DDs Classmate smashed a Window today - Would you expect the School to tell Parents?

[Lemonandlimez]

Damage was done on purpose during lesson, Classmate was angry / upset and purposefully kicked and smashed the Window. All class evacuated quickly to another room. Class Teacher spoke to them all as a group after and told them to tell their Parents about the incident. Would you expect the School to also contact us Parents or not? DD is 7.

Yes, they deliberately kicked the window, but it doesn’t follow that a 7 year old would know that kicking the window would also smash it. You aren’t making allowances for their age. They likely thought it was as strong as a brick wall and so kicking it wasn’t dangerous at all, and kicked it rather than kick a person and harm them.

In fact, her kicking the window should not have smashed it if the school building were in compliance with U.K. Health & Safety regulations.

It is not at all comparable to a child kicking and punching another child because in your example there is intent to harm another person. 7 yr olds know not to hit other people, but they don’t usually know the small amount of force to break plate glass. And I know I keep repeating this, but there should not have been any plate glass at kicking level in the classroom because it is easily smashed.

PTSD for a broken window...... Give over.

It doesn’t matter whether they knew what the consequences were. If they were angry, kicked a window deliberately and it broke. That could be really scary to witness. I’m not saying this child is a bad kid. Just that witnessing that kind of stuff can impact mental health. Trust me, I know!!

Yes. If there was shouting and dysregulation and then glass smashing, that could absolutely create a post trauma response. Especially in a child. May be not a severe reaction but could definitely lead to post trauma symptoms. It would depend on lots of different factors and what risk and resilience factors there were. The main thing is how it’s talked about following the event. If a parent doesn’t know then they can’t support their child to make sense of it. It’s really not rocket science you know. This is basic psychology. I thought people were getting a bit more psychologically savvy these days but may be not.

One smashed window doesn't impact mental health unless there are already other issues.

Raise the bar of resilience, talk to your children about what happened and reassure them that they were safe and are safe. There were adults there to manage the situation, and sometimes people get upset.

The children were spoken to by an adult, their teacher.

You couldn't inform parents every time something happened in school, they'd be getting daily emails!

Instead the parents should reassure that the teacher was in charge and keeping their child safe. If the parent needs more information they can talk to the teacher. Beyond a "well I'm glad you were safe and the teachers protected you, like always" I wouldn't say much more. Over commenting is just as bad.

We really need to stop over thinking and over reacting to relatively normal occurrences. It's not doing kids any good.

And...? I have 20 years' experience of working with children, and a doctorate in education, and I think I have a right to an opinion - I think you're the one being patronising here ...!
Additionally, this has seemingly escaped your notice, but as a previous poster has pointed out, the glass shouldn't have smashed anyway. I'd be more concerned about the lack of adequate levels of safety (with regard to easily smashable glass) 🙈

There will be several kids in that class with vulnerabilities and the school won’t know about them all. The school should have let the parents know. A short statement that is factual, anonymous, reassuring and states what measures they are putting in place.

You do realise that you used the phrase ‘you do realise’ don’t you? Patronising.

No the glass shouldn’t have smashed. Parents should be made aware of the problem and what the school are doing to rectify it.

The school didn't need to. There are multiple similar incidents daily in school, really we'd be emailing all the time.

Re the glass, schools have to tolerate whatever buildings they have. There's no money for new ones. By smash, did the whole pane smash, or did it safety shatter?

I won't start on the kid who punched a single glazed 60s window and it looked like a murder scene. Now that was somewhat traumatic.

Well, I think we will just have to agree to disagree. If I found out that something like this had happened in my DCs class and we hadn’t been told I’d be disappointed in the school, I’d wonder what else they weren’t open about and I’d lose trust.

You'd lose trust, really?

Lord help you when your kids are in secondary.

If your DC are bothered by something, then ask the teacher for more information. But if you expect an email every time there's an incident you'd be getting them daily in most places.

@Wherearewegoing when you say what the school are doing to rectify it what do you mean? They'll have followed in line with the behaviour policy for the school which is the appropriate course of action. Outside of that they can't give much other information to parents without that being a breach of gdpr and possibly a safeguarding concern for the child who broke the window. They won't be able to give any specific information about what they are doing to rectify it to parents and that's exactly what parents will be pestering the school for in return using up the little resources schools have.

You do realise that you used the phrase ‘you do realise’ don’t you

🤦🏼‍♀️

Exactly.

Absolutely.

Im a bit concerned by the way everyone feels the need to label everything these days.
Child is shy/not the most popular kid? They're autistic
Child is naughty? PDA/ODD
Child is hyper? Not good at school? ADHD
Bad at maths? Dyslexia

@CowboyJoanna it's a tad more complicated than that. People may self-diagnose at a whim but to actually get a formal diagnosis those traits actually have to be impacting your life in a negative way. Why wouldn't you want to offer support and understanding to a group of people that experience similar struggles. The 'label' allows that to happen because the world is unlikely to become inclusive without them. Even people who are very obviously physically impacted by disability and use wheelchair and other aids cannot access many things we take for granted, what hope have those with invisible disabilities got?