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AIBU?

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Incident at school - come and give me your thoughts.

369 replies

Newnamez · 14/04/2026 08:43

DD is 12 and in yr7 (first yr of secondary).
On the last day of term before Easter she came home and told us that during the first lesson that day 2 'older girls' (she thinks yr9) came to the class (which had a stand in teacher that day) and asked for her by name and said she was needed at the school office by the Head teacher. She went with them. The girls walked ahead of her whispering.
By chance a TA that DD likes and chats to came out of a room and saw the three of them and asked the girls where they were taking DD. The older girls said 'the office' and the TA said i'll take over and they ran away. The TA shared with DD that one of the girls is her (TAs) cousin and said she was a ''little shit'' !! TA took DD to the office and no one had sent for her. TA took DD back to class. That's the bare bones of it. That is literally all i know.

Now, i hear about this at 6 that evening from DD and get more horrified the more i think about it. I emailed a head of year level teacher that evening. I heard nothing all easter holiday which is fine, but i heard nothing from anyone last night either. (yesterday 1st day back)

Ive told DD not to leave class unless an adult has come for her from now on.

Im going to ring the school this morning to ask to speak to someone in person about this.

Am i wrong or is this quite worrying?! How did the girls know my DD s name and where she'd be? Where were they taking her? Why were they wandering round the school? How are they going to stop this happening again?

What would you do/say?

TIA

OP posts:
Corinthiana · 14/04/2026 09:56

Those girls out of lessons sounds like the incidents we used to have before tightening up toilet permissions. They would ask to go to the toilet, some kind teacher would allow it, but they were arranging to meet up with friends.
Anyway, corridor cctv should identify the girls in question.

LondonPapa · 14/04/2026 09:55

Newnamez · 14/04/2026 09:35

Reception said ''We don't manage the teachers diary's'' when i clarified that i needed to ask by email for a meeting.

Reception sound wilfully obstructionist. Email, form lead, head of year, safeguarding lead / assistant head at the very least, and the head teacher (if you feel appropriate for situation) and ask for a meeting. It is all very bizarre and clearly something off.

Corinthiana · 14/04/2026 09:54

If a school uses students as runners, they are given coloured lanyards with their names on. If they bring messages, it is for the class teacher only.
If a student is required urgently in the office, either a member of the office staff will come and collect them, or there will be a verified note from the runner.

BerryTwister · 14/04/2026 09:51

tripleginandtonic · 14/04/2026 09:47

Run of the mill in most schools for pupils to take messages.

Really?
Primary school maybe, but I never heard of that happening at secondary school. It's one thing sending 2 well behaved 8 year olds to take a message to another classroom while the rest of the class catch up on their colouring or whatever. But removing a couple of 14 year olds from a maths lesson seems unlikely.

Whinge · 14/04/2026 09:50

tripleginandtonic · 14/04/2026 09:47

Run of the mill in most schools for pupils to take messages.

Not in my experience.

Pupils should be in lessons, not running around school delivering messages.

Mistressofnone · 14/04/2026 09:50

Good luck! Keep us posted. I would want to speak to someone immediately too.

Floralibra · 14/04/2026 09:49

That was my immediate thought as well, that’s really scary and I’m surprised the TA hasn’t reported it herself OP? Might be worth speaking to the TA yourself too maybe? Though the cousin conflict could muddy things.

you’ve definitely done the right thing - receptionist sounds super unheflpul. Don’t drop this you’re completely right to push the heads and safeguarding lead.

well done for advocating for your daughter

ladyamy · 14/04/2026 09:48

HeBeaverandSheBeaver · 14/04/2026 08:54

Very off but also why would
the ta say
little shit. That’s also weird!

TA shouldn’t have said that, but that isn’t the biggest issue here.

tripleginandtonic · 14/04/2026 09:47

Whinge · 14/04/2026 09:01

I was just going to ask the same thing.

Surely the teacher thought it was strange for 2 older pupils to just show up and ask for your daughter. The fact the teacher let her go is very concerning.

