Incident at school - come and give me your thoughts.

When I was at school, if kids truanted, they'd be miles away from school. It's different now: when kids truant, they stay in the building, run around the corridors, and cause havoc. So that may explain why these girls were out of class.

DD2 said the same - they'd hang out in upstairs stair wells and hope not to get caught - not her some of her friends - they'd also often miss partiuclar lesson not whole day as register was taken each lesson. Attendance issues were huge issue at her secondary. It wa sharder to get off site - though not impossible - and hard to get kids out for legitimate reasons as a parent.

Next time - I'd email head form tutor and head of year - or e-mail one and CC in the rest tends to get faster replies.

I expect the form tuutor feels she has sorted the issue by relaying that the girls were spoken to and reassure you - but not sure I'd be satisifed.

It's not uncommon for pupils to be sent to classes to get others - so not surpised a substituteteacher went alone with it - though more normal for DC secondary to phone down to classrooms or send an adult staff member.

God that’s awful …. Can I ask if you were stopped and helped?

Sorry to tell you this. Its a long journey.
I know someone who complained several times to form teacher. A couple of times to head of year. Once to assistant head. Once to pastoral manager - or some such stupid title.
Not once we're the complaints taken seriously. Shoulders shrugged. Brushed off.
Although the parent requested several times to meet the headteacher, they were not allowed. A school of 600. Head was too busy. She was never seen by the kids. She had umpteen assistants and deputies.
It wasn't safeguarding as such. It was bullying and class disruption. Though one incident involved a kid hitting another kid on the head with a computer chair. Another incident involved a kid slicing another kids hand open with a metal pokemon card. Hospital visit and stitches required. Shoulders shrugged by school.
The parent was about to escalate to board of governors or local education authority.
They moved schools instead.
You need to escalate, escalate, escalate. Don't take the runaround. Dont take the brush off. Go to governors ASAP.
Of course, there will be no consequences for the year 9 girls. There never is.

Just to add to the voices that would be really very concerned about this. I would definitely want a face to face meeting - I hope the school takes your request seriously and you get to talk to them in person soon.

I’m surprised too that the stand-in teacher allowed the two older girls to take your DD out of her class without any form of authorisation to do so, and apparently no questions asked.

Teachers know what children can get up to these days. This experience should be flagged up as a safeguarding issue.

I think this goes way beyond a busy body mother, this issue is extremely worrying and serious, I'd be demanding to see the headmaster. Iam sure you'd be very concerned if it was your child

What a stupid comment

It was a thing at my school. All year 7s had to do a morning, and most of us an afternoon, helping in the school office.

I think it's bizarre because it just takes away from lesson time and I don't think it had any benefit for me. I only remember photocopying and writing down the names of people who were going home early/ arriving late or who had been sent to the headteacher.

Because it's a common way to get students to go and see teachers, getting another student to go and get them. It's done all the time, and the teacher would have had no reason to doubt that.

This ^

Why did the stand in teacher allow this?

Even if not a regular teacher they should(?) have known that this was very unlikely?

I'd complain about the teacher

I had a similar experience at high school. The girl who'd been bullying me (because her sister bullied my sister 🤷🏻‍♀️) took me from a classroom.
We weren't stopped.
The fear, I can still feel it now, waiting to see what was going to happen.

I hope you get it resolved ASAP 🤞

You will feel how you feel, but there's a difference between comparison in the sense of saying they're the same thing - which I don't think anyone here is doing - and bringing up that case because elements of this has stirred memories of that, which is what I think is going on for a few people here. I don't think it takes much understanding to realise there's no disrespect for any victims.

Are you one of the mothers of these girls involved? You sounds somewhat lacking if you aren't.

Surely the TA that discovered these girls escorting your daughter to the office that was a fictional story,reported this matter immediately and took it further told the head and the 2 girls were hauled in before the head to explain wtf they were doing

@Newnamez

You've had loads of replies so you may not see this. I'm a retired secondary school teacher. When I was at school, if kids truanted, they'd be miles away from school. It's different now: when kids truant, they stay in the building, run around the corridors, and cause havoc. So that may explain why these girls were out of class.

If I were you I'd be fcking livid. If these girls can't do as they're told whilst in the building, they shouldn't be in the building. Tell the headteacher this is a serious safeguarding concern. Ensure you get a follow-up and have a plan to escalate it if you're not happy - like to the governors or something.

Incidentally, that isn't really what is happening.

People are not comparing the murder to what has happened. They are comparing the initial event of leading someone, who believes they are safe, into a situation which isn't.

There are no comparisons of torture and murder and it's actually more disrespectful in my mind to suggest there are.

You have no idea if it was a harmless prank or something more unpleasant.

Incidentally, i find the comparison of 13/14 year olds pranking a 12 year old within the confines of a school building, with the the torture and murder of a 2 year old, pretty disrespectful.

Agency Supply teachers are lucky if they are told where the staff toilet is and what time lunch is, let alone familiarised with school policies, procedures, and who SLT are

Teacher AND parent here.

While you might not like emailing, the thing that it does is provide a paper trail (well, a record if not actual paper!).

IF the school don't deal with it as you'd like, you then have evidence.

Please use the key word 'bullying' with them in writing.

Also the fact that the girls were out of class 'unsupervised'. That this is a 'safe guarding' issue. And that by allowing students to do this unsupervised during lesson time means the school was lacking in their 'duty of care' to your daughter. These terms will flag to them that you understand their legal obligation to your child (you might not understand it all, but they sure as hell will).

As others have said, there are procedures they should follow.

The bit that worries me is that they knew her name,but she didn't know them.

I agree. Not in a million years would anyone have thought that two 10 year old boys would perpetrated such a terrible crime yet it happened.

Children are murdering children in or out of school, something that we rarey heard of in the past. But its happening..
Who thought a teenage boy would arm himself with machetes and murdered 3 little girls? It happened.
What if those two girls decided they wanted notoriety and planned a heinous crime?

More than a year ago I did supply in a school where there was a dreadful problem with children wandering around, often looking for victims. I'm not exaggerating - I was hurt stopping one boy from being beaten up by another.

Bullying at the school was so bad that some parents went to the local press to complain after the LA failed to act.

I had a room opposite two of the toilet areas. Kids were standing in the doorway of the toilets, openly vaping. I'd phone the office and be told to contact my HoD (who was - of course - trying to teach in her own room), when what I needed was a senior manager to come and remove the miscreants.

It's very possible that they spotted the OP's daughter in the classroom - every single classroom that I've worked in has either had a window set in the door or (in new builds) a window to the corridor.