School violence: 'I had a chair thrown at me and a child threatened to stab me'

A pupil support assistant says she was forced out of a job she loved by the level of violence and aggression in the classroom.

Alana Gauffre said she had a chair thrown at her face, and a child threatened to stab her with a broken coat hanger before she finally quit.

Mrs Gauffre, left her job as a support assistant at a primary school in Dunfermline, Fife, after two years of violence and aggression from children as young as six “on a daily basis”.

“It’s a wonderful job when you’re doing the job that is advertised on the role profile,” Mrs Gauffre told STV News.

“However, the job I was doing, and the job many other PSAs around Scotland [are doing], is not the job advertised.”

She added: “You’re essentially a behavioural support person on a one-to-one basis with kids who probably shouldn’t be in mainstream schools.”

After witnessing repeated chair throwing, biting, scratching, and more, Mrs Gauffre is calling on Fife Council and other local authorities to update job descriptions to include that the role may consist of violence and aggression.

“With [nearly] 5,000 reported incidents in Fife primary schools last year, it’s clear that this is not a rare occurrence,” Mrs Gauffre said.

She said that updating the job description would force the council, along with trade unions, to provide CAHMS training for PSAs so they can properly deal with what’s happening and de-escalate situations.

In addition to changing the role profile and providing proper training, Mrs Gauffre would like to see two or three more pupil support service centres opened in Fife to house all of the pupils who are demonstrating violent behaviour on a daily basis.

“Your heart goes out to the kids who display this violence because you’re thinking, ‘What is their life going to be like when they’re older if they’re doing this when they’re six or seven?'” Mrs Gauffre said.

“They deserve an education as well, and other students deserve to be taught without objects flying past their heads as they’re trying to eat their lunch or do their maths or English.”

After leaving the job, she forced Fife Council to reveal that more than 4,600 incidents of violence and aggression had been reported in primary schools last year with a freedom of information request. 11 schools in Fife reported more than 100 incidents each.

The highest number of incidents submitted by one school was 360.

However, Mrs Gauffre thinks the true figure is “way higher” because PSAs were only given an extra hour of time to complete these forms to report incidents late last year.

“If you were to retrieve these figures again, I think you’d be shocked at the number of incidents,” she said.

Fife Council’s executive director of education Donald Macleod said he welcomed contributions to the conversations happening across Fife and the commitment to keeping everyone safe at school.

“The safety and wellbeing of all our staff and pupils is an absolute priority,” he said.

“We are fully committed to working with our school communities to ensure everyone feels safe, supported and has a positive experience in school.”

Mr Macleod said violence and aggression are “unacceptable in any workplace, including schools”, but he emphasised that the issue is national and “not unique to Fife”.

“A huge amount of work is underway locally. We are collaborating with a range of partners, including Safer Communities, Fife NHS and the Police to support with a wide range of initiatives, some bespoke and others across all schools,” he said.

“These include peer mediation programmes such as the Mentors in Violence programme, to prevent conflict, as well as strengthening our professional learning programme for staff.”

He added: “As part of our commitment to creating a safe, supportive and confident environment we have also improved incident recording processes, reviewed our approach to pupil behaviour management policies and we are also seeking to increase support for pupils with additional needs.”