MORE than four in five school leaders in Wales have been abused by parents in the past year, a survey has revealed.

One in eight headteachers and other senior leaders suffered physical violence, the NAHT union poll found.

Nearly a third said that they typically experienced abuse from parents every month, with 14 per cent saying this happened weekly.

Abuse by parents has worsened since 2022, said 82 per cent of school leaders.

More than a third of those said that it had “greatly” increased.

One told the union: “Nasty emails are becoming more frequent. I receive abusive emails often from parents without any thought or any balance.”

Another told of “slanderous vexatious complaints which are targeted at individual members of staff.”   

NAHT Cymru national secretary Laura Doel said: “These results lay bare a worrying trend emerging in Welsh schools whereby verbal and in extreme cases physical abuse is becoming part of the job.

“This is simply unacceptable. It cannot be the case that school leaders are subjected to this kind of treatment and more needs to be done to protect them.”

NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said: “Some of the stories we are hearing about the appalling abuse leaders and their staff are suffering from parents are almost beyond belief.

“This also shows the importance of government treating the profession with the respect it deserves — too often teachers and leaders were publicly criticised and talked down to under previous administrations, sending completely the wrong signal.”

The union urged local authorities to help it tighten up complaints procedures and stand up to abusive behaviour.

The survey found that verbal abuse was the most common form of abuse suffered, with 78 per cent of school leaders in Wales saying they had experienced this in the past year.

This was followed by threatening behaviour at 64 per cent, online abuse at 39 per cent and discriminatory language at 18 per cent, including the use of racist, sexist or homophobic terms.

The findings also exposed widespread reports of trolling on social media and in parent groups — as well as appalling instances of hate campaigns and harassment and intimidation, said NAHT.

Last year’s TUC Congress passed a motion which warned that a “broken complaints and teacher regulation system” had left schools “unable to defend members from blatant abuse.”

The Department for Education was contacted for comment.