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/

Titicacacandle

What schools do to children wouldn't be accepted in my role and wouldn't be accepted in a parental role

I'm sure that I can find instances of where people in your role allowed parents to do much more to children than is allowed in schools. So that isn't some shit that you want to start to fling.

But yes carry on blaming the kids and their parents like school staff always do..

Oh dear did someone piss on your chips?
I like all teachers would like to be treated with respect, not as a teacher but as a person. And is it really so bad to want pupils and parents to take responsibility for their actions? because there comes a day when the excuses mean nothing.,

This may go some way to helping with your first sentence of

I'm not blaming. I'm saying as the adult with the responsibility it is mine/yours/etc to create an environment for children to not be treated like shit and be able to learn

and yes you are blaming.

The difference is @FrippEnos we don't shut people down complaining. We have an active complaints system and young people have advocates from outside agencies to support them through the process if wanted. Young people have IROs who oversee their case. There are certainly failings in social care, but as a whole no one is doubting that or banding together to say don't complain as the SW would worry. I would not say that social care is a perfect system, it's very obviously not. However, there is much more focus on evidence based practice and listening to the users voice. Schools would do well to learn from that. Schools are definitely far behind any other type of work with young people in terms of how they treat pupils, parents and how heads run schools compared to other managerial roles. You can't start a thread complaining about parents complaining and want to put your fingers in your ears and demand your unevidenced way is the only way and the pupils and parents are just big meanies to the teachers. If the complaints are increasing then there are reasons for that. You can't stop parents complaining when the service their dcs are getting is harming their children and blame it all on parents.

Instead, it seems more likely that the increase in parental complaints

This thread is about the increase in abuse of teachers.

Of course there is an increase in parental complaints related to the shit conditions in schools right now. The parent phoning up to complain that their kid is having to teach themselves an A-level course because there’s no teacher is perfectly justified in doing so.

You can't start a thread complaining about parents complaining

Pretty sure I started a thread about parents abusing teachers.

Titicacacandle

Where on a thread about the abuse of teachers by parents is anyone stopping parents complaining?

No-one has said that parents can't complain, just that they shouldn't be abusive when they do so.

@FrippEnos you said the two issues it being dealt with effectively could be explained as examples of child centred practice, I’m saying my child certainly wasn’t centred in any decision making. What you’re saying is the parent who is most difficult to deal with gets what they want and my child suffers as a result. Which means there’s a pretty good incentive to start shouting the odds as opposed to going through the endless, utterly ineffective complaints process.

My 6 year old child was self harming due to the abusive, unwarranted actions of his teacher. Had I, in a state of stress and shock and anxiety turned up at the school and shouted or raised my voice in an effort to be heard, I’d have been regarded as a “abusive parent”. I didn’t, I remained calm, clear and focussed - I also removed my child from school until it was resolved to my satisfaction and gave a clear, written explanation as to why my child was out of school. Oddly enough that’s what prompted the school to deal with the issue.

I don’t think anyone should be abused at their work, I also think schools push parents to their absolute limits and then claim “abusive parent” when the parent, faced with sending their child to a hostile environment daily, with no efforts to ensure their child’s safety, ultimately snaps back.

I don't understand why a social worker is trying to advise teachers about their classrooms. The jobs are incredibly different with different challenges. It's hardly shocking that different approaches work. Why do non teachers continually think they can tell teachers the reality of their jobs? It's so incredibly arrogant.

Jellycatspyjamas

Sorry I missed your updates.

The truth is that the system which is child focused, focuses on the wrong child.
This is an issues for teachers as much as it is for parents.
the only way to change it is to complain to the school, go through the procedures and take it as high as you can.

I know that you have stated that you have not been abusive to teachers, but many have been and will be over something that the teachers have no control over.
They/we are stuck in the middle of this as well.
For as many parents that are complaining about the Paul dix restorative justice method there are as many teachers that hate is as well.

No child that has been bullied should be forced to sit down across from the person that has bullied them and be forced to come up with a compromise.
The only acceptable outcome should be that the bully stops bullying.

and I have also posted that some teachers shouldn't be teachers, and IME they are allowed to remain teachers due to even poorer management who seem to love and favour them. and you complaining about that teacher is not what the thread is about.

So fuckwits gonna fuckwit.
And trolls are gonna troll.

You seriously think that that's normal standard behaviour.

I would argue that budget cuts ARE more likely to result in complaints to Ofsted precisely because schools are unable to meet their obligations and heads don't want to lose their reputations and jobs for failing to meet those obligations.

The truth is that the system which is child focused, focuses on the wrong child.

Indeed, because the wrong child’s parent will turn up and shout the odds, which creates an incentive to be the parent that shouts the odds. Which increases the amount of aggressive behaviour teachers are exposed to, because nothing happens if you’re not the parent shouting the loudest.

No child that has been bullied should be forced to sit down across from the person that has bullied them and be forced to come up with a compromise

I completely agree, and refused to allow my child to take part in any such process. Which made me popular with school management as you can imagine.

I refuse to take part in restorative justice. It doesn't work.

@noblegiraffe
If a parent harasses or is violent to a teacher can they be punishment at court ?

will the teachers union support a teacher 🤔 I'm a situation like that?

