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?

Despite being on physical holiday this week, I check my emails regularly as the DDSL. I have safeguarding meetings during the school holidays too. Part of the job. Anything else waits till September.

Wow. At what point does leadership scale start? HOY? Assistant Head? Does holiday allowance go up with tenure?

Year 9.

Our DSL has just retired. Except they're still on the rota over the summer because there enjoyed until August 31st.

What sort of emails would you action now and which would wait till sept? Is the difference something like: you've been informed someone had a fight and it's been uploaded onto social media (action Sept) Vs you've been informed a student has gone on social media and is threatening to beat up another student (action now?) Sorry just trying to wrap my head around what the separation is.

Definitely doesn't go up with tenure. It just means that during school holidays I can work as and when I want, so some weeks I will work full time, the next week I might have a couple of days off. No one " checks up on me" I know what I need to get done and just do it as and when I want.

Some schools it will be assistant head, some it's deputy head, depends on the pay structure.

Interesting. That's kind of known for being a bad year so it's maybe the area. Most suspensions are in Y10 so I wonder if your experience would've been different. Was it an inner city comp?

I’m a DSL and I attend any meetings as required at any time year round.

So have my children, thank God.

I take my hat off to anyone who's contending with this kind of thing.

Sorry for all my question! This is so interesting. I thought pay structure was the same in every school in England? I can't imagine assistant head not being on the leadership scale.
I imagine you probably get a bulk of the paperwork done in the holidays. The safeguarding team at DDs school is so busy putting fires out daily I'm amazed they can still manage to teach.

But surely there is a part of you that can imagine why a child would feel the need to do those things, even if you and your kids haven't?

All of our assistant and deputy heads are on the leadership scale. They all have two weeks "off" over the summer, some of which they choose and some of which they have to fit around other things eg exams.
HOYs and AHOYs are not

Social media stuff would generally require the action of contacting parents to alert them and depending on levels calling local police if a crime has happened.
There wouldn't necessarily be anything else to be done

As a primary assistant head I wasn't on the leadership scale, I think secondary assistant heads probably are. But it does vary considerably!

Ok so if a child was being threatened on social media you'd contact the parents to make them aware, even if it was the holidays? Vs if there was a fight the parents were obviously aware of, you'd leave that until sept and revisit then if necessary?

In the recent teachers’ pay dispute, I would absolutely have been happy with a settlement that gave me slightly less BUT fully funded, and made me explicitly not responsible for, all the services that should be someone else’s role, including:

• social services
• police
• healthcare and diagnosis of conditions such as autism, adhd etc
• food banks
• mental health support
• specialist special education for learning difficulties, autism spectrum disorders, emotional and behavioural difficulties, sensory impairments etc etc etc
• physiotherapy
• speech and language therapy
• sensory impairment
• educational psychology
• housing
• counselling
• family courts

to name but a few. Schools are filling in the gaps by trying to provide all of these services in the absence of anyone else.

That's insane. Who chooses that?! Why would anyone want to be an assistant head on the main pay scale.

@cantkeepawayforever I agree with you completely, hence my post really. Who is doing all of that when schools are closed.

(I’m a classroom teacher, btw. No leadership position, no SEN or Safeguarding or leadership’s pay or position. I do, however, care about the children I teach)

@Foxesandsquirrels
I did get a TLR- that was £2500 a year on top of my teachers salary😁

Yes even if it was holidays I would still contact parents. A fight between two, and I was fully aware parents knew, and it wasn't serious, I would like still drop an email to check they were all ok and if they wanted services to support.

You're an angel. Thank you.

Tbf I assumed as much. Expectations on teachers and schools are insane. Absolutely insane.

Loool. Was it worth the £2.5k?

Schools.