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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Wits end with school

155 replies

autumnvibes1 · 09/11/2021 21:03

This isn't a AIBU but posting here for traffic.

I posted a few weeks ago about an issue that happened at my DS school between my DS and another boy in his class. This boy touched my DS inappropriately in the toilets and the matter was not dealt with well at all. Teacher did not call us, when i messaged her to ask her what happened and how it had been dealt with she ignored my questions. Me and DS dad requested a meeting with the Head he agreed the teacher should have rung us and that she didn't handle the situation correctly. He said it would be put into place that our DS would not be alone in the toilets with this boy anymore in class time. Also it would be relayed to DS class teacher that she should communicate effectively with us in future.
We thought matter would be dealt with better. Tonight my DS has come home and told us this boy pushed him over today at lunch time. DS told the Teaching assistant in his class who was on duty. The TA removed my DS from playing with his other friend to put him to play with a group of people he didn't know.
I don't understand why DS was removed from playing with his friend he was playing with and the boy who pushed him over wasn't taken away from my DS/ the situation. Especially after incidents that had happened before. The toilet incident was one of many but this was the most significant.
Nothing was told to us today and the head mentioned things would be mentioned more to us now to put us at ease with how matters are dealt with regarding this child. We didn't think anything else would happen as we had confidence the behaviours of this child would be dealt with.
This other child has also behaved similar to this with one other child that we know of.
I just don't know where to go from here because i feel like our concerns have fallen on deaf ears and the behaviour management is poor from the class teacher.
What would you do in this situation?

OP posts:
autumnvibes1 · 19/11/2021 07:04

I did not reply to his last email, however received another from him last night. Saying I had sent my DS TA a message asking about an incident which was this child looking under the toilet door of my DS.
Said we agreed for TA to update us (which she didn't about this big incident) he then went onto say measures had now been put in place for this to not happen again ( he told us measured where put in place after we had the meeting with him)
So now me and DS dad are going to the governors.

Can anyone advice who previously said they know the procedure/are teachers what is good to include the letter?
Should i Iist all incidents or just the unresolved ones? And then follow up what we want to come out of it?

OP posts:
KloppsTeeth · 19/11/2021 08:36

@autumnvibes1 A reminder I am a Chair of Governors.
The best thing you can do is to print out all the evidence trail you have. You want the governor panel to know what the chronological trail has been.
What happened, what did you do to raise it with school, what school did/said, if what they said would happen happened or not.
Then you should indicate what resolution you want from this, because that is important.
Complaints are about acknowledging something has gone wrong, and what can be done about it.
Stick to the facts, in the order they happened.
If you want any help with the letter, I’d be happy to take a look so DM me, but also need to see the school complaints policy too.

WeatherwaxOn · 19/11/2021 10:35

@KloppsTeeth great advice!
I am on governing body of a school too and we were looking at our complaints policy at a recent meeting. One thing I picked up was that each separate incident/issue should have a separate complaint.
Whilst it is time consuming it gives a clear 'audit trail', and allows issues to be passed to the correct person/team to manage.
In terms of governor intervention and involvement it means more than one person may be involved, but that any shortcomings can be clearly identified and challenged.

LolaSmiles · 19/11/2021 10:44

Like @WeatherwaxOn and @KloppsTeeth, my advice would be to have a copy of the complaints policy and to include each situation, who you raised it with, what was agreed as the action moving forward, and what happened after to your knowledge.

Stick to the main events, share the facts as you understand them, and do not add anything that you're inferring/don't speculate on how the situation might have happened.

,Leave your other feelings about assorted school issues (eg thoughts about head's social media, how he runs the school) out.keep the focus on your child and specific incidents. Do not get into what other parents have said at the gates.

Sunnyjac · 19/11/2021 14:00

You mentioned at some point that you feel the school is coasting on a previously outstanding Ofsted rating. There is nothing to stop you contacting Ofsted to raise safeguarding concerns with them. That would likely trigger an inspection as anything regarding safeguarding is taken seriously.
Regarding the headteacher's tweets, it sounds to me fairly inappropriate for such information to be in the public domain (I speak as a chair of governors). Contact your chair of governors to raise this and make a formal complaint if you deem that necessary.
Such a small child behaving in the manner you describe rings alarm bells in my head and I would be onto the Designated Safeguarding Lead first and then LADO and Social Services if the school are not acting.

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