Teacher stabbed by pupil in Tewkesbury ***Title amended by MNHQ***

This. What an awful day in that school.

@Bluebells1970 "Lots of social media being shared about parents getting an email NOT to phone the school which is pretty appalling."

Seriously? Just think about that for one second.

Jeez.

It is pretty appalling that a teacher was stabbed in a school.
Pretty understandable that they are asking parents not to call. Over 1000 pupils in the school, that's a lot of parents phoning and taking up time that could be otherwise used.

Hope the teacher recovers well and soon.

The poor teacher.
Probably won't ever recover mentally from this and will probably end up leaving the profession, like many others.

Awful.

This will have been one of the reasons. The other was the school is in a lockdown, having the phones ringing off the hook puts the office members at risk of being targeted if it isn't an isolated attack.

There are over 1000 pupils in the school on lockdown, there was no information that could of been given to parents individually so calling would have blocked the phone lines, interfered with the lock down and stressed parents out more when they can't get through.

It will mentally scar the teacher, and many of the students too. Doing a practice drill is not the same as the fear all these kids have experienced today, and potentially may have witnessed too.

I know kids in the school so I'm well aware of the fear parents have experienced today, but the welfare of the kids and staff still in the school had to come first.

Poor teachers and poor other students witnessing that and the panic that came after.
I hope they all get the support they need.

It doesn't matter how "rough" or not an area is, no one should be getting stabbed.

Think about why they might be asking parents not to call.
It's obviously surely.
There is likely only a couple of lines. One is needed for emergency services, possibly both.

I think school reception have more important things to do today than answer the phone to parents to say the exact same message each time "we will update you when we are able."

I hope the teacher and his pupils are OK.

A local school to me was in lockdown for what turned out to be a false alarm but caused other schools to be locked down too. The actions of the parents and the media made the situation that was dealt with in 15 minutes as everyone in the building followed the lockdown drill extend to several hours. The parents blocked roads causing chaos and preventing emergency services from getting in, children texting and calling their parents and each other meant they were riled up, members of the press jumped over neighbours fences so then there were then individuals on site that shouldn't have been and got a big telling off by the on site armed police. Being a sleepy town I expect the local paper got excited about not writing about seagulls stealing chips.

Parents need lockdown training too and taught what the appropriate actions are and how information will be given out, everyone descending on the school does no one any favours, although is the natural thing to want to do.

So you'd trust the police, which like any other profession, is going to be just as full of grifters, incompetent idiots, cowards and people who could easily do an average to poor job, to ensure your child's safety when they're under imminent threat of murder?

I'm assuming you obviously don't actually have children.

I agree you can’t compare Gloucester and Tewksbury, two quite different places really. We live in between the two. I was shocked to hear about this incident, it’s pretty depressing really. Teachers are facing increasing levels of disrespect and challenging behaviour, and yes violence as well. Who would be a teacher these days 🙁

Yes, I have children - DDs and the school I taught in were both under a loose lockdown when the nearby school was in a tight one.

Parents calling in on the land-line or causing havoc on the roads or outside the school gates won't help anyone though will they, they just make the problem worse.

No they don't. Most kids wouldn't dream of walking around with a knife. You're always going to get violent people but that's not the majority.

@picnicbasketandblanket so what would you do if your child's school went into lockdown? Having been a school governor I know all the schools I dealt with had a lockdown procedure which had been practised, they knew a lot more about what to do than some hysterical parent trying to get into the school.

@picnicbasketandblanket What would you do then?

Lots of social media being shared about parents getting an email NOT to phone the school which is pretty appalling.

It's pretty appalling parents would be trying to contact the school. How many spare phones and secretaries do you think they have?

That’s horrendous

I should imagine more of these incidents will happen now we have less staff to strip search certain pupils for knifes (which has been going on for a few years with certain students). Of course, we don’t have the staff now to safeguard adequately.

Sorry, school staff are strip searching students?!

@DaisyUpsy

Not every student but yes sometimes certain students are strip searched (with consent from parents etc to allow entry). It’s usually done by a pastoral worker but we don’t have them now in school due to funds. Basically I’m just not at all surprised for this awful outcome and I suspect it will get more frequent as of next year (as in serious incidents/violence).

No, I haven’t commented before. And no, I haven’t changed my name.

I was just joining in on the conversation, which is at the heart of the Talk Board on Mumsnet. Conversation. And joining in with it.

Basically, you have a massive fucking chip on your shoulder and you need to chill out.

Who do you think is going to answer the phone, one probably one or two lines, to hundreds of parents? You don't think that all staff dealing with the safety and wellbeing of all pupils and staff is more of a priority?

You do realise that the office staff are locked down for their safety too?? There is no one to answer the main phone in this instance.

Office staff: Of course, Mrs Smith. Just hold the line one moment whilst I run down the corridor to check what the armed intruder (or whoever it might be in whatever scenario) is doing right now. I'll get your child out of class, shall I, and bring them to the phone?