WWYD-another child threatened to stab DD at school today

[futuresailor]

Its not the first threat of violence she has had from this same girl either, along with several other incidents of unpleasant behaviour, over the past 2 years.

DD is a young Y3,(7 in July) but has SEN which mean her developmental age is around 5.5 years. She already has 'school anxiety' but is now refusing to go back to school for fear this threat may be carried out.

Will be speaking to the teacher/head about it in the morning, But having been here already several times I'm not sure what it will achieve. DD is on the waiting list for every other school in the area already. What else can I do?

I would be inclined to keep DD at home tomorrow until you have spoken to HT, got a plan of how your child will be kept safe at school, and relayed that to your DD

Are you in a position to Home Ed if you pull her out? I should think that not attending school is pref for your DD's emotional wellbeing.

Poor DD x

ring head first thing,make la list of all events / incidents, demand to see head re threat of stabbing, then adv with all prev events it is bullying and you want a definate plan of how they will deal with bullying, and if not happy with heads advice get straight on phone to OFSTED office re failure to handle this, along with lea

DD won't be going to school tomorrow anyway, I will speak to them first then leave the battle of getting her to school until after the weekend.

In the past I have had so many assurance that they will prevent it happening again, that there will be increased supervision in the playground and at lunchtime. But it does happen and I'm always told no one (adults) saw/heard it. What would I say to OFSTED though? I can't see they would be interested in this kind of stuff really.

I would home ed if it came down to it. I seriously considered it in the past before DD was statemented. I really don't think I would be a great teacher though and it would mean me giving up work- I'm a single parent so we would struggle financially.

Spoke to the head this morning and got the usual response that they would supervise the children more. Apparently the other girls version of events is that she was just talking about 'her dad stabbing himself'

The head has also agreed at my request to speak to the other children who DD says heard the threat, to see if they back her up. She also agreed that whatever was said, it was likely to have been said with the intention to scare and intimidate DD.

the problem is the head is always so nice when I speak to her and promises everything will be sorted, so I believe its all sorted. Until it happens again and I'm back to square 1. I've had enough of it but I don't know what I can do about it either :-(

Sorry to hear you keep getting fobbed off. I would go to the Head of Governors and the council education office (though don't know if they can help if you're an academy). Explain what's happened and that as a result you have to keep DD off school. I found that when I told the school I was doing that because of DD13's bullying the school swung into action very fast and put a good plan in place.

Can you appeal for other schools? I would think with these issues and her SEN you would have a good chance?

Good point I will look onto seeing if an appeal is possible, but don't know if that applies to transfers or just new places. She has been on the waiting lists of the 3 nearest other schools (closest a 30 min drive!) for a year and a half now but has got her SEN statement since then so I will check f that bumps her up the queue any.

Just had a terrible thought though- the current school is named on part 4 of the statement- would that mean any new school won't have to accept it and we would have to go through the whole process again?

Nothing is ever simple, I try and solve one problem and it just makes everything worse :(

It should just mean it gets changed at a statement review.

I'd go to the governors and put everything in writing. It has to be seen to and they then have to provide you with written proof of what has been done to remedy the issue.

I would put everything in writing to the HT, chair of Governors, and Local authority- as a factual list, stating what action you were told would be taken and what has actually happened (bear in mind that the school won't be able to discuss how they have dealt with the other child).

Make it clear that you believe this is a safeguarding issue and that your daughter is at risk, and you need to see the plan the school has for keeping your child safe. You also need to write to the HT and explain that you are keeping your child off school because of the threats made against her, and that you believe that sending her to school without an action plan poses a danger to her safety.

The OFSTED complaints procedure states that you should go to the HT, LA and Governors before contacting OFSTED.

The other child quite possibly needs a lot of extra support if she is making violent threats against other children, and sometimes schools need a paper trail of evidence to justify requesting this.

If your child has a statement then you can call an early review whenever you want to and seek a managed move to a different school. Academies, some religious school and free schools have their own entry requirements but other schools should honour your wishes unless they feel they do nut have the experience/ expertise to meet your dd needs. Speak to your local sen officer - signature on the statement. And ask her advice. Speak to the sendco at the other schools to see what experience they have. Please go back to your child's teacher, head and sendco. It obviously is an unresolved issue that they need to be tackling. Ofsted and governors will take your case seriously but only if you have met with school staff first. If dd is refusing to go to school, ask for a reduced timetable, bring her home for lunch etc ensure she has a named adult who she can talk to, stay in with at pmaytime to reduce 'free time' spent with this other child. They should make a plan with you. Ask to see the bullying policy, tell them, in writing , your concerns and ask it to be kept in their anti bullying file. Remind head also of dda- chn with sen have a right to feel safe and head may be in breach of this if she is not ensuring this is happening.