Would you complain?

[NameRanger]

I don't know if this warrants a complaint to the school or not and would like some opinions please.

On Friday it was wet play and my dd (year 3) was the second to finish lunch.

She went to her classroom once she'd finished eating, as the kids are supposed when it's wet play, and another boy was in there already.

He was throwing chairs around a few feet from my dd and she was quite scared. She tried to verbally calm him down but couldn't.

Another 2 kids then came into the classroom and child 1 was still throwing chairs around.

He then locked them all in the classroom!

Child 1 was standing in the doorway and dd reached to try and unlock the door. Child 1 then moved to physically block her from being able to.

Dd said she didn't try to unlock it again as she was worried child 1 would beat her up!

Would you complain? There is a fire exit in their (ground floor) classroom so they could have escaped if they needed to which makes me think that I shouldn't really complain to the school?

Any opinions welcome!

TIA

[YakTriangle]

Yes, I would definitely speak to somebody about that. A fire exit being available isn't really the point - the children shouldn't be left unattended while one child throws chairs and locks them in a room. That situation shouldn't be possible if they had any sense.

[Muskey]

Yes because no one was watching them and because another dc was frightening your dc and could have seriously injured someone

[cheapandcheerful]

You should definitely let the school know what happened, from your dd's perspective. I would raise it as a concern though rather than 'complain' about it...Semantics I know, but I think you're more likely to be listened to.

[NameRanger]

Thanks everyone.

I will let the school know in a 'just so you're aware X happened' kind of way.

Dd has asked me to let her teacher know what happened and has said that she's scared of the boy even when there's adults around.

The little boy has SEN and the school is aware that he can be violent towards staff and pupils, so i don't know why there weren't any adults with him.

Off to draft my email...

[MrsKCastle]

Yes, you're absolutely right to let them know, that should not have been able to happen. It's unusual to have ANY children unsupervised in a classroom IME, but for a child with a tendency to be violent to be in that situation is pretty poor. The school are lucky that no one was hurt.

[NameRanger]

Dd has just told me that now they're in KS1, they don't have an adult with them at all times when it's wet play.

1 or 2 midday supervisors just pop in and out!

There's 3 children with statements in dds class, plus a few more who have behavioural issues but aren't statemented.

[NameRanger]

Sorry, now she's in KS2!!

KS1 have someone in the class at all times during wet play.

[WombatStewForTea]

Yes I'd mention it. We don't have an adult in each classroom during wet play times but we do have Y6 prefects who are there to supervise.

[noblegiraffe]

Your DD needs to be told that if she is in a scary situation like that again where no adult is around she should immediately go and get an adult, out the fire exit if necessary.

The school needs to be told what happened so that better supervision can be put in place for this boy.

[Penfold007]

Wombat are you really saying your school uses 10 year old children as supervisors during wet play/lunch?

[ragged]

Complain is the wrong word, but I would definitely talk to school about how upset my child was and I hope they could assure me that they would prevent such a thing happening again.

School staff probably pretty upset already, too.

[ladygracie]

I think you do need to mention it but, as noble giraffe says, also talk to your daughter about going and getting an adult immediately.

[NameRanger]

I'm not sure her teacher is even aware it happened ragged.

She only told me when she got home from school and said she didn't tell the teacher.

Unfortunately, incidents like this aren't that rare with her class. They don't normally involve my dd but she's always saying about so and so fighting and having to be restrained and x had little y on the floor with his knee on his chest etc.

This is supposed to be a good school but her year seems to have a high number of children with behavioural issues.

I feel for all the staff. They didn't become teachers to be told to fuck off by a 7 year old...

[WombatStewForTea]

Yes penfold we do. There are adults constantly circulating but we don't have the staff avaliable to be with each class at all times. We have exceptionally good behaviour and haven't had any incidents. We do have two children who have additional supervisor at play/lunch times as they have additional needs.

[TaupeShimmery]

Your DD needs to be told that if she is in a scary situation like that again where no adult is around she should immediately go and get an adult, out the fire exit if necessary.

I can see that this is what a child should do, but there must be plenty of children who simply don't have the confidence to effectively police their fellow pupils, I know mine wouldn't have in Year 4. It's pretty bad that children of this age are left unsupervised even for a short time.

[GruntledOne]

I think questions need to be asked about how it was possible for the room to be locked by a child. Surely it's not the norm to leave keys in doors, or to have bolts on them? The dangers are obvious.

[BelindaBagwash]

I would have thought that if a child exhibits behaviour like this, there should have been a risk assessment done which would show that he shouldn't be left on his own, especially when other children may be present. That's what would happen in our school anyway.

We have a school of 13 classes with about 5 lunchtime supervisors so we can't have every class supervised all the time. We use two P7 prefects to each class when it's a wet play or lunch.

[NameRanger]

Gruntled all the classroom doors have locks on them. Turnkey style so no actual key iyswim.

Belinda He must have been risk assessed so I will bring that up when I get to speak to the teacher - I've emailed my concerns so will see what they say.

Thanks again.

[BelindaBagwash]

Good luck and hope your DD doesn't find herself in that horrible situation again.

[mrsmilktray]

Wombat I am shocked that 10 year old pupils are left in charge of classes - that's appalling. How can a school claim not have enough staff to supervise the children that they are funded for?

OP your school are failing in their duty of card towards your dc. Are you emailing the HT?

[IoraRua]

I know of a few schools where 12 year olds (the oldest in our primary system) supervise juniors on wet days. My primary have lots of staff so we don't do that - we still get older children into the junior classrooms to help out on wet lunchtimes, playing and reading with the younger ones etc. They actually all clamour to do it, they like the responsibility. We do it on a rota so they have time in their own classroom too.

Afaik the older kids aren't left alone for long in the junior classrooms of other schools - long enough for the teacher to make a mug of tea and pop to the loo. The teacher next door would have an ear out and be continually checking in.

[Geraniumred]

You need to complain so that the class teacher and the lunchtime supervisors are aware of the situation. Not at all safe and scary for your dd.