To tell the school about this staff member

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At my DS school last year there was a bullying incident on a school residential. It led to the suspension of several children in his year group. We were aware of the incident as the boy’s mother posted about how upset she was on the parent year group.

This is a senior school. However we were not aware of the suspensions etc as parents. However the safeguarding lead Susan (name made up) is friends with Betty (a parent at another school). Susan and Betty run the local scouts group together. Susan has told Betty all about the suspensions and the bullying incident. Betty has been telling other parents at other schools etc about this and clearly has plenty of detail cos of Susan.

This is so indiscreet and frankly unprofessional of any safeguarding lead however I am reluctant to say anything to the school but I can’t trust our safeguarding lead now.

PS name changed for this clearly.

Yes I would tell school, thats gross misconduct

I would be pleased to know the details although presumably all the kids know anyway.

Was it "there was a bullying incident on the residential and 2 children were suspended" or "Johnny Smith was given a wedgie on the residential and Oliver Jones and Peter Taylor were suspended"

Yes, an email about confidentiality needs to be sent. Also to the scout district leaders in your area.

The boys mum posted on social media about it so its not secret.

Tbh if anyhting like dc high school, nearly every child has the full gossip and has told parents and all their friends

You’ve been listening to gossip, the safeguarding lead didn’t tell you anything. Is it second hand? Third hand? I mean it’s all very “well she said that Susan told Betty, and So and so heard it too so she told Mary, blah blah”.

I agree with this. If Betty told you directly, then you have a case to put forward. When you hear Betty told Jane who told Frankie who told Jackie, who knows what part of the story actually sticks? For all you know the gossip was about the group chat post, Jane could have added her two pence and Frankie hers and now we have a whole new angle circulating. Or the mothers of the children who were suspended were airing their laundries with other mums and that’s how that part got added in, it may not have been directly from Betty. You could get someone in to heaps of trouble for something that may not be accurate.

Oh dear. Susan shouldn’t have told Betty and Betty shouldn’t have let this get any further.

I suppose Susan could lose her job and therefore, I wouldn’t take any action. She may well have sworn Betty to secrecy. And this all happened last year so probably most people know who was involved by now.

I wouldn't care about this.

My step daughter picks her little girl, Emily, up from school and sometimes the teacher says "There was an incident where another child hurt Emily" and the teacher won't name the child so my daughter has to ask Emily. Sometimes safeguarding and confidentiality is OTT.

Most people probably do know, but if Susan is happy to gossip about this what else is she sharing that she shouldn’t? Families involved in safeguarding deserve privacy and confidentiality from all involved, and Susan has shown she’s happy to share private information. Her possibly losing her job would be the least of my concerns.

This

Unless you heard Susan tell Betty, all you can tell the school is you've heard some gossip. Leave it be, you don't even know it's true.

Betty told me directly too that’s why I know Susan told her - I’m a parent at school I didn’t know half the stuff Betty knew, the parent has said on the year group that an incident happened and how upset her son is. It was pretty bad connected to social media and inappropriate sharing, bullying. The mum did not post on social media but on the year group to say it was very upsetting.

several children were suspended.

Oh it’s true!!! Betty loved telling other people, Susan has been very indiscreet.

I’ve taught in a number of schools over 20 years, interspersed with periods working in other non-school jobs. Teachers are the cliquiest and most gossipy profession I have ever come across. That, combined with how much shagging goes on, suggests that not much is kept confidential…

At least 2 of the worst offenders for both illicit shagging and gossiping were a HT in one school and a DH in another, both male.

Do the children concerned go go scouts?, if so susan had a legitimate safeguarding reason to share the information with the scout group.
. Fir example i run a kids group where one of the leaders is also a school teacher and she has to share safeguarding information with her school when it concerns any of its pupils.

It's no secret really is it? All the children and parents are already aware. It would be difficult to prove it came from the safeguarding lead when it was already out in the open. It's even less credible coming from you who have heard it from someone who heard it from someone etc

I would report the pair of them. It doesn’t matter who might or might know already they should absolutely not be sharing that information at all. If it’s for safeguarding reasons at scouts it should not be discussed with anyone else. I find it staggering how blasé people are about this stuff.

If you think Betty is a reliable source and hasn’t just been getting random snippets from all over the village, amalgamating them together, and presenting it as fact, then yes, Susan’s indiscretion should be reported to her school. With the amount of time lapsed since the event and the fact that you all seem to live in a very gossipy village where everyone yaps about everything, I suspect Susan will deny telling Betty and say she heard everything third hand, though.

Tbh everyone involved in this sounds odd. Why on earth would Betty be invested in a bullying incident at a school she doesn’t work in or have a child at? If my teacher friend Susan started telling me all about some lengthy hoohah about teenagers bullying each other at her work I’d probably be bored half to sleep, not hanging onto her every word eager to go and tell other, unconnected people (again, why are all these “other parents at other schools” remotely interested in hearing about some misbehaving kids at another school they’ve no connection with?)

The kids will have told everyone anyway.

I would raise it with the school. Parents & children need to have cast iron trust in staff confidentiality, especially that of the safeguarding lead. What if a parent or child opts not to seek support because they know the DSL is a blabbermouth?

It doesn't matter how many people have heard on the grapevine, the safeguarding lead should never, ever discuss with parents, any situations that they've had to deal with professionally. In fact no teacher should, safeguarding lead or not.

This was drummed into us constantly at the school where I worked, and had one of my team ever been found to have done so, I'd have read then the riot act and they'd get at least a verbal warning.

So yep, if absolutely report this. She's unlikely to lose her job, but she's unlikely to remain safeguarding lead.

That makes no difference at all to the professional standards expected of a teacher, and particularly of a safeguarding lead.

If it was your own child being discussed in this way by a senior lead at his school, I'm pretty certain that you would be taking the same line.

This!!

Im with the scouts and we really have to jump through hoops for safeguarding etc so what Susan has done is really inappropriate.

The only thing is, when did these conversations happen?? Over a glass of wine in the pub in seemingly private conversation or at a scout group meeting for all and sundry to hear? That may be hard to prove.

But ultimately, a safeguarding officer shouldn't be gossiping about anything that happen on the residential.