Injured at school

[Toothfairy22]

My son was injured at school before Christmas. The school runs a homework "club" that all the children are encouraged to attend. Whilst at the club son went to the toilets , he was followed by another boy. Son held the door for the boy, who decided to kick it into my son's face. Result was a large split in son's lip and a 3 hour visit to A&E. We went into school the following day to be told the boy involved had been excluded for 1day. Son was told differently that the boy had been put into isolation. We were told the matter would be investigated by the governors and we would be kept informed. There has been no contact.my son now sees the boy everyday and feels there has been no real punishment . How long do these incidents usually take to investigate? Son has been left with scaring on his lip and feels he's been ignored. I have parents evening later this week and want to approach this with the head but want to feel informed as to how this should have been approached. A friend , who's in the police says they should have been contacted as this was an assault that they would have investigated.

[Runningtokeepstill]

Exclusion and isolation may be the same thing. Schools don't always exclude a pupil by sending them home. They use something called "internal exclusion" where pupils are sent to a dedicated room (may be known in the school as the "isolation room") away from their normal classes and with closer adult supervision. Therefore they don't get "time off" away from school for bad behaviour - they are expected to turn up and work but not socialise.

It might be that the incident has been referred to the governors and they felt the existing internal exclusion was appropriate. It's unacceptable that they haven't got back in touch with you as promised. I would ask for a meeting about it as clearly your son has been left feeling his situation is being ignored. I have 3 ds's, two have left school and one is year 11. I cannot remember hearing of the police being called by the schools due to assaults on other pupils but I am aware of situations where the parents of children who were attacked have involved the police. I believe this was done before meeting with the school in the cases I know about.

I'd be interested to know if there has been a policy change in clubs regarding toilet access. Pupils only being allowed out individually and no child sent out until the other is back is perhaps necessary to avoid this kind of problem. Certainly the secondary schools my boys attended (3 different ones) did not allow pupils to wander off to the loo whenever they liked during lesson time so maybe the same policies could be extended to clubs?

[Toothfairy22]

The school does have an isolation room but on this occasion the head told us that the boy had been told not to attend the school that day. I think it's the fact that the school hasn't bothered being in touch with us about the results of the incident. Communication with parents doesn't seem to be one of their strong points!

[Heels99]

Ring up and arrange an update appointment with the head.

[Ladymuck]

Out of interest, what outcome are you looking for?

The other boy kicked a door. But presumably he didn't intend the extent of the damage to your Ds?

[Toothfairy22]

We want to know that changes have been made at the school to prevent this happening to another child. The doors are old heavy wooden swing doors from when the school was built at the begining of the century. My son got away relatively lightly with his injuries ( 8 stitches to his lip) the next child might not be so lucky!

[Ladymuck]

Oh ok, so the governors are looking at it from a health and safety perspective? That makes more sense I guess. I'd have been surprised if this had got to them on behaviour grounds.

You would be entitled to see the minutes of the relevant committee meeting which should confirm that the matter has been raised (though it may be as a long list of risks that are managed throughout the school). Quite often the doors are heavy because they are fire doors.

[Northernsoul58]

Toothfairy22 - We had an incident in yr 7 when my DS (now14) got punched in the face three times in class before the teacher 'woke up' and noticed. I only knew about it because DS arrived home shaken and upset. The school did not communicate with me about it when it happened. Knowing my DS I asked him what he was doing just before he got punched, and being honest he admitted he was verbally winding up a kid who clearly couldn't match him for verbal dexterity and used his fists instead. This does not excuse physical assault - which is what it was - but does demonstrate that things that happen in school are often beyond the school's power to control.
BUT, what happened next was instructive. I wrote formally to the school asking for an explanation - how could this happen etc, and asked what the school was going to do about it. What the school did next I believe is at the root of your problem too. They focused all their attention on the boy who did the hitting - isolation, anger management etc, etc. But my DS got NO support AT ALL following the incident. His teacher didn't even ask how he was at the time and didn't seem to consider in subsequent classes how he was handling being in the same class as the other boy.
I think this is the problem with many schools when they deal with unacceptable behaviour. They forget the victim and give attention to the wrongdoer. What kind of message does this give to the children? They aren't daft, none of them, and they have a keen sense of injustice. My DS and his friends simply lost trust in the teachers' ability to care about them and just toughed it out in the playground. Subsequent sanctimonious speeches in assemblies by leading staff about the school's caring ethos fell on deaf ears as the laws of the jungle had already been reinforced by their inaction. Rather than taking positive action to acknowledge that the victim had every right to feel angry, afraid, cautious, and to support my DS (and other victims too as this of course is not the only incident of its kind to have ever happened in school) the school chose to ignore this aspect of the incident.

[JudgeRinderSays]

I think it is just one of those things.I don't think the school are at fault at all.I am assuming all internal doors have to be heavy to meet fire standards?
they should have got back to you though, but I suppose it depends how often the governors meet.i would definitely chase it up, but not at parents' evening which isn't meant for this kind of thing

[ginmakesitallok]

Similarish issue here. Before Christmas dd's front tooth was broken in half when a student teacher hit her in the face with a table tennis bat. Spent Christmas and new year back and forth from dentist, she'll always have problems with that tooth from now on. At the time the school said they were going to investigate, but we've heard nothing. I wasn't sure if they would think I was a loon if I chased it up?

[admission]

If the school did fixed term exclude the pupil for a day then there are very specific rules around what can happen as far as the governing body are concerned. For a 1 day fixed term exclusion the head teacher only has to advise the governing body of the exclusion in a termly report. If the parents of the excluded child for 1 days exclusion make representations to the governing body then the governing body must consider the points made by the parents but they cannot direct reinstatement and is not required to arrange a meeting with the parents. There is therefore little that can be done in such situations of very short term fixed exclusions.
I am afraid for the parents of the pupil injured in the attack there is even less help and in reality the school can just ignore you if they were foolish enough to do so. The basis concept is always that whilst they will listen to you they will not promise anything and they certainly will not normally say what has happened to the offenders - that is between the school and the offender.