Schools

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The Scottish teachers’ union EIS recommends Violence to Staff in the Education Sector (1997) by the Education Service Advisory Committee to help with drawing up local authority and school policies on dealing with violent incidents in schools.

The NUT teachers’ union has published a health and safety briefing, Security and Violence, which includes a useful, recommended “risk assessment” checklist for use in conducting school security surveys.

This provides a template for assessing the school’s level of security risk by allocating scores in boxes according to specified criteria relating to:

• the incidence of crime in the last 12 months – trespass, vandalism, theft, fire, attacks on staff and pupils and drug/solvent abuse;

• environment and building; and

• security measures – including out-of-hours reporting systems, pupil involvement, security lighting.

The guidance covers dealing with intruders, violent incidents involving adults from the wider community (including parents), violence involving pupils at school, and safer schools partnerships.