Exclusion of 5 year old (news story)

[JoanByers]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2251060/Parents-furious-Little-Logan-expelled-infant-school-stealing-vandalism-kicking-teacher-face--hes-FIVE-years-old.html

Head's report:

i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/12/20/article-2251060-1698BC29000005DC-964_306x464_popup.jpg
i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/12/20/article-2251060-169821AD000005DC-221_306x462_popup.jpg

It does sound like the behaviour was very 'challenging' indeed.

Strategies listed include:

"Removal of other children from the classroom in order to ensure their health and safety.
Spending only part of the day in the classroom with the remainder of the day in the office.
Individual support from me [HT] during the day.
Phoning father for him to speak to boy on the phone when he showed unacceptable behaviour."

Not sure why they have put this in the newspapers

Sounds like the parents have sold the story, like they chased the newspapers for publicity.

Apart from getting his name known, I can't see what they are achieving if they have sold the story.

They are achieving some cash.

I feel it is disgusting that this little boy is not in full time education. One hour a day of educaton is not acceptable at the age of five. I feel he needs to be given a full time place in an EBD school or alternatively a place in a different mainstream school with full time TA support.

I am not sure what the parents are hoping to achieve by going to the papers. They are in a heart breaking situation. Prehaps they want their son's special needs met.

the problem won't be solved until the parents accept that there is a problem, and given their current attitude they probably wouldn't accept a place in an EBD school.

But if the boy has been tested for various underlying reasons for his behaviour and all come back negative and he behaves at home...what are the parents to do?

Sounds like they are crying out for help to me. While I wouldn't want to appear in the paper like they have, I can see they consider it their only option.

I speak as someone who had an angelic child at school, who was a nightmare at home, but then flipped....nightmare at school and angelic at home.

It took years of "negative" diagnosis from various psychologists before we found someone who actually understood DS.

I really hope these parents keep fighting for their DS, and get him what he needs/deserves.

Until he has a diagnosis of some sort, there won't be any money available for a full time TA in a mainstream school.

BoneyBackJefferson I imagine the child is doing his five hours a week at a pupil referal unit, which in essence is a special school. A PRU is essentially an assessment centre to see what has gone wrong and why the child has failed in mainstream.

I feel its really sad to put a five year old in an EBD school. He would be very isolated and possibly corrupted/ bullied by older children. EBD schools don't tend to have reception classes because the majority of primary schools do not give up so quickly.

Poor kids in his reception class, getting punched and kicked.

Geez how awful :(

The parents sound in denile which won't help. Clearly that school isn't a good fit. Granted the reports make it look like they have tried very to deal
With the situation and I do understand y they had to do what they did as there r other children to consider. But an hour a day for that boy isn't enough and I hope that the article sparks more investigation into what is wrong and how that little boys needs can be met.

The parents are in denial. I feel so sorry for the staff of that school: it sounds like they tried really hard to help the boy, to no avail.

almapudden
I don't think the school did anything beyond the call of duty. They could have called in the behaviour support team for advice. They could have used their budget to provide more TA support, looked at difficult transitions may be considered flexi schooling where the boy just attended mornings.

There was a boy in my son's year who transferred to a special school because of behaviour in year 1. The school moved hell and high water to avoid permament exclusion. It is better for a child to change schools in a managed way than be left high and dry without a school place. My son's school paid for the child to have a full time TA until he left inorder to keep children safe.

Sadly EBD children do not attract sympathy. I think its highly likely Logan has some kind of special needs.

Temporary exclusion aids the referral process (even though it's a 'lat resort' in school') This story is very commonplace, and I don't know how or why it hit the papers. We are going through a procedure very similar to this with a slightly older boy at the moment.

I know some people don't like 'labels', but I feel it is better to address the EBD early rather than have a school 'maintain' him throughout his primary years.

There are many, many children aged 4-11 being 'maintained' because of the inadequate therapy and paediatric psychiatrists/psychologists available.

ReallyTired

I can only go by what is put in the article.

It may well be that the LEA is providing a tutor at home for him.

The truth is that we don't know.

Sadly the exclusion process is required to ensure a child such as this gets appropriate help. It is a school's last resort & the parents need to be on board. I sat on many exclusion panels when I was a governor & chaired quite a few! It sounds like nothing much has changed & I suspect things have worsened because there are so many more children in mainstream school who would in the past be in specialist classes or schools. The little boy in this story has not had an Ed Psych report yet. The story says this was due to happen in January & even then the picture may not be clear? I know of one little child who was showing Aspergers symptoms & so they joined the school's ASC class during the mornings where they thrived. The much delayed Ed Psych report indicated the child had Aspergers tendencies, but as they had other issues, the place in the ASC class was considered 'inappropriate for their needs'. Thankfully the school fought for what was best for the child & they continued to thrive in the ASC class.

The education system is a farce & its even more challenging for children with SEN. One hour a day of schooling is totally inappropriate plus I imagine if the parents work, they'll be having childcare issues. I'm taking what's written about them with a pinch of salt as the story comes from the Daily Fail. Maybe they're 'on board' but to push matters they've decided to sell their story to get their son appropriate help?

Very sad.