To not know what to do about my son who pretended he went to a different school?

[chasethebear]

My son started year 9 this September. He has a lot of friends at the other secondary school. They started a day earlier than his school did and thought it would be hilarious to go into school with his friends. Apparently they spent most of the morning trying to figure out which classes he was in and caused an uproar at the school. They ended up putting him in classes and telling him they'll sort him out on the system ASAP. DS then obviously never went back and attended his actual school. I have no idea what to do about it. I haven't been contacted and no other word has been said but I hate to think what the other school have done.

I doubt anyone will notice or care if he doesn’t turn up again. They will just assume he disappeared as mysteriously as he appeared.

"safeguarding procedures"

in the first reply...

peak MN?

@UtterlyDesperate Also here to mention Chutzpah.

I think it's hilarious. Your ds is clever. I'd have loved to have been there!

I appreciate that some people find this funny and others don't, but I don't really get all the "he's clever" "he's a genius" posts. We are talking about a 13 year old here, how much brains (or lack thereof) has it taken? Cheek yes, confidence yes, but intelligence? really? If it was the idea of a 3 year old then I'd maybe be impressed. Either i'm missing the genius of the whole thing or some people's standards are really low. He's hardly giving Stephen Hawking a run for his money.

I think it's really funny and am surprised the school didn't send him on his way pretty swiftly. Pretty embarrassing for them.

He should be made to apologise for the trouble he caused IMO though.

It's hilarious, but I'd certainly preside over the apology procedures with an iron fist.

It's a clever piece of old-fashioned mischief.

As a teacher, I don't find this hilarious by any stretch of the imagination.

As a parent, I'd be mortified if my child thought it appropriate to lie to teachers all day long who were trying to help him and were undoubtedly caused extra work and stress.

I would expect the OP to get her child to write a full letter of apology at the very least.

I'm actually shocked that people are thinking this behaviour is praise worthy. What kind of entitled behaviour is that encouraging for the child in question?

Entitled in what way? Is it going to encourage him to think himself entitled to assume different identities? Like a spy maybe?

Entitled in that he can do anything he likes with no consequences, Harold.

That's hilarious. Just leave, if they call say no sorry, wrong number.

Could totally happen on Day 1 as there are so many changes to TT

I lolled some people on here seriously need to chill out - jeeeeeeez

Naughty, but rather funny

Rubberduckies

Especially when the majority of the teachers are saying that it could.

I am a teacher and have said that this could have happened but what I (and others) have also said is that it didn't happen in the way described.

It would take two phonecalls at most to suss out that he wasn't supposed to be there, not this uproar of running around all morning then suddenly stopping in the afternoon. Its the embellishment of the story that I don't believe.

Those that do this do so in a quiet and unassuming manner as possible as not to get caught.

I thought my twin sister and I were hilarious for swapping classes at school but this is on another level of funny

I think you have to laugh. It’ll make a terrific story in a few years. As for pp saying entitled. Hardly, and how? If he went back every day then yes but as a one off no.

This is hilarious! (And I'm a teacher). Could totally happen and knowing some of my year 9s I'm genuinely wondering if your son is one of them! Tell him off, then go laugh hidden in a cupboard or something.

This could definitely happen, school admin isn't perfect and teachers usually accept people to create minimal disruption. I'd tell him off for the admin headache he's caused & warn him about the dangers of impersonation but find it privately funny!

When I was in UVI at boarding school, I was asked to help greet the new boarding arrivals in LVI. We had a list & all went ok until a girl turned up and announced she was "Suzy Smith". Suzy was on no house or form list & the Girls House Mistress remembered interviewing her but heard no more & assumed she'd declined her place. We sent her to induction whilst the staff unravelled the paperwork mix up. Suzy had accepted & paid for her place and achieved her required gcse grades but this info hadn't made it past the school office. Genuine admin error at a rather small & expensive public school. Can imagine it happening in a much bigger school, too! We also used to sneak ex-pupils back in, have day girls stay the night unbeknownst to staff & had boys sneak in. Teens are cunning.

My friends little sister also firmly told the HM at our girls school that she wouldn't stay for VI form but didn't tell her parents. It came out from the HM at the "so what will you do after gcse" chat with the family. Her parents were pretty surprised but let her change schools after year 11 as she'd effectively withdrawn herself. She's one on her own but does very well for herself!

'Straight out of Grange Hill'

letstalk2000

When I was at school we had a school trip cancelled due to a group of pupils copying grange hill, where they were sneaking another pupil on a trip out.

I can completely see this happening, to be honest, & I teach in an international school with 60 in a year group, so teachers know all the existing students.

Rock up to tutor time: 'sir, this is Omar. He's not on the register yet but Mr Brown asked me to look after him. He's shadowing my timetable'.

Genuine Omars happen all the time.

Off to maths.

'Miss, this is Omar - he's new, they haven't decided what set he's in yet, he's just shadowing me today.' OK then.

Rinse & repeat all day.

We are 3 weeks in & I've still, as a sixth form tutor, got kids on my register who I know perfectly well have been at boarding school in England for the last fortnight. Parents haven't filled in the 'removed from roll' paperwork in case it doesn't work out.

I've got new scholarship entry kids in my IB class that I do know about, but wouldn't have recognised from Adam on day one. Also one listed as doing HL with me who changed her option to SL, then dithered a bit, so is still on my class list.

I've had 2 emails today about new students in KS4 who were supposed to be joining my y10 class, but then between that email & data arriving from precious school were assigned a different group, whose teacher had no idea to expect them.

This is in a highly security conscious country where the kids are bussed in past security guards.

It could absolutely happen.

I was never in on it but there was a lot of this when I was growing up, so nothing new.
If you'd been to the other school for anything else it wouldn't be completely new to you.
This was sooooo long ago though.
Visiting my own dcs schools over the years I can see how this could easily happen.

OP, your DS will go far. That boy is brilliant. If I live that long I fully expect to read this story in the opening chapter of his biography. The one they write after he's stood down as Prime Minister or similar.

I was an "extra" pupil but my case was genuine. My single parent mum (relevant) decided she was fed up struggling and so got a job as a live in housekeeper (so no more bills). Over the school holiday she decided to stay put. She never contacted my school as it was a secondary modern so unimportant to her. My very kindly form teacher just said "well, that's put the cat among the pigeons!" They let me stay and never mentioned it again.