Schools tsar blames parents for children running riot amid rise in classroom violence

The Department for Education's ambassador for attendance and behaviour Tom Bennett has stressed there are now simmering tensions between parents and teachers over who was responsible for their children's behaviour.

Over the course of the autumn term in 2024, around 16,000 students were suspended for assaulting an adult - a higher figure than children taken out of school across an entire year 10 years ago.

Now, teachers and other staff members are even having to accommodate raucous children by wearing bite sleeves.

Mr Bennett told The Times: "Some parents have very weak boundaries with their own children.

"They allow them to be on their iPads and phones all day and think that that’s loving and caring because that’s what they want and 'it's making my child happy'.

"Schools are saying, no, we are going to do it [discipline] like this and that parenting gap is where a lot of this comes from. Parents and schools have moved in different directions."

Staff have warned parents choosing to "gentle parent" is the culprit for the rise in classroom violence.

Mr Bennett, who has assessed around 1,600 schools over eight years, added that parents believe that children will behave "if you just speak nicely to children".

But, in reality, he said this is a scarce occurrence and that parents are simply looking at ways to blame someone else for their child's poor behaviour.

Over the 2024/2025 school year, formal complaints about schools have risen by 82 per cent across five years, with parents flagging a whopping five million grievances to educators.

While Mr Bennett claimed a "zero-tolerance" approach to disclipine was not correct, he urged schools to teach pupils to "respect the teacher and do the right thing the first time you're asked".

He stressed the importance of punctuality, preparation as well as the understanding that "you cannot swear at [a teacher] or punch a kid".

The education chief added: "I've had parents say to me things like, 'why aren't you inspiring my child?' and I'm like, 'why aren’t they turning up? Why don’t they have a pen? Why aren’t they trying?' You have to meet in the middle somewhere."

He urged school staff to "build structures... from the ground up" in their bid to correct children who "think they can do what they want and that they're the most important person in the room".

Mr Bennett's guidance has come after a "masculinity crisis" was revealed to be brewing in Britain's schools, leaving teachers "traumatised and humiliated".

One educator said they were called a "f****** s***" by a student, wihle others described being subjected to sexual noises and gestures designed to demean them.

Female staff said they were routinely patronised, with pupils addressing them as "love", telling them to "calm down", and making remarks such as that it "must be that time of the month".

Some women even said male pupils would refuse to listen to them because of their gender, with parents offering little support.