bullying at primary school

[exgov]

Hello all, I'm a bit of a lurker generally but I wondered if anyone has any 'offical' advice about bullying. One boy (age 9) in my ds's class is totally out of control - over the last few years he has assulted a teacher, thrown furniture, run away, hit others etc. This year he seemed to calm down a little but has in recent weeks 3 times seriously assulted another boy (whose mother is of course incandescent). The boy has now been suspended for 2 days and will return to the other y4 class (whose teacher has already been assulted by him). So the victim's parents are fairly happy. The fear is that next year the boy will have a female teacher again (who from past experience can do nothing with him) and will turn his attention to some other kid. The general feeling amongst parents is that the situation is not being taken seriously enough.
Anyway - what I wondered was if anyone has been through this before and knew if there are any other steps that parents could take to ensure the others are protected? The boy seems to have been running rings round everyone for the past few years; I know inclusion is the in thing at the moment, but what are the laid down procedures about what has to happen when, and what can parents insist on?
I'm trying to get a sort of unemotional view of the way forward - it's such a volatile subject!

I can't help at all I'm afraid but thought I'd bump this for you

You mention inclusion. Does the child have special needs?

I was wondering that too Jimjams. Exgov there are procedures for stages of special needs but if he is on the register this info wouldnt be made known to parents other than those of the child concerned. Maybe things are happening that you are not aware of?
If he is as disruptive as you say it would seem that maybe he is not in the right environment but it can be hard for a school to get parents to accept this. I'm not sure what you and other paarents can insist on, but your children do surely have a right to be safe.

I thought exgov meant 'inclusion' as opposed to being 'excluded' from school for 'bad' behaviour and not 'inclusion' in the special needs sense of the word.

that's why I asked sis. AFAIK exclusions for bad behviour are at record numbers though- usually inclusion is used to mean SN.... I'm asking as there are probably more options open if the child does have SN.

By 'inclusion' I meant that I believe the policy nowadays is to keep children in their original school if at all possible. I think it's probably true that he would be better off elsewhere now - I know the school has been trying hard with him for, well, years now, but frankly I think it's beyond them. As it happens, he does have (non-statemented) special needs and his victim does too (statemented) though both are quite able to understand what is happening and make their point of view clear. I do feel sorry for the boy because we can see where his problems are coming from, but it's also got to the stage where other children are seriously being put at risk. I wouldn't accept my ds being at risk of physical harm at school. I just wondered what the next options were. Thanks for your help!

depends on his SN really. If he's EBD (which he sounds as if he may be) what sort of help is he getting in school. Does his IEP tackle the behavioural issues? Is the school accepting any outside help (some schools are very bad at letting outside professionals in)? If he's ADHD then are his punishments appropriate (some like keeping children in at break can make the behaviour then worse). If he has language problems how are instructions being given to him? Does he understand them?

Just that obviously its always better to prevent this sort of behaviour in the first place rather than try and deal with it afterwards. Does he have an LSA? Does he have enough support? If not are the school going to to try and get more for him- are they doing that in a sensible way?

Not sure how much you can do about this- as these are questions that need to come from the boys parents really.

All other parents can do is complain about the effect on their child. But if he has SN the school needs to attempt to meet them, or call in outside help. It's up to an Ed Psych and the boys parents to decide a suitable placement for him in consultation with the school and any alternatives, not up to the other parents.....

Hi exgov, I think jimjams offered some good advice.
As my ds is on exclusion I do know a bit about this. They can suspend if they feel there could be harm to teacher or pupils or for other reasons.
I really feel for this boy there is obviously alot more help to be offered in this case. I know only to well parents have a difficult time getting the right education for their child let alone a child with SN. Maybe the parents of this boy aren't happy too. As for inclusion is the thing, this isn't the case in the school my ds attends and many children have been suspended for far less.

The boy needs help and where is the help for him? larsxx

His language is fine but I don't know any of the details of the rest (none of my business really). I'm not sure what help he is getting - I suppose now things have come to a head he will be getting some sort of assessment from professionals?

Well if he is classed as having SN he should already have had some professional involvement. It's difficult to do very much unless your child is directly affected because as you say its not really any of your business. The school will have some sort of bullying procedure- but again I think your child would have to be actively involved before you could ask any specifics about this boy.

Without knowing more about his particular circumstances I think it would be difficult to have any idea of where would be a suitable placement for him. Are his parents involved?

Just to add if this boy is going through the statement process this can take a while to get the one to one he should get and his parents are not doubt playing the waiting game for assessment with all the professionals involved.

The statement does not come easy as it involves funding- not something the LEA rush too as i've found out to my child's expense. larsxx

thanks for all your comments - I think as you say it's probably a matter of wait and see. He's back at school now and, I think, being monitored. The parents are (reluctantly) involved - allegedly they throw him out on the streets a lot, and I think lack of attention is at the root of a lot of this - but I think the school is quite good at going through the right channels etc. I'm an ex-governor who I think may be asked for advice at some point, so I was trying to get my facts straight! But it's for the people directly concerned to sort out, really.