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/

What should a parent do then?

Issue with a TA - is approaching the class teacher abusive?
Issue with a Teacher - approaching the Headteacher abusive?
Issue with. Headteacher- approaching the Chair of Governors abusive?
Issue with Safeguarding not addressed properly by the school - approaching the LADO abusive?

Parents aren’t always going to know the appropriate steps to take. Schools need to make that information a lot clearer. But complaining is not in itself abusive.

To pick up on the PALS analogy made upthread, do you think it’s antagonistic to approach PALS with a complaint about the NHS? Or the Practice Manager at a GP?

Complaining to the practice manager at a GP would be the equivalent of the headteacher, who is part of the normal complaints procedure which is advertised on the website.

Bypassing the school complaints procedure to go straight to Ofsted with a complaint that should be dealt with by the school complaints procedure is not the same as complaining to a practice manager.

Looking at the PALs website, it seems they are there to help patients access the complaints procedure, so again, entirely different to Ofsted who are the schools inspectorate.

YANBU. The teacher threads on here are shockingly awful. Violent kids, vile parents, everyone expecting the school to do everything and anything for them and are highly abusive when they can’t. You couldn’t pay me enough to teach and I’m full of admiration for those who are battling through.

Good job I didn’t say it wasn’t or that it couldn’t be used as part of an abusive tactic, isn’t it.

Complaining to Ofsted, in itself, isn’t abusive. It can be used in an abusive way. But the act of reporting to Ofsted itself is not.

If it was then any complaint to Ofsted would be abusive. Even when legitimate.

If complaints to regulators are, innately, abusive what’s the pint of them?

Chair of Governors is the next step.

How is that inciting abuse?

I didn't say that parents can't criticise schools or make complaints to schools.

I see parents going straight to Ofsted with spurious complaints as wanting to get schools in trouble rather than work with them to resolve issues.

I agree with this in principle.

I'm a chair of govs and honestly the nastiness that myself and staff face is incredible. I chair in a very middle class area and we have had to call the police several times. Some complaint letters that I've received have had to go to the police and in one instance I've told a senior leader that they can only deal with a certain parent if their union thinks it is appropriate, just to protect them.

Hmm well I work in a professional capacity with schools and a headteacher called me useless in a formal meeting the other day, in front of others. Either verbally abusive terms are acceptable, or they're not.

I'd support that campaign in a heartbeat.

My dsis was a primary deputy head for 20 years. The sort that isn't interested in being head teacher, but is the safeguarding lead, runs the school fete, and the carol concert and works with the PTA, as well as teaching full time.

She's the calmest, kindest and most sensible person I know.

One day she rang me in tears to go and take her home. She'd just been attacked by a pupil's father because she had caught the boy hurting a smaller child, and given him a lunchtime detention.

The father turned up the next day, pushed his way into the school, pinned dsis to a wall by her throat and it took all seven of the other staff to drag him off. Her neck was black & blue, she was more badly shaken than I have ever seen her. 🙁

Clearly it's not acceptable to call someone useless in a work meeting.

Not sure what your point is though.

Ffsnotaconference

If it was then any complaint to Ofsted would be abusive. Even when legitimate.
If complaints to regulators are, innately, abusive what’s the pint of them?

Then its a good job that no one on the thread is saying that.

Agreed. Plus surely it has no teeth? At our school abusive parents have to enter and pick up via the school office before or after usual times to minimise staff contact. It still puts the reception team in the line of abuse and means the child suffers through lost time. I don't know what schools can really do to protect staff, it's a nightmare and those who do it won't care about an advert as they don't think they're in the wrong!

@noblegiraffe

My point being that schools are very vocal about the abuse they receive from parents but actually can treat other professionals with exactly the same lack of respect that is shown to them.

You appear to be extrapolating from one experience with one headteacher.

I see parents going straight to Ofsted with spurious complaints as wanting to get schools in trouble rather than work with them to resolve issues.

Ofsted redirect them to the appropriate channels for complaint, so I don’t see the problem.

I do see a problem with actual abuse, but complaining to Ofsted isn’t that, unless it involves actual abuse. Because Ofsted isn’t an avenging angel for disgruntled parents and won’t do anything to a school or its staff just because someone tells them they should,

So, campaign for awareness that any aggression or abuse directed at school staff will meet with a zero tolerance approach.
Make the steps for complaints accessible and clear to everyone.

As with all professions some HTs and SLT can be abusive arseholes.

that is why when complaining about them you can go to the governors and further up

This week it's the inquiry into the death of Ruth Perry. The evidence coming out of the inquiry about how Ofsted inspectors regularly see teachers in tears, how much stress and fear the inspectorate strike in the teaching profession, the mental health that has been destroyed as a result, and of course the tragic death of Ruth Perry which has been linked to an Ofsted grading has been distressing to read.

So perhaps I am being sensitive about parents throwing around threats to report teachers to Ofsted as if it is a reasonable thing to do, and innocent teachers have nothing to fear etc etc. I suspect the spurious complaint parents doing so know how Ofsted are viewed by schools.

@noblegiraffe
No I'm definitely not. Some HTs are great and very pleasant to work with. Just an observation I've made with a few.

I had a Yr11 parent making making a nasty comment to me. She didn't swear, or threaten me but the tone was vile. As a result I'm quitting at Christmas because I can deal with this, but I don't want to or deserve it. The school have advertised my job twice but unfortunately for them, my subject is very close knit and other teachers of my subject know why I'm leaving. As a result, they've had zero applications both times. The school is freaking out because I teach 6 exam classes and they have not finished the course and I will not extend myself to leaving when they have found a replacement. It sucks for the kids who do want to learn but my mental health is my priority.

Putting aside the Ofsted issue, which I'm not convinced about, and concentrating on aggressive and inappropriate behaviour....

It would be interesting to know the NHS anti- abuse campaign, which the. N.E network want to model, has actually resulted in fewer incidents of abuse?

The replies to this thread completely illustrate the issue.

Instead of just saying ‘verbal abuse is always unacceptable’ people are trying to justify why it might be okay to abuse their child’s teacher.

And this is why we have such a huge staff shortage.

Teacher aren’t actually human in the minds of some people.

Good for you @waterdusky

People seem to assume that teachers will never leave or if they do they can be easily replaced because we are essentially disposable.

You posted about one. It's now a few. 🤷‍♀️ It's not acceptable. Complaints about headteachers should go to the Chair of Governors. Go for it.

Those headteachers behaving inappropriately to you doesn't justify any abuse coming their way.

Sounds like you’ve a problem with Ofsted tbh. Misguided complaints are not Inspections. Teachers know that those complaints will come to nothing, so there is no need to worry.
Ofsted have a lot of work to do to regain trust in their system, it’s true. Part of that work could be said to be redirecting misguided complaints through the proper channels, which they already do so again, I’m not sure why you are honing in on that part of the report.