What could/should be happening to help this child?

[Greatlittle]

I have name changed for this for reasons which will become clear.

I work in a school in a non-teaching capacity, so this is none of my business and certainly not my "problem". I doubt I even have any ability to influence things for him.

We have a yr4 boy, family known to SS,not currently on at risk register, but have been in the past. He is the youngest of 5 children. Mum is nice enough but not terribly bright, expects the children to largely fend for themselves. The oldest boy (c.14) is the respected adult in the household as far as his younger siblings are concerned.

Anyway all the children have been through our primary, all have done poorly academically and from time to time had problems with discipline. Nothing compared to the youngest though. IM(very unqualified)O he is incredibly bright and hugely frustrated. He is rude, often violent, incredibly disobedient, even to the head who generally has no problems at all keeping children in line. The boy is not scared of anything and so quick with his answers, which are often intelligent, funny and very mature despite being incredibly rude. He has no friends other than his brothers (who he idolises) does very poorly at school and is often sent home/excluded because of his behaviour.

He is such a likable kid though and IMO has bags of potential, but I do feel things could go either way for him. He could be the next Richard Branson or end up in prison.

All the school's efforts atm are aimed at stopping him being so disruptive, which his understandable, but what should they be doing to make sure this potential is realised?

I have changed some details BTW

Ed psych with full profile and possibly counselling. Create a profile of needs. consider family outreach support

I come from a long line of out spoken political activists and cannot remember not knowing and believing in famous statement attributed to pastor Martin Niemöller. Although not a political activist myself I work with children and will as my bosses will testify always speak out when I believe something is wrong. A a professional I also have a legal obligation to do this and I believe as individuals we have a moral obligation to speak out if we are concerned about a child's welfare and remember: "education is a fundamental human right and essential for the exercise of all other human rights. It promotes individual freedom and empowerment and yields important development benefits" (the UN rights of a child). But speaking out against something like you mentioned above is not easy it could make you unpopular with your colleagues especially those above you do you want to go down this road? What sort of contract are you on are you prepared to risk loosing your job over this?

You need to start with the class teacher explain carefully your concerns (they will make excuses) if you get no obvious joy there you need to go to your head and put your concern in writing and then the governors and then the LEA (or what ever they call it now). After every conversation put it in writing and keep a copy for yourself. In all honesty you are probably going to struggle to get a massive shift in attitude towards this child but hopefully you can make some changes for the better.
Finally are you in a union? Tell them what your going to do they may not like it but tell them any way. A long time ago I made a formal complaint about something that happened at work against my union advise (who are a toothless waste of time but I have to be in one), I was whistle blowing an incorrect decision had been made by many in a senior position to me I was told that by my union rep. that I would affect my job 6 months later they decided that those working a certain working pattern would not be allowed to do this anymore and I had to leave. I wasn't the only one but interestingly many who were outspoken we also the ones working like this; we were all older and very experienced and generally were outspoken against things that concerned us.
There is a lot in the press about whistle blowing recently but IME in my field it has never been tolerated and and now it it is being tolerated even less and all the contact I've has with teachers in the state sector I suspect it will be the same if not worse in education.

THe learning mentor at my last school also used to volunteer as a mentor in the community to children who needed extra support than home could provide. It sounds like this child could do with this kind of support, I.e. an adult outside of school taking an interest in what they are doing, who has the necessary skills to influence the child.

Sounds like he needs an 'older brother' mentor to model different behaviour and choices. At the moment he is bonded to his brothers and trusts no one else. It would be better if their involvement was not linked with learning, just hanging out, playing football, building a relationship. The person would have to make a long term commitment to him for him to trust them enough to listen to them.

A charity like Friendship Works would be ideal, but his mum would have to be involved.