Knife brought to primary school

[Mamabear2345]

www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/18733295.police-called-grove-academy-child-brought-knife/

I don’t think anyone will want to send their children there.

[fallfallfall]

one child brought a knife (no mention of what kind) to school to show her friends.
as long as she learns that this was not okay and that the school deals with it, i don't see the issue.
bigger issue might be the neighborhood.
pen knives, multi purpose tool with a knife, vs hunting knife or mother's butcher knife all knives. more info needed

[PathOfLeastResitance]

But it was just one child - and it seems to have been dealt with appropriately.

[HopeClearwater]

Why have you shared this, OP?

[Saucery]

She’ll probably be permanently excluded.
I don’t see why you think there will be a boycott of the school if procedures are followed? Believe me, it’s not an unusual occurrence, unfortunately.

[Guymere]

Where I live and where I’ve been a governor, it would be a very rare occurrence. I don’t necessarily think the child will be permanently excluded but there needs to be an investigation as to why the child decided this was a good idea. I’m not sure primary schools talk about knives very much. I hope the child gets a chance if they simply didn’t understand the implications of doing this and gets help if appropriate. Depends on the age of the child too and whether other agencies are involved with the family etc.

[OverTheRubicon]

Bet there's a ton of backstory here and hope the child is ok. Why are you sharing this?

[nimbuscloud]

In 2018 there were 1,144 incidents involving children bringing knives into schools. One child was 4 years old.
This is far from an isolated incident.

[Gazelda]

From what I understand, the school appear to have handled it very well.

[blue25]

Happens a lot unfortunately.

[Guymere]

I assume a parent told the press which is unfortunate.

[BackforGood]

Agree with everyone else.
this is hardly an isolated thing. Just most parents would have more sense that a) to go to the press in the first place and b) to then share further by putting it on MN
Why do you think no-one would send their child there now ?

[SBTLove]

Somebody is a drama llama!
nobody will want to send their kids here
because of one incident? Im about at my limit of judgy snobs this week on MN and it’s only Monday!!!

[Smallsteps88]

Bit of an overreaction by the school to call the police. No threats were made to hurt anyone. She didn’t bring it in to harm anyone. Bring her to the office, take the knife off her, call parents. Done.

[Guymere]

That figure of knives in schools is all schools. Not primary schools. Some schools have zero tolerance of knives and others consider the factors surrounding the case before deciding to exclude or not. There’s huge differences in school. Ofsted researched into this recently in London schools. It makes fascinating reading.

[Iamnotthe1]

@Smallsteps88

Bit of an overreaction by the school to call the police. No threats were made to hurt anyone. She didn’t bring it in to harm anyone. Bring her to the office, take the knife off her, call parents. Done.

The article says no threats were made towards pupils not that no threats were made. That suggests a very deliberate choice of wording. The article is also very short and lacking any real detail so we don't really have much of an idea as to what actually happened there.

Unfortunately, it is not as simple as just taking it from them. Upon being brought to the office, it's very possible that the child could have responded badly and that resulted in action against others. The school has a duty of care towards all pupils and staff so calling the police to deal with the incident was likely the best way of maintaining that.

[Tomatoesneedtoripen]

i know of a boy who did that and was expelled.
it was a pen knife.

[Khara]

This happened to me 20 years ago. I was the teacher and the kid was y3 (so 7 or 8) His mum worked in tescos and it was her knife from work for unpacking boxes. He found it and brought it into school because he thought it'd be cool to show his mates. Luckily one of the other kids quickly dobbed him in. The mum was mortified. Incidentally this was at quite a "nice" church school.

[Guymere]

If you can find the Ofsted report about dealing with knives brought into schools in London you will see the response of schools varies a great deal. (I know Watford isn’t London but it’s a good piece of research).

Some schools permanently exclude with virtually no investigation at all and Ofsted are somewhat critical of that. They point out that most DC bringing knives into school are vulnerable and fearful. They are often from deprived families and need a lot of support in their lives. They find that some schools have a greater understanding towards the “crime” and they certainly don’t immediately exclude. They look at all the circumstances which have led to this child bringing a bladed implement into school and what the child actually did.

Therefore the school could have contacted the safeguarding team and did not have to call the police. It would totally depend what the child had done with the knife. Although in primary, safeguarding might have been more appropriate.

What was startling to read was that schools don’t have policies on knives in school. They don’t follow any guidance from their academy chain or LA. They seem to decide what to do on an ad hoc basis. Therefore I think it’s vital schools have sound policies on blades in school and that the government lays down expectations of schools.

[HandfulofDust]

I bought a pen knife into my posh prep school when I was eight. I had won it in a cracker and wanted to show it off. No one got stabbed but I did get told not to bring it back and I didn't.

[OhCrumbsWhereNow]

My prep school allowed penknives from age 11... I was desperate to get to 11 and get my penknife licence, and a shiny Swiss Army one duly appeared on my birthday... probably still have it somewhere!

Nowadays it seems crazy that was allowed, but most children are fascinated with knives from a young age (not in a stabby way, more in a whittling bits of twig type way).

I'd want more information before I panicked or assumed something bad.

[Iamnotthe1]

@Guymere
Therefore the school could have contacted the safeguarding team and did not have to call the police.

I would imagine (which is all we can do as we are lacking in any real detail) that both will have been contacted as they serve very different functions. The police to deal with any immediate threat posed by the dangerous weapon. The local authority safeguarding team to address any vulnerabilities or issues that have led to that point.

They aren't mutually exclusive and police involvement does not mean an exclusion has happened either.

[Guymere]

Yes, I do agree. We don’t know but all I’m saying is it’s not inevitable the police had to be called or that the child is permanently excluded as others have said. No one mentioned safeguarding until I did. These matters are rarely black and white but what seems to be the case is that schools rarely have well thought out policies which involve all the agencies that might be expected to be part of the decision making process. Lots of schools do permanently exclude immediately without and reference to safeguarding.

[DonaldTrumpsChopper]

Tbh, the Watford Observer is hardly the best source of news. One of the main stories this weekend was about a woman who could have multiple orgasms.

[Guymere]

Ha! It’s a bit light on detail with this incident but that’s no bad thing. It shouldn’t be in the paper at all in my view. Unless any harm was done.

[Witchend]

Actually the opposite. As a parent you can be reassured that the school reacted in the correct way. The incorrect way would have been to pretend it didn't happen, and brush it under the carpet in case an idiot parent went to the press.