Run of the mill in most schools for pupils to take messages.

ladyamy · 14/04/2026 09:46

As a teacher myself, I would have rang to check first before I sent her out.

ladymalfoy · 14/04/2026 09:46

Every September we have an updated Safeguarding presentation. Every member of staff at school whatever their role have it drilled into them that safeguarding is every bodies responsibility.
I'm disgusted with the receptionist.

Forestgreenblue · 14/04/2026 09:46

OP how does DD get home from school?

Thoughts are if this IS picked up by school today and the girls are questioned, is there any potential risk to your DD outside of the school?

Girls can be really horrible. A friends DD is absolutely beautiful and there were some girls who invited her into town shopping with them. Only they weren’t intending on shopping - they were intending on beating her up. The only reason their plan got foiled was her older DS was also at the same school and heard a rumour about it.

PaleAzureofSummer · 14/04/2026 09:46

Worrying. Thank God for the TA

PainterInPeril · 14/04/2026 09:45

@Newnamez Honestly, I would ask to speak to the headmaster about this. I appreciate it's probably not protocol but I'd be worried it wouldn't be taken seriously enough.
I can understand why more and more parents are homeschooling now!
I hope you manage to get a satisfactory outcome to all of this, OP.

Newnamez · 14/04/2026 09:45

Going to compose email now. While juggling 2 year old and toast!

OP posts:
Shinyandnew1 · 14/04/2026 09:44

How bizarre. Very odd that two girls were out of lessons roaming around the school?!

Newnamez · 14/04/2026 09:44

Agree re: Bulger. 😔

Never forget that. My eldest had just need born. I've got 4 DDs. Big age gap between 3 and 4 !

OP posts:
BerryTwister · 14/04/2026 09:43

Corinthiana · 14/04/2026 09:31

I agree. This isn't for the Form Tutor at all.

At my kids' secondary school there was a flow chart on the website saying who to contact first in various situations, and it's pretty much always the form teacher first. They then escalate accordingly.

Sidebeforeself · 14/04/2026 09:42

I cannot believe people are getting hung up on what might happen to the lovely TA if OP reports what was said,given the potential seriousness of the situation.

Newnamez · 14/04/2026 09:42

I can't go there physically today as i'm babysitting a two year old all day and no car seat. We're miles from the school as rural.

OP posts:
Sidebeforeself · 14/04/2026 09:41

If you send any follow up emails OP .put URGENT - RESPONSE REQUIRED BY x PM TODAY in the subject title.

StormGazing · 14/04/2026 09:40

James bulger springs to mind with this, what the fuck were they going to do with her?! I’d be speaking to the head of safeguarding and asking a full investigation into this, god knows what their intentions were!
I would absolutely not mention the ‘little shit’ comment, the TA had your DDs back, keep it that way!

Newnamez · 14/04/2026 09:40

TA supports a child in DDs form class. But was not in the class that DD was taken from. DD sees this TA in lots of lessons and they seem to have a good relationship with each other. DD talks about lovely Miss X.

I won't mention the shits bit.

OP posts:
CautiousLurker2 · 14/04/2026 09:40

xOlive · 14/04/2026 08:59

100% ask for an in-person meeting.
I wouldn’t mention the TA swearing, she seems to have helped DD and that might get her into trouble.
Very worrying that your DD was led out of class, what were they planning?!

This would be my position. It may be that DD12 has exaggerated what she said anyway (might have used another term rather than ‘little shit’). The issue here is that 2 girls managed to remove a child from class without a letter/form from the office when clearly there was no request to do so.

For safeguarding reasons, this needs to be addressed: so a) they need to either only permit the removal of a child when an adult member of staff asks in person and/or an older child presents with a formal note.

And b), it is clear that this child’s presence was not requested, so separately the school need to investigate what these girls were up to and discipline them.

I wouldn’t drop the TA in it when her involvement appears to have protected DD and you don’t know for certain that the word ‘shit’ was used.

ToRiseAboveItIsHard · 14/04/2026 09:39

CaptainMyCaptain · 14/04/2026 09:38

We dont know that she didn't inform SLT do we?

No we don’t. It’s a problem if she didn’t.