Page 7





NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE





Teachers targets for workplace violence



Teachers and classroom assistants continue to be among those most at risk of being assaulted at work, new figures have shown.



Nearly 800 education workers were injured after being attacked at work during 2010/11, official crime statistics show. Teaching was the fourth most risky profession for workplace violence after security guards, police officers and carers, according to figures from the British Crime Survey.



The overall number of physical assaults in the workplace increased by 10% to 341,000 during 2010/11, but threats of violence reduced by 15% over the same period to 313,000.



There were just over 6,000 injuries caused by violence in the workplace and nearly half of all victims had been previously assaulted at work.



As the figures only show those incidents that were reported to police, the real scale of violence at work is likely to be substantially higher. The NASUWT’s ‘Safe to Teach?’ survey found that almost one in six teachers had been assaulted in their school by a pupil in the previous two years.



The NASUWT is continuing to press for more protection for teachers and school staff from attacks and assaults. The Union believes that the Coalition Government’s much vaunted pledge to hand more power back to classroom teachers to maintain discipline in the classroom could leave teachers even more vulnerable to violence from pupils.



The Union believes teachers need more robust support from school management to protect them from violent pupils.



Visit www.nasuwt.org.uk/safety





Stonewall SPEAK OUT - and help tackle homophobia in schools



Teachers are being urged to encourage pupils to take part in Stonewall’s Speak Out survey which aims to uncover what life is like for gay, lesbian and bisexual young people in UK schools.



The Speak Out survey is aimed at 11-19 year-olds who are gay, lesbian or bisexual (or who think they might be) and focuses on their experiences in school and college. It is being carried out by Stonewall, the charity which campaigns for greater equality for lesbian, gay and bisexual people, in collaboration with the Centre for Family Research at Cambridge University.



Five years ago Stonewall carried out the first major study into gay, lesbian and bisexual young people’s experiences at school. The School Report survey found that homophobia was endemic in Britain’s schools with almost two thirds of lesbian, gay and bisexual pupils reporting that they had experienced homophobic bullying in school. Less than a quarter of young people said that their school had addressed the issue of homophobic bullying, despite the fact that 98% of young people reported hearing homophobic language regularly used by pupils at their school.



The Speak Out survey will examine the current picture to see if schools have improved their performance in tackling homophobia.



The survey is completely anonymous and confidential and can be completed either online or on paper. The results will be complied into a final report which will be published later this year.



To take part in the survey and for more information, visit www.stonewall.org.uk/SpeakOut or email speakout@sdp.cam.ac.uk





Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36