LAURA Anne Jones has slammed the Welsh Government for still failing to address violence in our schools.

Ms Jones’ comments come as figures from teaching union NASUWT Cymru shows violent incident reports from schools are on the rise in Wales.

The union’s Violence and Aggression in Schools report, published in March, shows there were 6,446 violence incident reports in schools across Wales in 2023-24, compared to 4,714 the year before.

The report also found that nearly a third of teachers had experienced physical abuse or violence from learners in the last year.

Further stats uncovered by NASUWT show that between 2019-20 and 2023-24, violence incident reports rose from 193 to a staggering 2,338 in Newport.

The Welsh Government has planned a behaviour summit, which was first suggested by Laura Anne Jones in 2023 when she was Shadow Education Minister in the Senedd.

Laura Anne Jones MS, Senedd Member for South Wales East, said:

“The crisis in our classrooms has been growing for some years, but the signs have been there for a long time.

“Sadly, the Welsh Government have failed to grasp this problem.

“I urged the Welsh Government back in 2023 to hold a behaviour summit, as they had done in Scotland, and to make changes to support both teachers and learners. I even dressed it up in a well thought out plan for them, to make sure classrooms are safe for teachers and pupils alike, but still they have yet to take any firm action.

 “That plan included a reform of exclusion procedures, funding interventions to support victims, and creating a national confidential helpline to support teachers and staff who are afraid to report abuse or violence, due to it potentially causing damage to the school’s reputation.

“Unfortunately, the Welsh Government’s failure to adopt this plan in a timely manner is evident in the statistics, and violence is sadly part of day-to-day life for teachers in Wales.

“We need to get a grip of this urgently, for staff, but also for learners’ educational outcomes.”