Violence and behaviour crisis in schools, union says

The number of violent incidents by pupils in schools across Wales has almost tripled since 2019, a teaching union has said.

The NASUWT requested data from Wales' councils to find out how many incidents were reported by school employees and found cases had risen from 2,483 in 2019-20 to 6,446 in 2023-24.

"We can clearly see that we have got a crisis in behaviour in our schools, and we are asking the Welsh government to step up and do something about it," said Neil Butler, its national official for Wales.

The Welsh government said: "Any form of violence or abuse against staff or learners in our schools is completely unacceptable." It is due to host a national behaviour summit in May with unions.