A PRIMARY school head teacher was admitted to hospital after being attacked in a classroom by an eight-year-old pupil.

The boy, who has not been named, was at the centre of a police investigation yesterday after the incident last week at a school in Glasgow. Strathclyde police confirmed that an inquiry had begun and the boy would be reported to the children’s panel in connection with the alleged assault.

It is understood that the incident last Wednesday at Pinewood Primary School in Drumchapel came after an argument between Margaret Henderson, 47, the head teacher, and the boy. It is claimed that Ms Henderson, who was in charge of a class of 33 pupils, was pushed and fell over a table.

She was taken by ambulance to Glasgow Royal Infirmary where she received treatment for back injuries. She was later discharged but has yet to return to work. A Glasgow City Council spokesman said the authority would consider what action to take after police inquiries had been completed.

Teaching unions and politicians condemned the incident which came after the publication of a government report showing record levels of violence and lack of discipline in some of Scotland’s schools.

Willie Hart, the Glasgow area secretary for the Educational Institute of Scotland, the country’s biggest teaching union, said: “I very much regret the fact that this has happened. We want a proper inquiry into this.”

Figures from the Scottish Executive reveal that in 2004 there has been a significant rise in violence against teachers. The survey of 1,800 Scottish teachers found that 59 per cent believed that discipline in schools was a serious problem, compared with 36 per cent in 1996.

The study found that teachers blamed the changing nature of society for a “lack of automatic respect for authority and a greater readiness to challenge adults, as well as a rising awareness of young people’s rights which was not matched by a corresponding awareness of their responsibility”.

Figures showed that 8 per cent of secondary school teachers had experienced aggression from pupils compared with 1 per cent in 1996. Secondary heads reported that they suffered physical aggression from 17 per cent of pupils in 2004 compared with 2 per cent in 1996.

In primary schools, teachers reported a drop in aggression among pupils but a rise in aggression directed at staff. The survey revealed that 12 per cent of primary head teachers said that they or their staff had experienced physical or verbal aggression from children.

Ewan Aitken, education spokesman for the local authority umbrella organisation Cosla, said: “Any physical aggression towards teachers is unacceptable but the reasons for this kind of destructive behaviour are much more to do with all of society and not just schools.

“Children are only at school 15 per cent of the time so you have to ask what is happening the other 85 per cent of the time to make them behave like this. What we are talking about here when kids are expressing violence is something more deep rooted than school.”

Pinewood was built 35 years ago on the Drumchapel estate. Its concrete classrooms are due for demolition and some parents claim that standards at the school have fallen in recent years. It was alleged by one parent that an Asian teacher at the school left after serving just one year because she was subjected to racist insults from children. On one occasion it was claimed that she was stabbed in the hand with a pen.

Another parent praised Ms Henderson and said she hoped the head teacher would return to work. “She is really good. She won’t tolerate any nonsense. I just hope what has happened won’t put her off and she comes back.”

A spokesman for Strathclyde Police said: “A 47-year-old woman was injured after an incident at Pinewood Primary in Drumchapel on Wednesday, November 24.

“An eight-year-old boy will be the subject of a report to the children’s panel in connection with the incident.”

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