Schools demand national campaign against parents who are abusive to school staff

[noblegiraffe]

A survey suggests that 30% of classroom teachers and 75% of headteachers have received verbal abuse from parents this year, a marked increase on before the pandemic.

The North East Schools network would like to see a national NHS-style campaign to highlight the issue and to say that abuse against school staff is never appropriate. Given that there are many public places that have signs up saying 'abuse against staff will not be tolerated' it always surprises me that this is not already a thing in schools.

Interestingly the article notes "While most interactions with parents were positive, there were small groups of parents “willing to be abusive towards school staff” – including complaints straight to external government agencies.
These bodies, such as Ofsted, the Department for Education and the Education and Skills Funding Agency “should only get involved once the school has completed their complaints procedure”."

Perhaps all those on here who rush to write 'complain to Ofsted' about some school incident should take note that they are part of the problem.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-demand-national-campaign-against-abusive-parents/

Jellycatspyjamas

The problem with points one and three is because it is entirely child focused.
Schools are not allowed to do much about bullying, so much so that they can't prevent it from happening because it is detrimental to the bully's health.
Again this is down to people like Paul Dix getting a major foot hold in education and their ideas becoming policy. (Also see the current push on trans)

As for the second point, some people shouldn't be in teaching, unfortunately these are often the people that are the HT/SLT's favourites and it makes them almost impossible to shift.

This is the thing. I think starting a simple 'parents are dreadful, shouting and complaining all the time, teachers must not be subjected to abuse' campaign totally misses the nuance.

Of course teachers and school staff shouldn't be subjected to abuse. But nor should parents or children. There are so many contributing factors, which, if addressed, would go a LONG way to reducing incidents.

Yes you will still find arsehole, totally unreasonable and awful parents. They've always existed! They always will and they need to be dealt with appropriately to protect school staff. I welcome that wholeheartedly. But the underlying cause of a lot of the problems encountered in schools shouldn't be disregarded or dismissed as parents getting annoyed or whining for no reason.

I just googled Paul Dix and actually his approach (did not read about trans issues) is a great approach. Consistency, kindness, relationship building.. https://researchschool.org.uk/greenshaw/news/book-review-title teaching is really far behind social work, YOT and youth work if his 5 principles make teachers shudder!

uninterestingusernamealert

No-one has said that underlying causes should be ignored.
In fact no-one has said that complaints shouldn't be made.

@Titicacacandle have you ever had to have a restorative conversation with a teenager, bigger than you, who had threatened to stab you because you dared to ask him to stay behind at the end of a lesson?

Sounds like an idle threat, doesn't it? Unless you know about his long involvement with the police...

I just googled Paul Dix and actually his approach (did not read about trans issues) is a great approach. Consistency, kindness, relationship building.

And yet adopting his approach ruined behaviour in schools and led to many teachers quitting the profession.

The appalling outcomes of Paul Dix is probably more to blame for the swingback to incredibly strict schools than anything else.

Titicacacandle

The problem with the Paul Dix approach it that it removed all responsibility from the pupil.
Everything became the teacher's fault.

And his restorative approach is on e of the reasons why bullying is so hard to stop,

Teaching is different to social work, YOT and youth work. Not behind.

In teaching, the ratios are more than 1 to 30 usually. What works is different to what works 1:1.

I think starting a simple 'parents are dreadful, shouting and complaining all the time, teachers must not be subjected to abuse' campaign totally misses the nuance.

Do all the posters up in various other workplaces saying that staff should not be subjected to abuse 'miss the nuance' that sometimes customer service isn't up to scratch?

Not sure why we can't just flat out say 'teachers shouldn't be abused at work'.

Yes I'm a social worker! I work with absolutely traumatised, violent, offending, heart broken teenagers and sometimes the service I give isn't good enough because of constraints and a too high case load and I get shouted at, hit, verbally abused awfully at times and yet I still advocate for relationship based practice and consistency and routine. I also ran a notorious youth club for years and worked in alternative education settings a decade or so ago.

I work with absolutely traumatised, violent, offending, heart broken teenagers

Do you have to get them to learn how to solve quadratic equations, or is your work different to that of schools?

I've been accused of being a vexatious and abusive parent. I never swore, never raised my voice, never made any personal threats, I simply kept complaining (usually in writing) when my SEND child was denied their right to suitable full time education, unlawfully excluded when they couldn't meet needs and placed on a long term part time timetable with no AP in place.

Many send parents are accused of the same but are nothing of the sort. So I do take these 'abusive parents' claims with pinch of salt.

We also talk about how all behaviour is communication for children, it's the same for adults, if parental behaviours are escalating it's likely they don't feel listened too.

You can't complain direct to external agencies. You must go through schools internal procedures first. Schools have every opportunity to resolve these complaints before they reach external agencies.

I have no doubt there are some abusive parents, there are abusive people in every walk of life, there are abusive teachers too, but I don't believe for a second it's as bad as made out or schools are as faultless as they claim. I've met many fabulous teachers but I've also met many who point blank to ever accept any other view than their own and who can't possibly ever be wrong about anything

@Titicacacandle there's a difference between advocating for those things (which I think all good teachers and schools do too) and saying that if a kid threatens to stab me, it must be somehow my fault, which is what the wholesale Dix approach does.

but I don't believe for a second it's as bad as made out

Gosh.

Titicacacandle

Presumably in your youth club, you had the ultimate sanction of not allowing the child back in?

The child that threw a chair at me was back in the class the next day and this was with me using "relationship based practice and consistency and routine".

The child that sexually assaulted another child and a teacher was allowed back in to the school.

All because their needs out weighed those that they has assaulted.

No, I don't metaphorically bang my head against a wall blaming them for me not creating the right environment to manage the emotional work that I do with them either..

Imagine if schools actually used evidence based relationship based practice. It's very clear in all research that relationship based practice works. Yet schools don't adopt that model, they get stricter and stricter, children are increasingly isolated and moved around different schools and their outcomes are shitter and shitter.

And yet adopting his approach ruined behaviour in schools and led to many teachers quitting the profession.

Is there evidence if this? Would be interested to read. Thanks.

but I don't believe for a second it's as bad as made out or schools are as faultless as they claim.

Good to see that victim blaming is alive and well.

And I didn't ban any YP, in the most notorious area @FrippEnos I managed behaviour by basically doing what Paul Dix says without ever hearing about him!

What schools are doing isn't working. The parents getting fustrated is just another symptom of that.

Titicacacandle

No, I don't metaphorically bang my head against a wall blaming them for me not creating the right environment to manage the emotional work that I do with them either..

Do you at least accept that when I have 4 pupils in the class with conflicting ECHP requirements it is impossible to "create the right environment"?

Personal experience and hearing from other teachers in the same position.

Here's a v recent thread on MN about it https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_staffroom/4903992-paul-bloody-dix

It does make you wonder if the bar for labelling abusive behaviour might be a little low when thin - skinned teachers on this thread have read scepticism about the effectiveness of such a campaign and wondering whether increased volume of complaints to ofsted can actually be understood as simply an escalation of abusive behaviour, as being akin to - treating teachers like emotional punch bags - as evidenced by...the tone. 🤷

Have anything evidence based OP? I'd be interested to read that.

It’s extremely child centred now. Too much. Punishments are inadequate, the parents back the kids whatever they do, everything is geared around making the children feel respected while they do nothing but disrespect others.

Is it? Every week there's stories in the press about schools locking toilets during lesson times, walking around corridors in silence, no tolerance policies with kids being put in isolation or whatever because they wore socks over their tights when it's minus degrees outside.