More kids lash out at school

Auckland Primary Principals Association president Marilyn Gwilliam said schools were struggling to handle the children. Photo / Hawkes Bay Today

Primary school pupils of all age groups are increasingly willing to resort to violence, worried teachers say.

Auckland Primary Principals Association president Marilyn Gwilliam said school heads were becoming more concerned after noticing an increase in violent behaviour among the 5- to 10-year-olds.

Figures show the number of stand-downs (set periods of time that children are not allowed to attend school) for assaults by 8-year-olds increased by 88 per cent from 2000 to last year.

Seven-year-olds received 73 per cent more stand-downs last year than in 2000, 6-year-olds had 70 per cent more, and stand-downs of 5-year-olds increased by 33 per cent.

Mrs Gwilliam said schools were struggling to handle the children. "They kick and they bite and they hit."

It was especially difficult as teachers were not allowed to touch children, so must instead try "non-tactile" techniques to calm them.

Children aged 9 and 10 appeared the most violent of primary school pupils, with 214 stand-downs among 9-year-olds for physical assault on others and 327 among 10-year-olds last year.

That was an increase from the 2000 figures showing 9-year-olds received 133 stand-downs for physically assaulting their classmates in 2000 and 10-year-olds received 190.

Mrs Gwilliam said that in many cases, schools had no choice but to stand children down, and most boards were happy to back a principal in deciding to do so when violence was concerned.

She could not say what was causing the rise, or whether it was more predominant in high- or low-decile schools.

"Some children are a bit angry, they are a bit upset, they're a bit unsettled and very often it's what is happening at home."

Family First national director Bob McCoskrie linked the rise in violence to the removal of corporal punishment in schools.

"We have a generation of children who have been victims of a social experiment of how best to raise our kids and the role of correction," Mr McCoskrie said.

The Post Primary Teachers Association will discuss solutions to combating schoolyard violence at its annual meeting next month.

Last year, 39 16-year-olds were expelled for physical assault of other students, up 116 per cent from 18 in 2000.

The total number of stand-downs for physical assaults on classmates by students aged 5 to 19 rose by 77 per cent from 494 in 2000 to 874 last year.

And the number of stand-downs of students aged 5 to 19 for assaults on staff at schools increased by 66 per cent from 143 in 2000 to 238 last year.

The association's advisory group on conduct problems will suggest that schools need access to trained psychologists and social workers to support limited in-school resources such as counsellors and teacher aides.

A paper to be presented at the PPTA conference says conduct problems are harder, more expensive and take longer to deal with once students have reached secondary-school age.

ON THE RISE

Assaults by 8-year-olds on teachers and students which led to stand-downs (suspensions for set times)

2000 - 115
2002 - 105
2004 - 175
2006 - 203
2008 - 223