A top teacher at a Dundee school has revealed how there’s been a spike in violent incidents involving pupils.
Michael Stewart, deputy rector of Morgan Academy, raised concerns at a meeting this week of community leaders.
He said there had been a spike of “violent incidents” around the school, with police officers called to the latest incident.
On Friday, someone from outside the school was said to have started a fight with a pupil in a street close to Morgan during lunchtime.
Mr Stewart told a meeting of the Maryfield Community Planning Partnership: “We have had a couple of fairly bad violent incidents in the last week or so.
“One of these involved a non-Morgan pupil seeking out someone who was at the school on Friday. Police attended and the situation was resolved.
“But we have noticed a rise in these types of incidents.
“This is a concern for us, as despite an overall improvement in behaviour, there has been a small spike in violence lately.”
The incident took place outside the Spar shop at the top of Albert Street at about 12.50pm.
Kay Wilson, chairwoman of the Morgan Academy Parent Partnership, said she was confident that the school would be addressing the issues.
She added: “This incident is something that the senior management team at the school will deal with. They have a good behaviour policy in place and I am confident that the incident will have been handled effectively.”
Despite this incident, Mr Stewart moved to reassure parents and the public.
He said: “Exclusions from the school have reduced, and my daily dealings with the public and shopkeepers in the area have been very positive.”
Councillor Stewart Hunter, the city council’s education convener, also placed his faith in the school to deal with the issue.
Mr Hunter said: “While you never want to hear of incidents like these in our schools, they will certainly be down to an absolute minority, and it is still quite rare for these things to happen in Dundee.
“The school and its staff are very proactive and effective at dealing with these issues.”