Councillors launch new group to tackle rising violence in Fife schools

Now Fife Council is set to establish a working group to tackle the problem.

The local authority recorded 5,877 incidents of violence and aggression across the Kingdom’s schools in 2024 – a 28% increase from 2023 and a 97% up from 2022.

The worrying figures presented to councillors on the education scrutiny committee revealed that numbers have continued to increase despite a concerted effort from the education service in recent years.

Councillor Aude Boubaker-Calder (Lib-Dem for Dunfermline Central) described the rise as “deeply troubling.”

“I know there’s an ongoing effort to provide training of escalation techniques and trauma informed practices, which is great, but the effectiveness of these initiatives must be questioned with violent incidents continuing to rise exponentially.”

She questioned what “urgent measures” are being implemented and asked the service for evidence that its strategies are making a “measurable impact" on the problem

She said she was concerned there was“nothing on the ground going on”.

Donald MacLeod, executive director of education, immediately challenged Cllr Boubaker-Calder and asked her to retract her comment about “nothing going on” saying it was “completely inaccurate,” and added: “I think there needs to be a dose of reality and realism.”

He explained that there are 150 schools in Fife and approximately 600 incidents of violence and aggression per month. Spread across all, that was four incidents a month, or one a week, in each.

“Given that for a large majority of incidents, it will be the same individual, we’re talking about a very small number of pupils,” Mr MacLeod said. “We’re not underplaying the severity of it, but to suggest there’s nothing going on in the field is alarming to me and I think it discredits the hard work of our staff.”

Other councillors were minded to agree.

Councillor Altany Craik (Labour for Glenrothes West and Kinglassie) said: “The numbers look alarming at first glance, but look at the size and scale of education – we’ve got nearly 50,000 pupils and about 150 establishments.

“But incidents disrupt learning. I don’t want people to think our schools are out of control or that we’re demonising children.”

Other councillors highlighted the figures on violence as something bigger than an education issue.

Councillor Colin Davidson (Labour for Leven, Kennoway and Largo) spoke of “a societal change taking place” and added: “

He has worked in education for more than 40 years, and told the committee that violence has always been in schools, but acknowledged that figures are increasing – particularly in primary schools.

However, he believes that the education service has taken the problem seriously and done its best to support teachers and staff.

According to Mr MacLeod's report, each school has its own relationships and behaviour policy support staff and students; more time is being given to Pupil Support Assistants every week to support individual students; and the council regularly surveys staff to monitor their welfare in schools.

There is also a strong emphasis on professional learning and development – particularly around trauma informed practice and de-escalation – and an emphasis on incident reporting.

The next steps are to further develop communication and engagement with parents, and continued communication and incident reporting. Following the meeting today, a council working group will also be established to push solutions forward.

"In Fife we understand fully how important it is to have happy, healthy, fully supported, enthusiastic teachers in our classrooms. We also understand and really appreciate what a difficult job they do and we want to help them continue to do that,” Committee Convener Kathleen Leslie said.

"It's equally important that our young people feel heard and supported in school and it's encouraging to understand the work that's being done to make sure this is the case."

She added: "Our schools should be positive, nurturing environments for our young people - and our staff. It's encouraging to see the volume of positive, pro-active work going on to help sustain that aim for the future."