Son was attacked on his way home from school

[MakesMeFeelSad]

My son was attacked on his way home from school by 5 other pupils last week. Luckily one of the school cleaners was walking past and separated them , took him back into school and school pastoral care brought him home

The school safeguarding team phoned me about an hour later and advised that I phone the police to get an incident number which I did.

Turns out the children filmed it all, by about 7 that night my oldest son managed to get a copy of it which I sent to the police and school.

Police went into the school the next day and interviewed 7 of the I think it's 9 witnesses, I was told this by school Friday, ds hasn't Bern into school since as they've authorised him to stay off due to his injuries.

I was just wondering if anyone has experienced anything like this before and if school are likely to take any action themselves with it not being in school grounds

They are year 7s . Thank you

Your poor son 😭. No advice, but I hope this gets sorted for you both quickly.

I'd like to think the school would be suspending those on video and the police charging those attacking plus the person videoing especially if they have put it on social media.

Don't let it drop with school or police would be my advice.

If they were in school uniform and have filmed themselves then yes the school will also have to pay out consequences

Also your poor son, I hope he is ok.

How awful for your ds, hope he is ok, and awful for you. Have the school found out why he was attacked? They need to suspend these children and get their parents involved.

I‘m so sorry OP. I hope your son is ok. Absolutely don’t let this rest until they’re all expelled. Involve everyone, police, school governors and OFSTED. Threaten to go to the local media if they don’t expel them

I hope they are expelled. But you need to keep in mind that they might be in the same community as your son for the next 8 decades... and if the school tried some sort of reconciliation with some of them, then keep an open mind - it might be in your sons best interests.

But I still home the ring leaders at least are expelled

your poor son, how horrible for him

So sorry. So what are the police going to actually do? Have you spoken to the police?
And what are the school going to do? Have you spoken to the Head?

I'm so sorry OP. How absolutely awful and completely unacceptable. Don't let it lie. Maybe think of moving your son to a different school if that's an option?

I'm a teacher and we have suspended pupils for incidents like this.

We would investigate and there would be fixed term exclusions. PEX is highly unlikely though, I'm afraid.
In my experience, the police will try to push it back on the school - but it really should be a police matter.

It would be very unusual for pupils to be expelled because of a fight. I'm not minimising the situation at all, it's horrific. But it's nowhere near the bar for permanent exclusion unless there's a massive backstory e.g. multiple exclusions for similar incidents.

We would suspend. We have a police officer who works in our school and we would work with them also.

I regret my use of 'fight' here, it's clear from your post it wasn't a fight but an attack. Apologies.

We'd suspend the ones physically involved, and also anyone who filmed the fight. I would be very surprised at any permanent exclusions though.

Thanks everyone

As far as we know it's not been put on sm, my oldest sons an adult and it turns out the instigator is related to his partner, we managed to get the film from another child who they sent it to. Although you can see that their are a few children standing around with their phones out so it's probably not the only recording out there

Yes we know what it was about. Ds and one of the children had an argument, other child was climbing all over the table tennis table ds and his friends were playing on (not for the first time) and ds told the teacher

Police did ask what sort of outcome I'd like , which I thought was a bit odd. I just said some intervention is obviously needed. They are 11 and 12 years old I obviously don't want them hung drawn and quartered ! (Well)

But I do work for crown court and see more teenagers than I should coming through the doors

I don't expect them to pe permanently excluded, they are 11 and 12 year old children after all. I would like to see the school take some action though as an attempt to drill it into them that it's not acceptable

Yes I'd expect the school to be taking serious action.
My DS when in Y7 was attacked horribly on the way home from school by a group of 15 pupils from Y7-Y10.
School suspended 3 main attackers, the others were in isolation for a week. Parents informed.

Sadly the police officer who visited our house made things worse - telling DS he'll need to "man up and fiģht back". My DS is autistic. But school were brilliant.

That's awful of the police! My youngest son is autistic and in year 5, I'm dreading him going up to secondary school

The school has just gone into special measures, one of the main concerns from the younger pupils when asked was that they didn't feel safe in school so I'm hoping the school will take some action.

My oldest son did tell my not to watch it but I felt I had to, they came up on him from behind on their bikes , one of them ran into him and then the others just all piled on .

