School Bully Broke My Child's Wrist :(

[dilydaly]

Can anyone please offer advice on where I stand with this. I live in Swansea, South Wales (as I know rules can vary with area).
There's a boy in my child's class who is constantly in trouble / causing trouble with all the kids. There have been numerous incidents over the years (they are currently in year 4, age 8/9). For example, fighting with other kids, throwing chairs across the class, throwing kids lunch boxes, breaking things, defecting on the changing room floor on more than one occasion. There was an ongoing situation with another child which resulted in the other child changing schools. It's this incident with the other child that makes me worry that the school won't take this as seriously as they should.
I can't say that he's bullied my child as this would imply that there has been an ongoing issue between him and my child which isn't true, there was one incident 2 months back where he kicked her (nothing overly serious, no mark left) but on Thursday he couldn't get his own way in the school yard and was told by their class teacher he couldn't do what he wanted to do (which was to continue to annoy my daughter and her 2 friends) so he (in front of the teacher) lost his temper and shoved my daughter to the ground, with such force it broke a bone. Aside from the broken bone in her wrist, she was left with 2 large grazes down the side of her face, small grazes to her knee and a tiny graze to her wrist.
I phoned my local PCSO for some advice about taking this to the police, she consulted with her sergeant then phoned me back to say this could indeed be reported and recorded as an assault. I went straight up the school and spoke to the deputy head (head mistress wasn't there) and told her what had happened (she noted everything I said down) and I told her that something must be done to stop him. Missing a play time simply won't cut it. She told me that something will be done but they can't tell me what will be done to the bully. She also asked me to hold off reporting it to the police until Monday when I'll have a meeting with the headmistress to discuss the next step.
I suppose what I want to know is does this warrant a suspension ? The deputy head as good as told me he won't be expelled. Also, what affect will reporting this to the police have on the school ? I mean it won't be ideal to have it recorded that an assault has taken place on their premises. I just want to go to this meeting armed with as much info as possible to try and get the right outcome, because so far this child seems untouchable.

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated,
Thanks

Phoning the police won't do much but if you feel you want to, there's nothing stopping you. You don't have to wait. Since this child has ongoing issues, the school can't be ignorant of them and I doubt they are happy about it either. However, the reasons particular children end up in the situations they do can be quite complex.

In some schools this would lead to a suspension, in others it wouldn't. It can depend on the policy of the LEA also. I don't think it would have any impact on the child at any rate.

You can ask about how the school intend to keep your child safe and you can follow the complaints procedure but unless the school use this incident to get some traction with the LEA, I don't think much will change.

Your child has been assaulted. I think you must DEMAND reassurance and evidence from the school that they will ensure your child will not be assaulted again.

How they punish the other boy is not your concern. What is your concern is what they are going to do to make sure your DD remains safe while at school.

If not you should report safeguarding issues to the police.

Your DD deserves to be safe while at school.

So if the child has certain issues they can do something like this and not get suspended?
They shouldn't exclude because they are failing to meet his needs. That said, if they are making reasonable adjustments to support his needs, they absolutely can exclude.

Unfortunately as everyone knows, budgets are being cut, and is becoming increasingly hard to get an ehcp/extra funding. Lots of children in mainstream who struggle to cope and schools are struggling to fund extra support/can't get the funding as quick as needed. I have several primary teacher friends who all have a child like this in their class, and are struggling to get the right support for them in order to keep other children safe. It is a sad state of affairs!

Lots of children in mainstream who struggle to cope and schools are struggling to fund extra support/can't get the funding as quick as needed. I have several primary teacher friends who all have a child like this in their class, and are struggling to get the right support for them in order to keep other children safe. It is a sad state of affairs!

This ^^ Couldn't agree more sadly.

OP I hope your daughter is okay. Report asap to the police regardless of what the school intend to do. As others have said, this is assault. I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. Our children should be safe in school.

The age of criminal responsibility is 10. They can't do anything

leighdinglady

the police can bring in more services or push for those already in place to do something.

Whatever issues the boy has is irrelevant to the op or her dad

I've reported him to the police, they gave me the option to handle this through the school liaison officer or to report it as a full assault. I asked what would be the outcomes and he advised I report as a full assault which would involve police officers going to his house and speaking to his parents at the very least. Let's hope for a positive outcome for all involved and something like this doesn't happen again eh ?!
Thanks all for the advice and kind comments xx

I hope the school work to regain your (& your DD's) trust.
Your poor DD

Well the police should take a statement which may or my not differ from the schools - there will be a record and hopefully he/his parents can get some additional help. They won't criminalise a child - but they can see what his home life's is like, involve SS or other agencies - better to prevent than punish

The child may have there own behaviour statement - because they can't be expected to behave the same as the other children

BUT also - unless there's a formal complaint the achoolsnhamds are tied - by making a formal complaint they will have other options open to them - so may help school help themselves

I have no idea of the legalities of this but if it were my daughter I would be not be happy at what the head has suggested you do ie nothing. This boy clearly has been violent towards your daughter and if it were me I would not want him anywhere near my daughter ever again. From what you say - it seems to me that the head wants to keep this incident under wraps in the school. I would not be happy with that at all and would definitely be reporting this to the police. 101 non emergency number.

