How regular is violence by children at Primary school?

[Dinnertime22]

If you have children in year 5 & 6? One child in particular physically assaulting others on a daily basis leaving injuries? I am trying to see if this is the general norm to be honest. No action by school and we are not even told about it. Unfortunately not just my child.

If it happens routinely, it's because the child or children doing it has/have an issue - an issue that needs dealing with.

It won't be 'bullying' - if it's routine, it'll be something quite deep, affecting the child's ability to act within social norms inside school.

Ideally, the CT, working with the SENDCO, will try and organise means of mediating the behaviour - and if those interventions don't work, other professional expertise will be called in and drawn on.

Bottom line: if violent, disruptive behaviour is routinely going on, it's a huge problem for everyone in the class. There's at least one child in the class that - for whatever reason - can't cope. There's a class of stressed children (they will be stressed - how would you feel?) - and the disruptive behaviour will ripple out in a domino effect amongst the other children. Ultimately, you have a teacher who is no longer able to teach fully effectively, and a class where only the most resilient and fully-focussed children are really learning.

Now, the thing is, this is the point where school cuts have a huge impact. Ideally, there should be interventions going on to change that behaviour and to mediate it: extra adults in the class-room, other adults in to see what the root of the problem is, expert knowledge available to work in ways to change the behaviour, bandwidth in the system that allows the time - paid time, delivered by paid adults - to deliver all this.

But ... cuts.

So ... back to you ...

How long has this been going on? Is it getting any better?

It's a sad, sad truth - and one that parents don't really know (not yet, anyway,) - that the cuts have opened huge rifts between schools. It's not fair. And the experience in offer at School A can be radically different to that on offer in School B.

You may well be at School A, where the school are dealing with this, and the issue will be sorted out

You won't be told what is being done - quite rightly : it's confidential. But things are being done, and done well.

Or you can be at School B, which is buckling under the strain of the cuts, has serious issues delivering learning to children in under-resourced classes ('resources' doesn't just mean pens and pencils - it also means professional help to support challenged and challenging students) and where a Class Teacher is struggling trying to deliver learning in a disrupted environment, with little or no support.

It's hard to tell which is which from the outside. Clues will be how long this goes on for, whether there's a high turn-over of staff.

I'm beginning to feel very bleak and angry about the cuts.

Long -term, I think people need to speak out. Short-term, I think if you're in a school that really isn't coping, you should seriously look for one that is coping.

But ... none of the above may be relevant.

Your child may well be in a school that is simply dealing with the issue confidentially, and it will be resolved, albeit not immediately.

It happens in my child's school.

It's one particular child who is the most common offender. His mum thinks it's all a big joke. He even brought a knife to school once to threaten his victims with.

Tl:dr It's fairly common to encounter children who can't cope with school & need help with physical and other forms of disruptive behaviour. What matters is the ability of the school to deal with that.

It’s at least as common in leafy naice schools as rougher schools. Schools with more challenging intakes will generally benefit from better financial support through PP etc. Our naice schools round here can barely afford class teachers. One or two schools will move children on as soon as possible, get a reputation as a “better” school and the other local schools have to suck it up.

Rolling my eyes at the "it doesn't happen in naice schools" comments. It happens in many schools, naice ones too! Often it is children with SEN with unmet needs who have been placed inappropriate school.

The most violent child in my kids school is the very walking stereotype of a nice middle class child. Show jumping, foreign holidays, Range Rover driving parents, huge house, the works.

Ineedanamechange79
Your post highlights something I don't think I've managed to get across.

The cuts are having a terrible, disproportionate effect on how we are meeting the needs of SEND children.

It's not just a case of cutting back on what those children had - and needed - it's also a case of never having had the opportunity to make the changes to mainstream schooling that we needed to make in order to become truly 'inclusive'.

It's no wonder at all that so many children have unmet needs.

And it's a tragedy that perhaps the only thing that will get parents en masse to really object to this situation is when it directly impacts on the experience of all children in the classroom.

I say 'tragedy' because it is expressed, often, in such an 'us/them' way. We need to be coming together on this, and fighting this situation together. But there are so many factors dividing us.

Ours is a naice leafy village school and yes it was the norm. The norm of both having the violent child and the school doing fuck all about it. Child was a local teacher's kid. Said teacher had worked at the school previously and therefore to the staff if she wasn't just an ex-colleague she was a lifelong friend who grew up with them as locals. Who's going to expel their maid of honour's kid eh?

Kid was never disciplined as far as anyone could tell and mum would sit by smiling indulgently as he pushed babies over or nipped their faces, often breaking the skin.. Biting was excused as "all children do it". Mum even once lifted another child off a ride on toy and plonked them on the floor, in tears, so her boy could have the toy. Even though there was another red car he could have had. The other mum was so upset furious she left playgroup and never came back.

From Playgrouo to Primary things never really changed. He was naturally violent and enjoyed it, particularly holding power over other children. Many parents were in and out of school constantly about it. I find it astounding to this day that his mother didn't see anything wrong with his behaviour. If I had a violent child I would need to deal with it not excuse it or worse, encourage it yet his new hobby is "hunting" aka going out with an older family member ripping up rabbits with dogs. (So not hunting but violent blood sport)

Happy to report he's in a different school now. A new headteacher arrived and after the mum was spotted at school a few times I have to wonder if who's decision it was.

A lot of children with additional needs are being forced into schools which just can't cope with their needs. Often a particular school will be identified as being good and managing children's needs well........so of course all the other parents want the same for their children and the school ends up being swamped by children who just can't cope.

I'd say it's very common these days, sadly a lot more common than all children getting a good education that caters to their needs. 💁🏻‍♀️

There was a very violent child at my childrens school who did indeed have special needs. He received the help he so desperately needed and he was transformed, and went from being someone that the other kids were terrified of, to someone who did well academically and rubbed along quite nicely with the others.

The current terror of the school has parents who aren't interested (boast about how they never attend parent interviews, and about ignoring requests from the principal to come in 'for a chat') and doesn't have discipline at home. (Again, that's straight from the parents themselves, and very evident from his behaviour outside of school). It's actually hard to see how the school can actually tackle that, but in the meantime, he is torturing other kids to the point that they are refusing school and their parents are the ones under scrutiny from the school/educational welfare for poor attendance.

Not normal. Measures should be taken to safeguard the other children. This isn't acceptable or normal. I've been an LSA to a child who was physically violent on occasion and I would accompany him everywhere. He had separate playtimes. Eventually the situation became untenable and he was excluded.