COUNCILLORS this week moved to play down statistics which indicate that bad behaviour by pupils – including physical and verbal abuse of school staff as well as each other – is on the increase in the Borders.
And, worryingly, the rise in such incidents in our primaries, which is reflected in the number of pupil exclusions, has put the region ahead of the Scottish average.
Several mitigating factors were cited at Tuesday's meeting of Scottish Borders Co
uncil's education executive, including the local policy of integrating pupils with learning difficulties and behavioural problems into mainstream education rather than "special" schools.
In addition, since last summer, the reporting of all incidents, no matter how trivial, leading to exclusion – which can last from half-a-day to a full week – has been standardised across all schools.
But the stark figures make grim reading and must, said Conservative councillor Neil Calvert, be taken seriously.
"It is easy to forget that every incident is a cause of concern to the teacher, classroom assistant, parents and other pupils involved, and we need to know what measures are being taken to improve the situation."
In 2006/7, there were 422 exclusions from the region's nine secondary schools, compared to 380 the previous year. The sanctions, authorised by headteachers, involved 272 students (up from 242), showing that a number have been excluded more than once.
The reasons for removing children from the classroom situation were many and varied, including seven assaults with a weapon or improvised weapon, 86 physical assaults without a weapon and 103 instances of verbal abuse of staff.
New and less empirical statistics on physical attacks on staff in high schools suggested they had fallen from 35 to 26, with additional needs assistants, who support pupils with learning and behaviour problems, the principal victims with 14 assaults.
A total of 71 pupils were involved in the 144 exclusions imposed in primary schools (up from 134) putting Borders, for the first time, ahead of the Scottish indiscipline average. The number included 32 assaults (three with a weapon). Staff were verbally abused on 38 occasions.
Again, the additional needs assistants bore the brunt, with 60 incidents (up from 25) of physical abuse by pupils cited as the reason for exclusion.
In an accompanying report, director of education Glenn Rodger said most of these attacks were very minor in nature and attributable to "a small handful of children with particularly complex needs".
Mr Rodger responded to Mr Calvert's call for action by revealing that a new training programme for these specialised staff was being implemented and he expected the 2008 session figures to show "a significant decline".
Mr Rodger said a schools working group had also been established to look at ways of keeping school staff safe and ensuring a zero tolerance approach to any abuse.
"The council must be proactive in its steps to protect staff ...
