I watched a six-year-old head-butt my fellow teaching assistant unconscious - and knock out her tooth. Horror stories from the teaching front line that will make you despair

Alison Scott couldn't believe what was happening. As her colleague, Clare, lay unconscious on the floor, Alison could see her attacker was about to launch into another ferocious assault on her body.

Lurching at him from behind, Alison grabbed and held him tightly in a bear hug, screaming for help.

'I was on my own with him, with Clare still on the floor, and I was trying to remember everything I'd learned in my training about 'positive handling' and 'restraint',' says Alison, 32.

'Clare must only have been unconscious for about a minute, but it felt like forever. She had been headbutted and was out cold. But as she began to come to, she spat out blood and a tooth. It was horrifying. I was struggling to hold on until another member of staff arrived and helped me restrain him further. We were all in shock.'

It was an appalling experience which left Alison and Clare — who has since quit her job — with physical and emotional scars.

Caitlin Neaves, 21, has left the profession entirely. She was 16 and fresh from school herself when she became a TA. She says the abuse she endured and lack of care from the school management left her with a long-term health condition

But perhaps the most shocking aspect is that these two women are not police officers, security guards or prison officers. They are teaching assistants in a primary school in Bedfordshire. Their assailant, only six years old.

Upsetting as it may sound, this is no isolated case.

And a survey reveals they're far from alone - nearly one in five teachers in England has been hit by a pupil so far this year, with spitting, swearing and chair-throwing commonplace.

'I'd worked with this particular child one-to-one for a while and he could become extremely violent,' says Alison, who started at the 300-pupil village school seven years ago. 'Anything could trigger him. If he couldn't get his own way or play with a certain toy because another child was using it, he'd pull their hair or kick off.

'He became obsessed with me and if I gave any attention to another child, he'd get angry so I would have to turn my attention back to him. I can't even recall what triggered him on the day he knocked out Clare, but you could see by his eyes that he wasn't properly 'in the room' with us. And he was so strong for such a little boy.

'Clare was really shaken up by it and had to have counselling afterwards. She didn't return to work and is no longer in education. The school excluded the boy, but only for four days before allowing him back. It's no wonder so many teaching assistants are leaving.'

The survey commissioned by the BBC revealed that a greater proportion of primary and secondary teachers reported pupils fighting, pushing and shoving compared with two years ago.

Meanwhile, a study by the NASUWT teaching union found that one in eight teachers has been assaulted by a pupil last year. Staff reported that physical assaults had become 'part of the job', with teachers kicked, bitten, punched and slapped by pupils.

Research also shows teaching assistants (TAs) appear to be at particular risk. A report by the University of Roehampton heard that support staff in mainstream schools had suffered black eyes, broken fingers and cuts.

And such attacks are having a devastating effect on morale. A report by the Public First think tank suggests aggressive pupils have helped to push tens of thousands of teachers to quit in recent years – with over 75 per cent saying they would leave the profession entirely if they could.

'For the first time there's an understanding of the ferocity of attacks on teaching assistants and their devastating physical and mental toll,' says Dr Amanda Holt, lead researcher of the Roehampton study. 'This raises questions about the expectation, and in some cases insistence, of schools that teaching assistants should be the first line of defence against pupils who display violent or aggressive behaviour.

'With the profession dominated by women, forcing them to become classroom enforcers could do long-term harm. This risks creating an environment where violence becomes normal, particularly towards women.'

Alison, who went into the job hoping she could 'make a little bit of difference', agrees the toll is becoming unbearable on many TAs.

'I've thought about leaving education because of the abuse,' she says. 'I came into the job because I wanted children whose home lives were chaotic to be able to turn around when they were older and say: 'Yes, Ms Scott really helped me', but it's getting too much.

'There really isn't much training, it's all done on the job. We do short courses such as the three-hour 'positive handling (restraint)' course, or 'one-on-one attachment and trauma', which lasted a day, but that's it.

'People think TAs are there to help children read or put pictures up on the walls. Instead, we are counsellors, mentors, therapists. We sometimes make sure the children have had food or their clothes are clean. We're keeping other children safe by stopping these children lashing out at them.

A survey revealed that nearly one in five teachers in England have been hit by a pupil so far this year, with spitting, swearing and chair-throwing commonplace (file image)

'Most of us earn no more than £12,000 a year for around 30 hours a week, with an unpaid 30-minute lunchbreak, and yet we are being asked to deal with children who really should be in specialist schools.

'Lack of funds means so many specialist schools are closing. I don't blame the children themselves. The boy who attacked Clare shouldn't have been in mainstream education. He was eventually diagnosed with autism, ADHD and some kind of bipolar disorder, but by that time, he was halfway through the school system.'

Rachel Waters, a 31-year-old TA from Glasgow, agrees. She has worked as a TA for the past ten years and has witnessed increasing levels of violence in her 400-pupil primary school.

'I've been kicked and hit on several occasions, and worked with another TA who was headbutted by a five-year-old — management didn't even give her any time off. She was expected to just get on with it,' says Rachel.

