Child with SEN had a major meltdown at DC’s school today

[Classroomdisruption]

Child with SEN had a major meltdown at DC’s school today. Last year of primary. Chairs thrown. Tables overturned. A teacher injured as they tried to calm him down.

Class next door to DC. The kid broke away from the teachers and got into the classroom where DC was. Lots of artwork and other things torn off the walls. Equipment thrown. Their teacher told the other children to get under their desks. I asked DC if they can lock the door from the inside, apparently not.

Feel really sorry for the kid who had the meltdown. But the risk of injury is frightening. I anm not overly protective. DC plays a contact sport at a regional level (in Europe, not UK). But this incident crossed the line to violence. Completely messed up a school day.

poor kid who had the meltdown. Poor teachers. Really sad for the other children who were terrified. This is just difficult for everyone.

There is a secondary school near me ( Not in Scotland) that has a similar arrangement for children with ASD. There is a specialist 'unit' for these children, but they also integrate into mainstream classes, but with a secure base to return to if they need it. Its very highly regarded by all parents I know who have had children with ASD at this school.

My son did this in primary school. Tore across two classrooms (empty from pupils thankfully) but a teacher ended up getting hurt by accident.
we called an emergency echp review - got him a lot more support and it helped, they were great with him.
unfortunately though not many mainstream schools are equipped to deal with children like mine especially larger mainstream schools. I dont blame your child for being scared - but sounds like this child is not getting the support they need.

Autistic kids melt down like this because they are seriously not coping - so i don't see how you think this child is 'thriving' in this environment.

A lot of kids do better with a reduced curriculum, in our mainstream state secondary many parents ask for their kids to not have to do an MFL or are desperate for them to be able to just focus on Eng lang, maths and a couple of other subjects as they know 9 GCSE's are just too much. The school has different pathways for those students that are struggling with the full range of GCSE's. I think more could be done personally ie offering functional maths and english to those that would benefit - but a reduced timetable is often a positive.

It's not the reduced curriculum that will really make the difference to this child in an SEN school though - it's the class sizes. It's having the same secondary school teacher for most subjects and a small number of familiar classmates - it's about not having to constantly move around the school from room to room with a different set of kids in each subject, sat at a different seat for each subject and a different teacher.

But I agree this child doesn't definitely need an SEN school, they may just need a state school with an ASD unit attached. But how many schools have that? The ones round here don't. It's not about carting a child off to keep them separate, it's about giving a child a classroom where the have more support and that they can cope in.

Expect more of these incidents if the DoE proposals are approved. They aim to (among other things) get more SEND children into mainstream schools. Lack of teacher training/trained staff and SEND facilities means we will probably have children in schools that simply cannot cope.

They absolutely do owe the parents an explanation. We drop our children off to these schools, trusting them with our children to give them a safe learning environment. That's a given right.

that right was not met due to a violent child in the class room.

all the children are being failed. The child with SEN and the other children.

Sorry, i thought it was in my post but he is finally getting assessed for ASD after a very long fight that started when he was 1 year old and started shaking his head from side to side, which he still does aged 17. It's been a long process though and he was 14 when he finally got on the waiting list and they started the assessment in September last year. I don't know why it's taken so long when it's blindingly obvious he's got it and his dad and 2 of his brothers are diagnosed too so there is the family history too.

I have children with sen. One has meltdowns on this scale but at home. This is a child who is being completely failed by the education system. The school is clearly not meeting their needs and they need to be in a different setting. I sincerely hope this child is not going to mainstream secondary school. With all the support in the world, you can’t mitigate against classes of 30 and other pupils behaviour!

we fail these children by refusing to spend on their education consigning them to a life of claiming benefits, then moan because they’re not working!

Theres no doubt that the meltdowns are distressing, medical professionals have described my sons as “psychotic”.

When things like this happen are parents contacting the head, governors, local authorities, ofsted? What is their response?

