIS general secretary.
“There needs to be a range of interventions, underpinned by resources, which can be adopted to ensure that everyone is safe in school – pupils, teachers and school staff.”
Hulme’s research highlights that one of the biggest factors is the so-called ‘inclusion crisis’, where 40 per cent of students have recorded additional support needs, but fewer support staff are available.
“Scotland’s presumption to mainstream education creates significant strain on educators, as rising levels of additional support needs outpace the resources available to address them effectively,” she stated.
“In 2024, 40 per cent of all pupils received additional support for learning, with around one in four pupils receiving ASL for a social, emotional and behavioural difficulty.
“Teachers frequently observe connections between inadequate support for students with additional needs and behavioural challenges in their classrooms.
“The scale of unmet need is substantial.
“Teachers consistently link this resource gap to their concerns about behavioural issues. They describe ‘increasing behavioural needs of pupils without the resources to support them properly’, making it challenging to achieve the policy goal that all learners are ‘present, participating, achieving and supported’.
“Many teachers suggest that when additional support needs go unaddressed, behavioural difficulties may follow, with one noting ‘we are failing to support them properly through whatever is at the root cause of the behaviour’.”
The frustration for teachers is that they want to help and support all children – but simply can’t cope.
“You have kids tearing up classrooms while other children are just trying to learn,” says Donaldson.
“Children don’t have the same boundaries, they don’t have the same experiences, they don’t go out and play in groups anymore where there’s a hierarchy and you have to learn to fit in and conform.
“All parts of social norms that we have developed over thousands of years to be human and civilised have gone out the window.
“For teachers, it’s a constant battle of questioning what you’re doing and how it will be interpreted.”
Hulme highlights familial factors in how children behave in school, stating: “Many behavioural challenges have roots that extend beyond the school gates, requiring coordinated support for families and communities that schools cannot provide alone.”
Another teacher attributes a lot of disruptive behaviour in classrooms to technology and an overreliance on screen time, as well as parental influence.
“Without appropriate intervention and accountability, disruptive behaviour patterns established in school may persist and intensify beyond the classroom, leading to difficulties in future employment, relationships, and civic participation”
“I genuinely think this whole generation of children are completely messed up by screens,” she tells 1919.
“At ages one to three, that’s when the neurons in their head develop. If you have a one or two-year-old having a strop and they’re in a rage, what happens is they soon learn that it goes away, they don’t feel that angry forever.
“But what happens now is that children either don’t get to have the strop because they live in this complete dopamine rush where they’re on phones and iPads all the time so they never really experience lots of negativity because they’re not in the real world… or when they do experience it, parents tend to give them phones and iPads, a dopamine hit, to distract them, so they never ever learn that they feel this mad but it will go away.
“Not to mention the fact that parents also don’t engage with their children as much because they are also always on technology.
“Children aren’t learning in the same way and it’s having a massive impact on their cognitive development and their ability to deal with distressed emotions.”
According to Hulme’s research, teachers are concerned about the potential long-term impact on students who exhibit challenging behaviour in school.
“Without appropriate intervention and accountability, disruptive behaviour patterns established in school may persist and intensify beyond the classroom, leading to difficulties in future employment, relationships, and civic participation,” she said.
Planet Youth is a prevention system which surveys young people and uses the data to help adults better understand the types of environment where they can thrive.
Originally developed in Iceland, it has been proven to significantly reduce youth substance use, improve mental wellbeing, and boost school engagement.
Zahra Hedges is chief executive of Winning Scotland, which is running the Planet Youth initiative in six pilot areas around the country.
She said: “Our experience and the insight from young people tells us that the experiences they have in school, and the relationships they build with adults, are crucial to their mental health, academic success, and overall resilience.
“These environments serve as more than just learning spaces – they can also provide stability, encouragement, and the foundation for a positive self-image.”
She added: “Teachers need to be given the time and space to build relationships with their pupils in the way that so many of them want to, but which the current system makes difficult.”
In its guidance – entitled Schools – fostering a positive, inclusive and safe environment – the Scottish Government acknowledges the widespread impact disruption in classrooms can have across a school community.
Gilruth said: “A young person being disruptive in class is not able to learn. Their classmates’ learning is disrupted. School staff are diverted from teaching to support the child or young person causing the disruption.
“When faced with the most serious dysregulation, the young person themselves, their peers or school staff can be placed at risk.”
But she also stressed the importance of staff, pupils, parents and carers working together.
“At its core, this guidance is about improving outcomes for our young people,” she added.
“By helping children to understand boundaries and consequences we are giving them skills for life and enabling them to become successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens, and effective contributors.”
*Name has been changed