Have you experienced abuse from pupils? Email megan.howe@mailonline.co.ukChildren are becoming more violent at school as lockdown caused a 'delay in their social and emotional development' and created a 'background of fear', a psychologist has warned.
Dr Bowen added: 'Research shows that in some studies there is an identifiable lag between the social skills of those children who had online vs face to face teaching during the pandemic. Coming out of lockdown and pandemic restrictions means that for some children there is a delay in their social and emotional development.
A total of 9,000 teachers in England were asked about their experiences managing behaviour in the classroom - and a higher proportion reported violent behaviour compared to two years ago. Daniel Dawkins who runs Aspire People, a teaching recruitment agency, said he had seen the levels of recruitment decline, especially in secondary education.
Mr Dawkins said a survey by Aspire People had revealed stabbings, physical violence and threat levels had increased since the pandemic. She told the BBC: 'You will get three or four children in your class displaying challenging behaviour. That's hard to deal with when you've got a class of 30.'But Nick Hurn, CEO at Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust which has schools in Durham, Sunderland Gateshead and Northumberland, said last year it was only a small minority who were causing problems.
'Schools can and should be supportive environments, providing a sense of community, belonging and social interaction, but we know they're also one of the top factors impacting negatively on young people's mental health. Two in five teachers said they had witnessed some form of aggressive behaviour which needed intervention in a single week.
'I often deal with difficult students who don't seem to want to learn at all. Some can be quite aggressive which makes safety a big concern.' Rachel Clark, who has a 15-year-old daughter, recently withdrew her out of mainstream education because she said the system 'isn't fit for purpose'. He told the newspaper: 'I was severely injured when a child jumped on my back in school. I have been left with a life-changing disability and I am in severe pain daily.'