It's lucky the school cleaner came along and that ds is so tall. The boys were no taller than his shoulders so he was able to stay on his feet. I'd hate to think how much worse it could have been if they'd got him on the ground like they were trying to

Gosh, I'm so sorry OP. That's utterly awful for him and you all. My son was bullied in 6th form (but not attacked) and I did give him the option of home schooling which we thought seriously about. I'd consider changing schools or giving him extra support by picking him up/getting someone to pick him up at least. I hope you can get things in place to enable him to learn safely and without worry.

Yes, exactly the same happened to one of my dc. The school were fully supportive of us and cooperated with the police. It was in their interest to do so because some of the kids involved were seriously problematic and the school were keen to get cast iron reason to permanently exclude them. To be fair, we have found the school's pastoral care to be excellent even before this incident.

The attackers had a mixture of internal and external exclusions - not enough IMO, as they were all back in school by the time my ds was well enough to return to school. So the school additionally put them on report until the end of the school year, meaning that they had to report to the HoY office at the beginning of every single break time.

You have been far luckier than we with the police. They went in and spoke to the perpetrators immediately, whereas we have pretty much given up on seeing any response from them.

If any sympathetic children witnessed the assault, their parents should all report to the police, giving your ds's crime reference, and getting their own crime reference. The parents should emphasise how distressing and frightening witnessing the assault was for their children. It helps to build the case against the bullies. The child witnesses in our case were genuinely distressed, particularly at their inability to stop the attack on their friend.

Sorry to hear about your DS being attacked. My 13-yr-old was physically assaulted at school last term and even though the perpetrator was known, it took ages for the Police to get involved beyond issuing a crime number. The perpetrator was given a fixed term exclusion and attended a PRU for about nine days as a result of the attack but was allowed back to school, albeit in a different form group. At the time I raised my concern with the school that the video of the attack had been videoed and had almost certainly been shared on social media but the school was adamant the phone had been checked and there was no evidence of any such thing. The school police officer was keen to get my DC and me to agree for the perpetrator to be spoken to sternly and for that to be the end of it. Because of the nature of the assault e.g. unprovoked, premeditated, deliberately done to maximise humiliation along with a few other unpleasant details, I felt it was important for the perpetrator to experience a rather stronger consequence (they weren't excluded from the school which is what the behaviour policy said should happen) so I pushed for it to be managed more formally.

As a result, my DC gave a formal police statement but in the mean time it came to light that the video had been shared as well as having been posted on social media. We only found out because an older student told DC's older sibling about it. The school was quick to track that down and the student who filmed it was given a fixed term exclusion. My DC's statement was a complete match for the video footage apparently and the perpetrator was required to attend a 'caution plus 3' interview at the police station where they admitted responsibility for the unprovoked attack on my DC. The outcome of this was that a Community Resolution was issued and a letter of apology written to my DC. The perpetrator has done this but my DC has no interest in receiving or reading it as they don't want to give the perpetrator the power to get in their head again and is not interested in reading it just so the perpetrator can say it has been accepted.

Lots of mistakes have been made by DC's school during this process but key members of staff have been very supportive of DC e.g. ensuring the perpetrator isn't in any of the same classes as well as installing CCTV in the place where it happened and having the school Police officers speak to the whole year group about bystander behaviour including filming of attacks vs seeking help.

The behaviour of pupils outside of school can be considered as grounds for exclusion. Each school’s behaviour policy should set out when a pupil’s behaviour outside of school premises may lead to disciplinary sanctions. Read this policy carefully then send an email to the DSL (designated safeguarding lead), head of year and headteacher stating that you expect those responsible to be managed in line with the behaviour policy - and refer to the relevant sanction as stated in the policy. I found having all communication in writing very useful when it came up being able to check back about actions that had been promised and/or inconsistencies in the school's approach.

Meant to say, although my DC was keen for the perpetrator to be permanently excluded, my hope was for a managed move as i know from my own job that done well, these can be effective. One of the issues I raised in my formal complaint was related to the school not having followed its own behaviour policy.

I don't drive but my oldest ds is self employed and has already said that he will drop him off and pick him up if he wants him to when he goes back. He's refusing to leave the house until his black eye is gone but the school are fine with that and have said they will authorise absence next week as well if he needs it, although I'd have kept him off regardless

I am so sorry to read this OP and to the other posters who have shared about their children being attacked. I am not being goady but just wonder if someone could tell me what the point of suspending a child is? What sort of 'punishment' is it?