At the end of last week, it was widely reported in the press that three teachers and a 14-year-old pupil had been injured at Johnstone High School in Renfrewshire after a former pupil entered the premises. Whatever the circumstances of that incident, as we see repeatedly in the USA, where the consequences are often grievously tragic, schools can have deranged students or former students who carry out attacks, for reasons real or imagined. I fear that, as things stand, we will see more of this kind of incident in Scotland.

But there were two further interesting things about this nasty event, based on comments made by parents and pupils at the school after it occurred. The first was that violence and vandalism had been increasing in the school for months, to the extent, it seems, that the toilets, having been repeatedly damaged, were now “permanently closed” (I’m quoting from media reports here, but that seems very extreme – I would have thought that a school with no pupil toilets would just have to shut until they were repaired but perhaps they have put in temporary facilities).

The second, which was heartening, was that the school community was full of praise for the headteacher, whom, it was felt, was doing an excellent job in very difficult circumstances. It’s great to see a situation in which students and their parents, and the staff of the school don’t immediately blame senior managers for its woes. However, if – and let’s just accept this – those working in the school are doing their level best to deal with the minority (and it will be a tiny minority) of young people who are creating this destructive and aggressive environment, then what’s to be done to help them get the school back to the calm and orderly state necessary for effective education?

The Renfrewshire incident took place on the same day that the NASUWT union said that, since the pandemic, there had been a big increase in challenging behaviour in schools. Similarly, Scotland’s biggest teaching union, the EIS, has commented on the increase in violent incidents in schools. But in the most pointed intervention, the president of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, Catherine Nicol, addressing the union’s conference this past weekend, spoke at length about the “elephant in the room” for Scottish teachers being the “tidal wave of distressed behaviours” which has hit Scottish secondary classrooms (though it should be said these issues are creeping further and further down in our primary schools too).

Scottish schools are struggling amid ‘tidal wave’ of badly behaved, aggressive pupils and 'mob rule' in some classrooms' – Cameron Wyllie