Is my child in danger at school?

[Softheart15]

Hi, a boy in my daughter’s year punched her friend in the throat and kicked another in her stomach, he recently struck again on another child but this time much worse, kid ended up
in hospital again unprovoked! Turns out he’s got anger issues and does MMA so lashes out randomly and whoever is there gets it! School are brushing his behaviour under the carpet but I’m worried and have raised this with the head only to be dismissed as have other parents.He was suspended for two day so we’re all waiting for him to strike again but he gets worse with each attack. I spoke to
some of the parents and turns out he’s been doing it inside/outside of school for years! His parents are total Aholes and don’t care and his mum even told another mother to talk to her and not the school but I don’t want it to be my child next. Am I making a big deal for nothing?

I've assumed SEN precisely because I've been in this position and seen lots of post from other parents who have been dismissed and fobbed off because 'sen needs'. Its a convenient excuse to try and absolve the school of accountability by laying a massive guilt trip and pretending they don't have to do anything.

Its not an acceptable excuse.

It means
a) the school are failing to meet the needs of the SEN child.
b) the school are failing to safeguard the children.

The school has a duty to BOTH. It has a duty of care to ALL child as equal parties. One party having a disability does not trump their duty of care to other children - they have to balance needs. If they can not manage one child without putting others at risk, they have no choice but to take some sort of further action.

You HAVE to challenge it, for the benefit of both parties.

It actually HELPS build a case for extra support for the SEN child. The school/authority has a duty of care to that child to meet their needs.If they can't then it makes a case for further steps or transfer of that child to a more suitable setting for their needs.

Without challenging you are leaving children in a dangerous situation where they could be hurt.

If my child was hospitalised and I knew there was a paper trail of complaint from a number of other parents citing concerns over safeguarding and this child, I would be going absolutely nuts and taking further action.

This is why I stress the need to make complains in writing (preferably email so you have a copy yourself and its existance can't be denied).

Put the school into a position using and quoting its own policies on safeguarding and asking questions in line with this about why they are failing in their duty of care to your child. The child with SEN needs is not your problem and should not be made your child's problem if the school are failing to address their needs. You should only be concerned about your own child's right to safety. If they try and muddy the water, its not ok and you stress this.

This applies even more if SEN is not present, but SEN is unfortunately used as something for the school to hide behind far too often.

Who is the designated safeguarding lead? Is it also the headteacher?

Children have been hospitalised by the direct actions of this child - SEN or not, the other children have a right to a safe learning space. I'm sorry but I really question the sanity of people that ask this question. SEN doesn't mean we tiptoe round the child giving them carte blanche to behave however they like. Same to @Treeinthesky you said "So he's adhd and hits out" which is a wonderful armchair diagnosis of a completely anonymous child who you've been told punched her friend in the throat and kicked another in her stomach. Sorry you feel picked on by the parents of the kid who's iPad yours broke, but maybe you should extend your sympathy to the literal children who are being injured instead.

This applies even more if SEN is not present, but SEN is unfortunately used as something for the school to hide behind far too often.

A family members son was a bully at school FM tried for years to get a SEN diagnosis, turned out he's was and still is just an incredibly violent person.

Also, I'm actually feeling kind of pissed off that violent child=SEN. Sometimes that is the case, but sometimes it's the SEN kids that are the target of violent kids, because we're easy targets.

Exactly right.

Another reason why everyone obsessed with private education should give their head a wobble. All decisions are financially motivated, not based on welfare

Agree

It's a private school. They can do what they like

@Dolphinnoises the headteacher

@mm81736 he’s back in school and takes part in all the activities as normal. Only punishment he got for the putting a kid in hospital was two days suspension. I told my daughter to run if she sees him coming even if it’s the dinner queue. We really are considering moving both kids out as she can’t avoid him for the next 6 years!

Do that and tell the school why.

If its money orientated I'd have thought it would be in the best interest for the HT to clamp down on this type of behaviour in so much as I'd be more concerned I'd lose multiple paying pupils if parents did decide to pull their DC out.

Not to mention the reputation it could be having on a school with my name on the headed paper.

Where did I say it was okay, or where did I day he had a SEN. I said you can't possibly know whether he has SEN or not, and also you don't know tge school are brushing it under the carpet.You do not know what actions they have taken and what agencies are involved.
Please do not put words in my mouth.

The joys of inclusion, it’s hard for schools to get rid of these children.

Really?
So perhaps you can explain why the girl who bullied my DD at her Private school was expelled while my friend whose daughter is at the well regarded State school nearby had to remove and homeschool her daughter as the school couldn't remove the bully?
I sit on an exclusion panel for our local State school and we keep kids who I know would have had been expelled for far less at my sons Private school
Private schools do not keep violent or disruptive children as the Parents of the other children have too much power and there are no exclusion panels in most cases, they just ask them to leave.

It's a private school. It's not hard for them.

It is a lot harder if they have a special need

Hi OP. I’m a teacher, here’s what I’d do:

• Team up with other parents. Find a group of other parents who are scared about this and serious about stopping it
• Arrange a meeting with the head, turn up as a group and let him know how serious you are and the next actions you will take if this child remains in school after his violent attacks.
• Contact the police - try to encourage the parents of injured children to make reports if they haven’t. Also go as concerned parents for advice to report the situation
• If this doesn’t help, refuse to send your child to school (as a group) until this is sorted and let the school know why. If there is a bigger group of you, this will be more effective
• If nothing else helps, I’d contact the papers! (As a last resort.)

This is really serious. All it would take is a child falling back and hitting their head, or falling back down the stairs… the next person attacked could be killed. Find other parents and team up. The bigger the better. The school wants to brush this under the rug - don’t let them. Make a huge fuss.

Definitely report to Ofsted and social services. I'm surprised given it's a private school. Pessimistically I do wonder whether the school in under subscribed, and are more concerned about keeping the place full, than the impact of the kid's behaviour.

I don't think Ofsted have any jurisdiction over private schools @stichguru

If it’s a private school then contacting the police will get them to take it seriously.

Some are under Ofsted. Some are under the private school equivalent.

So there is this level of oversight. You just have to identify the relevant one.

Social services cannot act as it needs to come from school and they have not reported him. A number of parents have already tried and so did I but we all got the same answer. Independent schools ofstead said they don’t deal with this and have refered me onto department of education. Such a shame as I’m being fobbed of and every Institute is referring me back to the school, who are going to do absolutely nothing!

@stichguru SS can’t help even if they want to, the school has to refer the child which turns out they have not done!

https://www.isi.net/safeguarding/raise-a-concern/overview

The Department for Education cannot investigate or intervene in individual complaints about independent schools. However, the Department for Education has certain powers as a regulator if an independent school is not meeting standards set by Department for Education for:

• education
• pupil welfare and health and safety
• school premises
• staff suitability
• making information available to parents
• spiritual, moral, social or cultural development of students
If you have a concern about an independent school, relating to the standards, you should report it to Department for Education.

They can use the information in one of three ways: to either bring forward a future school inspection, ask ISI to do an additional inspection to look at pupil welfare, health and safety or to ask ISI to take the concerns it has received into account when the school is next inspected.