I am surprised that more people have not mentioned this - plans to develop SEN hubs within mainstream schools. Which sounds like it could work with varying degrees of success depending how the individual schools handle it

Im sure tbe teachers have seen it all before. Fairly run of the mill now. Im in a special school and it's now a day ending in y if this hasn't occurred! Not enough staff, not enough resources. Same old.

They won’t discuss it with you ‘for GDPR reasons’.

A child overturning tables throwing chairs and lashing out at staff really is not the unusual occurance you seem to think it is in primary schools nowadays. Usually though staff can evacuate the other kids first, so maybe that's why you are less aware.

Usually I’d agree with you, @ramonaquimby - but in this case, all the children who witnessed the event will have been scared and possibly traumatised by seeing what happened, seeing a teacher injured, and being told to hide under their desks - and I do think the school needs to address this with the parents of these children.

know that if anything happens to my child at school they come straight out and tell me who did it. But I wouldn’t expect them to be talking about what happened in terms of who did what to who (because all the children would already have told all their parents the ins and outs anyway)
I would be asking about their policies, their procedures for these incidents. Hiding under a desk wouldn’t do it for me
A copy of their written school policy
What provision generally is put in place for children with additional needs within the school
Staff should be able to give a proper response to that regardless of GDPR after all they do expect us to entrust one of the most important people in our lives to their care
And if all else fails nobody in any school that I’ve been involved with wants Ofsted to be contacted to have an incident reported

Thanks for all the replies. A quick update:

The school has not addressed this with parents. I think it is a mistake as discussion is predictably exploding on WhatsApp, some of it retaliatory. Also understand how the school are tied with privacy protection. It is a country (not UK) with really strict privacy laws. A friend’s child was in the class where it started and it was worse than I initially understood. The injured teacher, another bitten and kicked, some injuries to classmates. The boy has previously seriously threatened classmates and others in the school, which must have added to the fear.

Thank you for the posts outlining what happens when there are similar incidents in other schools. So difficult. This is a beautiful school with a lot of large glass windows. It could have been worse.

The child who had the meltdown was not in school yesterday. No idea if suspended or kept off. Several other children were kept off. Collected DC early as the teacher called to say he felt sick. I said it was probably related to the previous day and the teacher did not disagree.

Thinking how best to address this with the school. Not to complain. But to make a note of the impact and ask what will happen to protect children in a similar incident.

I urge the people making excuses to imagine a fully grown adult doing the same in your place or employment, restaurant, supermarket when you are there. Why should children have to just accept violence in their classroom? At what age does it become dangerous or criminal? At what point do we, as parents, say enough is enough violence? Mainstream teachers are woefully mistreated and not equipped to deal with extremely violent individuals. A year 6 is not small.

The needs of one child should not outweigh the safety of 50-60 others.

Children like that should not be in mainstream education. Madness.

Is there anything that man hasn't destroyed?

Happens regularly with a boy in my son’s class. He has an EHCP and a full time funded One to one TA but sometimes school is short staffed so the TA goes elsewhere and his needs are not met and he can go ballistic. He broke a teachers wrist

They absolutely do owe all parents an explaination. We couldn't show primary school children a film with that level of violence, we absolutely should NOT expect them to witness it - or for staff to put up with it.

Has happened a few times in my daughters class and she has been caught in the crossfire a couple of times. Thankfully not any serious injuries.
The class have had to been evacuated to other classrooms. Has only been addressed with me when my daughter was hurt.
I do think it's very unfair on the teacher and other children but also feel bad for the child who is obviously struggling.

I don’t think anybody is saying children should accept violence in the classroom? Everyone seems to be in agreement that the child should be properly supported and that it is not fair on anybody, including all the other children, in this situation.

Because it’s big and it’s horrendous.
Do you want us to pretend it’s not happening and all is jolly? This is concerning all our children.

Thank you @meditated There is also no easy conclusion because it is a massive issue where all groups are impacted and there does not seem to be any straightforward solution.

Of course they do. Children told to hide under their desks and witnessed a teacher being injured? It’s a safeguarding issue. No winners in this situation at all.