Teachers 'fed up being beaten up'

But it’s only when you speak to the teachers themselves that you appreciate just how dreadful it must be to go into your work knowing there is a high chance that some sort of assault from a pupil is a possibility.

My friend, who is a teacher, is drained by the intensity of daily school life, says Sue Webber (Picture: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

I recently I spoke to two teachers, one a friend who works as a guidance teacher, and we discussed how it feels to reach the end of term. And while for me it’s always good to get a break from the hurly-burly of politics in the Holyrood chamber, I am not exhausted. But my friend is drained by the intensity of daily school life.

The other was a primary school assistant at a school in what most people would regard as a nice part of town. She had just quit because “I got fed up being beaten up every day”. Yet, the Scottish Government’s answer seems to be to carry on regardless, in denial that the removal of disruptive or violent pupils is best for everyone involved, particularly the other children.

My friend was briefly a deputy head of a successful pilot programme where disruptive pupils could be given expert attention and the classmates they left behind could get on with learning in peace. The unit closed because funding was no longer available. The solutions are there, if only the SNP stopped listening to do-gooders and did the right thing.

Sue Webber is a Scottish Conservative MSP for Lothian