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School failure to stop bullying

3 replies

formica5 · 25/05/2013 20:06

Bullying has got out of hand at my sons CofE school and it is rife. Groups and individuals in each year group isolating, verbally bullying and physically hurting others. The head takes a softy softly approach using mediation and such (occasionally works). He will not involve bullies parents, he will not discipline the bullies for bullying incidents and he often redirects the problem back at the victim (usually a very nice boy/girl). The head is very patient and tolerant of bullying (and bad behavior generally) but is surrounded by 200 primary students who urgently need solid boundaries.

What can I do to change things? Who can I involve? Is the Head a law unto himself?

I really don't want to keep my children at a school where bullying isn't really dealt with.

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admission · 25/05/2013 20:16

Your most sensible course of action is to instigate a formal written complaint about the bullying but it does need to be about your son and not just a general rant about bullying.
All schools have to have a complaints procedure and it will be handle by the head teacher initially who will undoubtedly give lots of reasons why the school's approach works. You need to get their written reply and then again formally object saying that whilst the words are very encouraging this is theory and the practical situation is that the school is suffering. By formally objecting to the head's response you bring it to the attention of the governing body.
To be honest that is about as much as you can do formally. The next step is to start looking for another school for your children.

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formica5 · 25/05/2013 20:23

Thankyou admission. The head firmly believes his methods work, meanwhile lots of parents are struggling with unhappy children.

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CrayolaLola · 25/05/2013 20:29

Every school should have an Anti-Bulling policy, details of which are available to parents (from school office) on request. If your head teacher is a bit ineffectual, you should bypass all school level stages and write direct to local authority, sending copy to school as a fait accompli. Should give HT a proverbial kick in the rump...

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