Serious incidents between pupils in the school holidays

[Foxesandsquirrels]

Out of curiosity, how do schools go about dealing with serious incidents in the school holidays? As an example, things like serious fights between pupils, pupils being caught shoplifting, arrested etc. Things that would get you, at the very least, some sort of suspension in term time. I don't expect schools to sort this out, but this sort of thing ends up getting dragged into the school eventually. Do they just come back in Sept to deal with the collateral damage? Do social services take over or is there some sort of DSL on duty the whole time?

My dd reported some online bullying on the school system during the holidays and her teacher picked up on it quickly.
conflicted as I don’t think teachers should have to deal with things like that when they aren’t at work but glad that the system kicked in to help dd.
Maybe it should divert concerns to parents or something during the holidays?

Yes I'm quite surprised at the replies here. I don't think it's reflective of the reality of most inner city schools tbh.
I thought that too, there is a gaping hole in the process. So much of it relies on trusted adults who see the kids daily working with agencies.

Our school did sanction pupils for fighting just outside the school whilst in school uniform - according to my DC, that is, so might not be totally accurate about the school's entire position.

But that was immediately outside the school, and in uniform (and just after the end of the school day). DC got the homily at assembly about standards and representing the school. And vaguely knew one of the pupils directly involved, so knew about sanctions from them.

But no, in general I don't think schools do much about what pupils do off site (though of course if support for the child is indicated, they may well be aware)

And certainly not in the holidays

Yeah but how does it happen that the school then think suspension is the next step? That's the bit I'm struggling with.

Like if they tried to suspend my child for fighting out of uniform during the holidays (God forbid!) I'd be in complaining. It has nothing to do with the school and happened during the holidays.

Could any teachers clarify because I find it a bit odd and wonder on the rationale?

I don't work in the inner city - I'm in a true blue shires area!!

I agree that anything involving police is reported to schools very quickly.

I attend daily meetings on these matters, incidents are constant, most people live in blissful ignorance of them.

Possibly. I don't know. I am in a London borough which obviously is going to be different to a small town or rural area but I refuse to believe those teens are all off to their supportive homes where their parents are on the ball with everything . I'd never seen as many drugs and alcohol consumed by 13/14 year olds as when I visited a sleepy Wiltshire village as a teen.

Safeguarding leads in school will have a rota to deal with urgent safeguarding issues during the holidays. It’s part of the senior management deal.

I think this thread has really proven to me that people really do live in blissful ignorance of it. I'm sort of glad in a way. It means services must be doing a good job.

I'm a DSL in a school.

You may be surprised to know this but I've been told that I need to be on call for any incidents over the holidays.

The Unions are kicking off about this. Namely, as I'm not allowed to be off duty even in holiday time.

I'm really hoping that I get no calls but I suppose it's a safety net for vulnerable pupils if they need us and that has to be a good thing.

You are the person I was hoping to hear from. How does this work? Obviously I understand you might not be able to elaborate too much but I'm interested in the general scope of what you do in the holidays.

Is this a secondary? Would you have a rota? And how would the call come in? The office is closed I presume.

@TeacherMcTeacherface that's interesting to know! Does that mean you'd attend Initial Child Protection Conferences or Strat Meetings? In our area I think things must be a bit different.

My headteacher is also DSL and has been contacted by the police mid summer about pupils fighting.

Shes also had to run an emergency child protection conference between agencies as schools seem to lead these now.

Who used to do those conferences? And who's idea was it that schools have the capacity to take them on?

I'm the DSL and I'm on duty all summer, I have meetings during the holidays, some remotely which I can do from home, some on school premises if the school is open and some in a local family centre. I receive encompass notifications and requests for MARAC and children's services reports to deal with. I suppose I could refuse to attend or provide information but it's part of my responsibility ( I'm also Head which makes a difference to my contracted hours!)

Schools never run them here, it's always an Independent Reviewing Officer from the local authority.

Weekend I don't know.

Usually term time because it happens when they are in uniform and it brings school into disrepute.

Jesus Christ. That's a lot and I don't even know half of what that means. I'm sort of glad I started this thread, its pretty obvious most parents have no idea you're not on holidays.

There will be someone monitoring safeguarding issues during the holidays, for my area there is a one-call service managed by the Local Authority and parents are sent a message at the start of the holiday with the contact number for reporting any concerns.

While it might not be an issue that school would issue consequences for, e.g., misbehaviour or fights outside of school time, there could still be wider safeguarding concerns around the incident so it's worth reporting it to school to make them aware. As an example, two pupils getting into a fight outside of school time has the potential to spill over into school time, it could also flag issues around parental supervision, the children involved getting themselves into unsafe situations without adult intervention, the reasons behind the fight might be a cause for concern, and so on.

Encompass notifications are from the police, domestic violence incidents they attend where our children are part of the family, MARAC is a higher level of domestic abuse where other agencies are involved.

Children's services TRY to ensure that planned meetings are held in term time ( which makes the last couple of weeks or term time manic with meetings,) but there are some families where it's not safe to leave them for six weeks over the summer without a " catch up" so meetings are planned for over the holidays, and emergencies crop up all the time ( I made my last children's services referral at 4.30 after the end of term!)

To the teachers commenting on this thread, do you suspend pupils in September for incidents that happened between pupils in July then?

Also, with regard to CP meetings, teachers don't have to attend these during holidays and can send a written report instead. I'm not sure it's correct that the teacher chaired a CP meeting. That would be the IRO's job. Maybe the teacher attended a conference, but that is different.

I have known kids get suspended for fighting at weekends. Only when it’s usually started in school and has been a continuation of a school issue.

never known it in the holidays. But I have known our school pull pupil s in and speak to them as incidents between pupils and they want to make sure it’s over.

Also I live a semi rural town. With a posh village just outside it. Both the town and village have loads of trouble during the summer holidays

MARACs are multi agency risk conferences where domestic abuse cases are discussed. This could involve children of a relationship or, from sixteen, a pupil could be heard at MARAC as a victim/survivor.

Operation Encompass is the way that police inform schools/settings about domestic abuse.

Yes if course the dsl works during the holidays and the Headteacher. Slt are not really tt only like teachers. And they will refer on etc as normal to police, social services if contacted.

My school is fairly strict but there wouldn’t be any school based consequences for something that happened completely outside of school. If they were in uniform or the argument came back into school it would be different. But totally outside of school - no consequences.