I think teachers have every right to take a abusive parent who has harrased them or and is violent,

they should be quite heavily fined and money come out of their benefits,

they soon wise up ect

*I think teachers have every right to take a abusive parent who has harrased them or and is violent,

they should be quite heavily fined and money come out of their benefits,*

If it’s anything like social work there would be very little support for teachers refusing to work with aggressive parents, or indeed to take legal action. The school, as a universal service, still needs to work with the family and legal process takes a long time to resolve, presumption of innocence in the meantime etc etc.

Many professions experience significant levels of abuse and harassment, very few professionals would have their employers support to press charges.

Schools are definitely far behind any other type of work with young people in terms of how they treat pupils, parents and how heads run schools compared to other managerial roles.

You have no fucking idea what you are talking about.

Schools pick up most of the shit you social workers do nothing about. Schools pick up the kids daily and support them. You appear once every 6 weeks at best and claim to know how to build a relationship with 30 kids in an hour.

Schools are mopping up the shit left behind from underfunding in the rest of the system.

Lets not forget that they also set conflicting targets for the teachers to meet for the pupils.

But this is also part of the problem.

How can schools deal with the "wrong" parents if their is no sanction for them?

At least in previous years decent heads would stop the "wrong" parents from even dealing with members of staff. and would have an SLT focal point for them.
And abusive parents would be banned from the site.

The union would likely support you in getting the school to take action.
I doubt that they would aid you in taking the parent to court as they would want you to go through the police's procedures first.

And we all know (or should do) about how reticent the police are in getting involved in school issues.

Although if you were attacked or harassed outside of school the police may take up the case and then you would would get union support.

And I'm responding to points you have made within that thread, specifically that

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.

I agree that abuse is unwarranted, but disagree that parents erroneously reporting to Ofsted is part of the problem.

I think the problems are bigger and more structural than that, and the fracturing relationships between schools and parents are a direct result.

Teachers should be on the same side as parents when it comes to highlighting the failings in the system, holding leadership to account and questioning budget cuts and insufficient resources.

A divide and conquer campaign pitting parents and teachers against one another will do nothing to deter the kind of dick that will legitimately abuse a teacher for no reason, but it won't foster collaboration with concerned/frustrated/scared/angry parents either.

The money and energy could probably be better spent highlighting the appropriate avenues for complaints and promoting systems for collecting data through appropriate channels to put pressure on the higher authorities to prioritise funding and resourcing education properly.

I agree that abuse is unwarranted, but disagree that parents erroneously reporting to Ofsted is part of the problem.

That comes from the article in the OP which says that there has been a big increase in parents complaining to Ofsted and other external agencies erroneously. They think some of this is vexatious rather than merely an error and indicative of an increasing issue where parents act in an antagonistic manner towards schools.

The money and energy could probably be better spent highlighting the appropriate avenues for complaints and promoting systems for collecting data through appropriate channels to put pressure on the higher authorities to prioritise funding and resourcing education properly.

Or creating clear, quick, effective complaints processes in the first place. It shouldn’t take months and in some cases years to raise and resolve an issue through the schools complaints procedures.

DysmalRadius

Teachers should be on the same side as parents when it comes to highlighting the failings in the system, holding leadership to account and questioning budget cuts and insufficient resources.

At every step of the way teachers have been calling this out for years, and what did we get?

"Stop moaning"
"Stop whinging"
"You're just lazy"
"Don't like it? Leave"

So what have you got left? Teachers like @noblegiraffe still trying to tell you what is going on.

Others like me left, went back into industry, the "real world", were frankly life is so much easier.

So yes "we" should be working together. But the government, media, various groups like us4them, got believed over those that did the job.

So, is the system shit? Yes.
Did you ask for this? No.
Did you allow this to happen? Yes.
Have you got the system that you wanted? If you ever said leave to a teacher, then yes you have.

@Hercisback I am so glad you said that as I wrote and rewrote a statement to that effect.

And then when SS monumentally balls up you get a statement saying ' lessons will be learnt'

There was so much wrong with that posters post I didn't know where to start.

That would depend on what you are complaining about.
It could involve employment law, equalities law etc.
In the case of bullying the school has to show what strategies it has put in l place to support the bully etc.
In cases of poor behaviour the school will have to show support plans etc.
It is often not just a quick fix

Interesting survey out today showing:

Parents don't feel listened too or supported,

too many children don’t enjoy learning at school or their parents tell us their child doesn’t feel safe when they go to school

research shows that parents who are listened to and supported help their children succeed in their education.

This survey is full of data that should make us all sit up and think again about the barriers preventing children from succeeding in education and how we support parents.

Kind of supports my point that even for adults, all behaviour is a communication and that if behaviour is escalating, it's likely parents don't feel listened too.

https://www.nationalparentsurvey.com/?utmsource=facebook&utmmmedium=social-organic&utmcampaign=nps-2023&utmmterm=general&utm_content=carousel

Funding is what is needed. Schools cannot possibly meet all children's and parents' needs with the low staffing and resources levels they have. The capacity isn't there and it's not to do with staff wanting to.