'We have a lot of children with explosive anger issues, especially boys aged around ten when they're hitting puberty. Most of the time they take it out on each other. They'll stab one another with pens and pencils. We're not allowed to have scissors in the classroom for this reason.

'But sometimes they'll attack teachers or TAs, and our guidelines state that 'restraint, if used inappropriately, excessively or harmfully could result in a charge of assault', so we are very wary of touching them, even in self-defence.'

Horrifyingly, Rachel has also been subjected to sexual abuse.

'That was one of the worst occasions,' she says. 'We were all in the school dining hall and one of the boys, who was only around seven, grabbed my breast and said something sexual. Everyone saw it. Everyone heard it. I was very upset and told his teacher, who asked him to apologise and that was it. No expulsion, not even detention. I felt really let down.

'It wasn't the first time something like that had happened. Another member of staff was sexually assaulted by a different boy. She was so distressed she left her job and never went back to being a teaching assistant.

'We see inappropriate sexualised behaviour from boys a lot and, often, the parents don't seem to care. One boy was pretending to perform sexual acts in the playground and was telling the younger ones what he'd like to do to them. We were very worried about his behaviour for a long time. I don't know what happened to him but he left the school.'

Like Alison, Rachel says her headteacher and school leaders have let her down.

'In our school we have a policy which focuses on simply talking to the children about what they've done wrong and what they can learn. But because they don't get punished, they get away with it time and time again. No wonder so many TAs are quitting.'

Ofsted states that there are more than 380,000 teaching assistants in the UK, 25 per cent of the school workforce. But according to a 2020 The Skills Network report, the role was number one in the top ten roles facing shortages in the UK with more than 41,000 jobs to fill — ahead of NHS nurses at number ten.

Caitlin Neaves, 21, has left the profession entirely. She was 16 and fresh from school herself when she became a TA. Now a freelance PR, she says the abuse she endured and lack of care from management left her with a long-term health condition.

Caitlin, who lives in Margate, Kent, says: 'I started a teaching assistant course after leaving school, and an apprenticeship came up within a week. I was thrown into a classroom with several high-needs children who had developmental delays. It was weird because I was only five years older than some of them, but I seemed to have a knack for it so they would give me more responsibility.

'There was one child who was six who was very difficult to manage. He was very violent and would punch and kick me, and try to stab sharp pencils through my hand or throw chairs at me. It began to affect my mental health. 

I dreaded work each morning. And because I was on an apprenticeship, I was taking home only £400 a month. It felt like exploited labour. The school was putting me with the most difficult children and I was being punched in the face for £3.50 an hour.'

Caitlin says other teachers and TAs saw violence as simply part of the job. 'I remember a boy socking a TA in the face and giving her a nosebleed, but it's so commonplace we barely even talked about it in the staffroom.

'I complained to the management on several occasions, sometimes crying with the stress of it all. One teacher told me to 'get a grip'. I was never seriously injured but sustained many scratches, bruises and cuts.'

The final straw came three years ago when a boy in Caitlin's charge ran amok in the school.

'He had a complete meltdown in assembly and ran out, kicking and screaming and pulling over bookshelves and throwing chairs. I ran after him and eventually called for help on my walkie-talkie. The head came over and told him off, but that was the extent of his punishment.

'I'd had enough. I was signed off for six months with stress and was completely bedridden. I was diagnosed with a heart condition that I'm still having treatment for, and I've also developed fibromyalgia. Although I did return for a short while to a different school, the abuse was just as bad. I left because of the stress.'

Unison's head of education Mike Short says that low pay and high stress are fuelling the exodus of TAs.

'Teaching assistants are the backbone of every school, but their wholly unjustified low professional status is stopping some schools from seeing their true value and vulnerability,' he says.

'Improving the reporting process around attacks, providing staff with medical and psychological support and ensuring they don't have to continue working with the young person who's assaulted them, must be adopted as a matter of urgency. Expecting them to put up with attacks will force more out of the door, and that's bad for pupils and schools alike.'

Abigail Cross, 51, from Northamptonshire, was attacked by a five-year-old boy in her charge who broke her wrist when he grabbed her during a meltdown. She was off school for nearly the whole academic year — and matters were made worse when she returned and had to be in the same classroom as her attacker.

'I was a nervous wreck and every time I saw him, even though he was so young, I was terrified he was going to do something again,' she says. 'Nothing frightens me usually. I was a confident person and have been a teaching assistant for nearly two decades, but this really knocked me.

'The school wasn't supportive at all. They said I hadn't handled the situation correctly, that I hadn't followed a certain procedure we use with this child, but I had. I had to seek help from my union, which were excellent. I was awarded several thousand pounds in damages as the school admitted liability, but it was only after the boy assaulted other staff that he was eventually excluded.'

Like most other teaching assistants, Abigail fears things will only get worse. Yet she is committed to helping vulnerable children.

'I like my job. You feel like you make a difference. You'll get children who never speak suddenly piping up and saying: 'Hello mummy', and it's incredibly rewarding. We don't do it for the money, we do it to help. But the lack of funding for specialist care for some of these children is making life very difficult. It would be good if TAs could be given proper help and support in return.'

*Some names and locations have been changed to protect identity.