Aberdeenshire Council’s retiring education boss yesterday insisted that teachers have a “zero tolerance approach” to violence at schools across the region.
And Maria Walker moved to reassure parents that appropriate measures would be taken against youngsters threatening other children at school.
The former teacher said more incidents involving pupils with knives were emerging due to changes in the way these incidents were reported.
Improved systems have been put in place since the death of 16-year-old Bailey Gwynne who was stabbed to death at Cults Academy in Aberdeen in October 2016.
During the same year a 10-year-old brandished a penknife at a classmate in Fraserburgh and a video also showed a 16-year-old with a blade tucked into his trousers outside Turriff Academy.
Last summer a schoolboy was caught with a knife at Peterhead Academy and teachers and fellow pupils had to restrain the boy involved.
And only a matter of a few weeks ago a nine-year-old was charged after allegedly taking a knife into a school in Fraserburgh.
Ms Walker said: “There is a much more open system of reporting things.
“Any incident at all will be reported to us and that will be dealt with on an individual basis.
“We have been working with our schools and the Northern Alliance group of the eight authorities because we had our own tragedy here in the north-east.”
The former primary school teacher is about to retire as the local authority’s director of education after almost a decade in the role.
She said the council had to continue tackling any individual issues head on while taking proactive measures to prevent violent incidents happening.
She said: “The most important thing is to have strong guidelines so we are able to deal with an issue very quickly then we look at any trends.
“We take a zero tolerance approach.
“If something happens then people need to know that we will come down really heavily on people. But that isn’t just us it’s the police as well.
“Parents and the wider community can be really assured that is how we will deal with things.”
Recruitment challenges
One of the biggest challenges for education in recent years has been recruitment.
Most recently, Aberdeenshire Council’s struggle to find a new head teacher resulted in the closure of Longhaven Primary School. Youngsters were told just before Easter that they would have to go elsewhere after the break, as staffing levels meant the school could not run.
Education director Maria Walker is well aware of the problem, and said that to attract people to Aberdeenshire’s schools, promoting the region as a whole is key.
Officers have turned to teachers from Canada and Ireland to fill vacancies, and are working closely with Aberdeen University to train local people keen to enter the classroom.
Ms Walker said: “We have tried to give young people an incentive to stay here.
“But you have to look after them while they are here, because quite a lot of young people will have trained in the Central Belt so coming up means they don’t have any social or family networks.
“When you’ve been a student in Glasgow and you come to work at a rural school in Aberdeenshire it is quite a big culture shock.
“One of the things we have always tried to do with our young people is make sure they have pals because that’s what makes people stay.
“The job is really important but it also about the whole package.”
Ms Walker stressed that the search for a new head teacher at Longhaven was continuing – and insisted the school was not being mothballed.
She said: “For that particular school there we have had difficulties in recruitment so we are not even at the point of mothballing that.
“All we are doing just now is moving the children elsewhere, because the most important is to the children get an education.
“It literally is a chance to make sure the children are educated this term then look at recruitment again.”
40 years in education
When she decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps into the classroom, Maria Walker could have had no idea just what role she would play in shaping childrens’ lives 40 years on.
Tomorrow, she will retire as Aberdeenshire Council’s director of education after seven years at the helm.
And although she has promised herself a holiday, she is yet to decide her next move.
Ms Walker, who is originally from Motherwell, was inspired to become a primary school teacher by her mother and aunt.
She started out in 1976, and later retrained as a community worker before moving into education management roles.
The 63-year-old headed up education director roles in Dundee and Perth and Kinross councils before arriving at Woodhill House in 2011.
In that time she has overseen the opening of three brand new secondary and four primary schools.
But the job has not been without its challenges as she battled with a range of issues like teacher recruitment and violence in schools.
She was also involved with new community campuses in Ellon and Alford as well as similar a project in Inverurie.
Ms Walker’s role does not just cover education as she is in charge of social work, cultural services and sport and leisure for the council.
She said she will miss working alongside teachers, parents and pupils as part of her bid to improve education in the north-east.
She said: “I’ve spent the last month crying.
“Thursday is my last day and I will really miss it. Seven years is a good time, but it is now time for somebody else to come in.
“It has been a huge privilege to work in the north-east and in public service.”
