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The school leaders suffering verbal abuse, threatening behaviour and physical violence from parents

Senior leadership Staff wellbeing Parental engagement
More than eight in every 10 school leaders have been abused by parents in the last 12 months – with shocking examples of both physical and verbal abuse.
Worrying trend: The vast majority of school leaders in the NAHT survey describe verbal abuse and threatening behaviour from parents – and problems have worsened in the last three years - Adobe Stock

Research findings from the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) warn that abuse from parents has gotten worse over the last three years.

The survey involved 1,642 NAHT members working in schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and found that 82% had suffered parental abuse in the last year.

Verbal abuse was the most common (85%), but school leaders had also suffered threatening behaviour (68%), online abuse (46%), and discriminatory language (22%) – including racism, sexism or homophobia. Ten per cent of the respondents had been physically attacked.

The abuse takes place regularly, with 35% reporting incidents at least once a month and 16% saying it happens every week.

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