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Original poster

Any SLT or governors here? Advice RE knife at school

34 replies

Nevermindthesquirrels · 29/09/2022 11:38

I'm going to try to keep things brief. My nephew is 12 and was found with a knife in his bag. One of those multi purpose ones with lots of options. He was told by a group of boys that have been bullying him that they'd leave him alone if he was big enough to do this. As soon as he showed them the knife one of them went to the teachers, they searched the bag and here we are.
This is in the naice home counties but it's massively effected by county lines.
He has been struggling in this school. There is a culture of low expectations and he has been getting picked on for being in top set. I am by no means excusing him as he was stupid but this is important due to the offer the school has made. He has been on the waiting list for a different school locally but it's so oversubscribed. They have similar issues with county lines but they are really hot on behaviour and they have very high expectations, as well as much more kids passing.

Anyway back to the proposal. The school has given him a 3 day suspension given that they are aware he is getting bullied and these boys have made similar offers to others. He hasn't got a single behaviour point and is generally not known to the pastoral team aside from this bullying problem.
Police have not been involved. In the meeting, school have said that they STRONGLY suggest he moves schools and they'd like the parents to come back with a choice of two schools they would be happy for him to go to. Parents want the one he's on the waiting list for but there is only one other, really far away and it's worse than the one he's in.

I used to work in schools so they thought I might know about this but I have never seen this. Is this a managed move? An illegal exclusion? We used to send kids to local schools for 2 weeks but not permanently unless it was a permanent exclusion. The paperwork for that was insane. We used to also call the police if it was knife of drugs. I'm very confused how the school can just find him a place elsewhere.

OP posts:
YippieKayakOtherBuckets · 29/09/2022 12:24

Managed moves are often a straight swap, especially if the schools are on the same regional panel. I would advise parents to ask the school to support in approaching their preferred school.

sunshineandsuddenshowers · 29/09/2022 12:18

W managed moves, sometimes space can be found where there isn't space, particularly if there is a child protection reason. There aren't class size limits at secondary - schools can be more flexible if there's a good reason. Not to say that they will do this, but they can.
IME managed moves start w a placement, so the new school can say 'thanks but no thanks' if it turns out to be a nightmare for them. So child stays on old roll for a trial period.
If this is a way for a fragile child to move to a safer calmer school, then it sounds like a blessing.

Meadowbreeze · 29/09/2022 12:15

@Bobbybobbins I'm getting that impressions too. They sound like they feel sorry for him a little. He has absolutely 0 behaviour problems. Tons of merits. Top sets. There's been lots of back and forth about these kids bullying him. I'm wondering if the school are just stuck in terms of getting the bullies out. There is another boy that did what my nephew did and they also snitched on him and he is in another school now. He lives a couple of roads down. It seems to be a thing these boys are doing but I'm lost as to the reason.

Bobbybobbins · 29/09/2022 12:09

Not SLT but work in secondary - school could do a kind of placement as a forerunner to a managed move but assume this would involve full disclosure of knife etc. My impression is they are hoping to move him without this incident being part of his record/reference?

ThanksItHasPockets · 29/09/2022 12:08

It sounds very much like the school is trying to protect him from having a permanent exclusion on his record.

Original poster
Nevermindthesquirrels · 29/09/2022 12:03

Yes, they are very lucky. I think it's a combination of school not wanting the paperwork, how the knife came to the school, the type of knife and what he did with it. But yes, I'm much more familiar with the knife you're out policy, which is why I'm trying to understand this and was hoping maybe someone is familiar with this setup.

OP posts:
pompomdaisy · 29/09/2022 11:48

My friends daughter got expelled on the day for producing a knife at school. That was that!

SeasonFinale · 29/09/2022 11:46

He is very lucky that they haven't called the police as most schools do operate a no knives policy and do call the police which often leads to a caution. In the circumstances if I was his parents I would work with the school and ask on what basis he is being transferred and how they are able to arrange this.

CoralBells · 29/09/2022 11:43

Are they wanting him to move for his own safety maybe? Hope someone can advise