I hope you DD is feeling better.

I was thinking that this thread makes you, your DD and the boy very identifiable. Unless you've changed a lot of the details I wonder if you should ask for the thread to be deleted. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I'm surprised that this can be dealt with as an assault if the child in question is 9 and therefore under the age of criminal responsibility. But I hope that whatever is done, it is taken very seriously.

DD2 was pushed by a boy, into a bookcase. She only had a small graze on her back, but I was called over at the end of school and spoken to about it in very sombre tones, and reassured that whilst the teacher couldn't break confidentiality to tell me what had been done about the behaviour, I should be reassured that measures had been taken to ensure DD2 would not be at risk of similar behaviour in the future.

That's the sort of reaction you should be expecting from the school in response to this.

His punishment will be missing break time in the morning and afternoon (he'll still get his lunchtime play, on the younger kids yard) for 5 days.
He'll also have to check in with a teacher everyday about his behaviour.
To say I'm upset is an understatement. I'll now be forwarding my letter of complaint to the board of governors.

That's an interesting solution / putting him with younger and therefore arguably more vulnerable children as a punishment for breaking a child his age wrist

If the child was over 10 (the age if criminal responsibility) this would be grievous bodily harm - serious assault.

Report to the police so it is recorded should there be further incidents after he is 10.

You are already reporting to the governors and head. Ask how they intend to keep your child safe if the boy is to continue at the school.

Also ask for their insurance details and claim for any expenses arising as a result of her injuries - hospital parking, petrol or fares to hospital. Wrists can be funny things so keep an eye that it is treated properly

What happened at the school meeting today? What did you decide to do? X

What punishment did you want for him? Do you think he intended or foresaw that he would break your DD's wrist? I think that's unlikely. I feel very sorry for your DD, but at the end of the day the school can't punish him indefinitely and they can't keep him in without any opportunity to burn off energy because it will just worsen any behavioural issues. A week is a long time for a child, and he's being made to go to a different playground, so that will be embarrassing.

It doesn't sound like they're looking after either your daughter ot the other boy. (Bear with me - I completely understand that your priority is your daughter)

Maybe this boy had SEN - it does sound like its a possibility. There are situations where parents are begging the school for help with ECHP and referrals etc and getting nowhere. Making a stand here might actually help the boy too by forcing the local authority and school to acknowledge that they aren't able to provide for his needs. If it is SEN then taking his breaks away could make things a lot worse for the child and affect his behaviour even more.

Im absolutely not saying this is your concern at all - except to point out that the school is failing both your daughter and the boy in this

"he'll still get his lunchtime play, on the younger kids yard"

So he can terrorise them as well?

Someone mentioned upthread to mention this to the local authority. One of my friends heads the local safeguarding team and would want to know about something like this, so I agree you should do this.

I have reported it to the police and they've registered it as assault. He may not have intended to break her wrist but he did, because of his temper. Being kept in at playtime is punishment for the smallest of things usually.
If that's the case CrunchieFeeling then why wouldn't the school be encouraging me to pursue this ? They seem desperate to have this over and done with.
Today he was involved in yet another incident, strangling a child, covering their nose and mouth so they couldn't breathe and then emptying said child's lunchbox all over the place !
I'll forward my letter to the board of governors, if I don't get a satisfactory response from them what's the next step ?

There's every possibility that the school have nowhere to go with this. The LEA may have made it very clear they have have no facilties so the school will have to deal with it. Calling the police and anyone else you can think of may have very little impact.

Make sure you are following the complaints procedure properly as you'll only get things bounced back otherwise and waste time. If you don't like the response of the head to your complaint you can take it up with governors, then the LEA assuming this school isn't an academy but they only make a judgement against the school's own policies.

Please don't forward your letter to the Governors yet. You need to exhaust the school complaints procedure first. Once you have exhausted the school complaints procedure, by all means escalate it to the governors, but it makes things difficult if you go straight to the governors without following the proper procedures.

If you get no response from the Governing Body, escalate to the local authority, and from there to Estyn (the Welsh equivalent of Ofsted). It sounds as though the child in question requires some additional support and/or would be better suited to being in a different school better able to cope with him, however that's for the school and his parents to deal with.

In the meantime, the school will be keen for it to all go away, of course they will, but the priority is to ensure the safety and care of your daughter, and the other children there and failure to do so will not be something that they want on their record, nor will the local authority. You will be able to find contact details for the Head of Education on their website.