Overreaction about glue gun incident at school

[backinthestoneage]

https://www-thesun-ie.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.thesun.ie/news/8810155/furious-mum-school-son-burn-glue-gun/amp/?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQIUAKwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16912722078861&csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.ie%2Fnews%2F8810155%2Ffurious-mum-school-son-burn-glue-gun%2F

Resulting in a teacher misconduct hearing
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teacher-misconduct-panel-outcome-ms-sarah-mead

No wonder more and more staff are unwilling to do activities and trips. If the slightest thing goes wrong there will be a petition at the school gates and a public hounding

By all means take it seriously, but going to the lengths of professional misconduct proceedings is insanely disproportionate.
an apology and warning would have sufficed. Plus the school management taking on board the need for additional resources, and the parent acknowledging her child’s behavioural issues.

He is 10! He behaved like a 10 year old that wasn't being adequately supervised.

Y6 are the "big girl and boys". They have jobs like Head Girl or House Captain because they should be old enough and trustworthy enough to act in ways that help the teacher.

We'd occasionally be left to carry on with work for a few minutes if the teacher had to speak to somebody at the door or similar, or go between groups, because we were old enough to know how to behave from about Y3 upwards.

Mind you, we wouldn't have dared to leave our group and wander around...

The class not having a TA is not the teachers fault or the child's fault.

The child didn't follow simple instructions. That is their fault.

Walk-ie talkies? When did you last work in a school?!

they have walkie talkies, and they also have this device with buttons that can call other teachers, i think its called a mobile phone

I ask again. How can you remove a child refusing to comply when alone in a classroom?

Teachers do not have walkie talkies in any school I've worked in.

Also other teachers can't answer personal phone calls in a lesson! Even if they could, they have a class, they can't just leave their class to help! And what would they do to help? The child is refusing.

Mobile phones are strictly not allowed in classrooms - safeguarding rule. Walkie talkies have not been in a single primary school I have ever worked in and who would be at the end of them? The behaviour squad? Ha! If teachers used a walkie talkie every time a child refused to comply with an instruction they would be managed out of their jobs.

We didn't have TAs above infants. And we did batik in year five or six with only one art teacher.

Thing was, we knew we could only do that because we were considered old enough, careful enough and sensible enough. So we acted accordingly.

If an accident does happen, mum goes to the papers saying "it's all the teacher's fault" when actually parts of the child's behaviour did lead to that outcome, how will he ever learn to take responsibility for his own actions?

Nah, it’s just how the documentation works. Every medic knows that in this simple case, the “impression” equals the diagnosis.

you’re barking up the wrong tree here, medical ED documentation has its own well established idiosyncrasies.

No, him refusing to do as he was asked was nothing to do with being inadequately supervised, although I'd agree it would have been easier to manage with more support in the classroom. 10 is the age of legal responsibility. At that age refusing to do as he's told is a choice and not a good one. The majority of 10 year olds would not behave that way in a classroom although there may be a small minority that do. It is not standard 10 year old behaviour in school IME. It's the behaviour of a difficult child.

most schools have at least one TA in the classroom , even in deprived areas

assuming that the children are always going to be sensible and listen to every instruction is not a good idea , and shouldn't be relied on in terms of safety
also we cant assume that there wont be any children with SEN and additional needs in the classroom

it could be that the childs behaviour did partly lead to the actual injury, and i say partly because there were other factors involved that the child did not create, such as not having adequate staff to child ratio

most schools have at least one TA in the classroom , even in deprived areas

Are you trolling?

Because with this, and the 'most teachers have walkie talkies' bullshit, you don't seem to be posting in any rational way.

How do you suggest a teacher on their own in a classroom should remove a non compliant child?

They'd get their TA to get on their walkie talkie and someone from SLT would come to fetch.

Oh wait, except there's no TA or walkie talkie, and SLT is the one teaching the class. 🤷‍♀️

No they don't.

Most classrooms do not have TAs. I did Design and Technology with 33 6 year olds on my own a few weeks ago. It was fine. The children followed instructions, helped each other and had great fun while learning new skills

depends on the area, in London, ive seen walkie talkies in almost every school because its a convenient way to communicate and ask for assistance, instead of the teacher having to leave the classroom and leave the children unattended
usually there will be certain key members of staff on the other of the talkie, like SENCO, teacher assistant , the school office
it would have been helpful in this situation because the teacher could have radioed a member of staff to remove the child from the classroom and attend to his injury

maybe not where your from

Not generally allowed to use a mobile phone in the classroom. Nor do all classrooms have telephones (not mobile phones).

I live and work in Enfield - the same borough this situation took place in. Across 5 schools and 14 years I have never seen a walkie talkie used in any capacity except the after school club.

The SENCo likely has a class responsibility or is part time. This is a one form entry school. Many TAs are part time and work mornings only for core learning support and certainly are not 1 per class. You are making wild assumptions with little knowledge of the challenges schools actually face.

The child was 10. 10 year olds behaviour cannot be predicted for obvious reasons such as immaturity which is why very important processes are in place to protect staff and pupils. Processes staff are trained in.

The childs misbehaviour would have been irrelevant, even the lack of resources, if the adult in the room had followed the clear processes to protect them both it wouldnt have happened.

The teacher is human, she made a bad decision and screwed up big time and a child was hurt, she admitted it. She deserved a written warning and retraining /supervision at the very least. The same would have happen in any industry where h&s is so important.

No, not these days, not in key stage 2. Some might but it's far from a given. IME one SATs are finished year 6 gets drained of adults as they are used to support elsewhere in the school.

most schools have at least one TA in the classroom , even in deprived areas

If there weren't enough TAs to go around though, all things being equal, Y6 should be the class that doesn't have one, because the children should be more grown up and responsible.

They won't have a TA in Y7 even though they're back to being the youngest.

DS’s nursery let the 3-4 year olds use them. Under supervision, obviously. They did woodwork (hammering and sawing) and cookery as well (prepping vegetables, mixing, cracking eggs, buttering bread etc).

Germany though, so very different expectations of competence.