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Original poster

TA gave a talk on bullying

46 replies

vixma · 02/05/2009 22:32

A TA at my sons primary school has really annoyed me as she did a talk on bullying and has introduced childline. I am aware of them, however she has not asked permission to do this and I feel that at year 4/5 they are to young to understand what childline is about. I feel my son can talk to me, however I feel this subject was not understood by my son....they spoke about the internet, that it is not safe etc.....really pissed off!

OP posts:

cheekster · 02/05/2009 22:38

What is it that is pissing you off?

Please understand that bullying is not just at school, children could be bullied at home and arent as priviliged as your DS and can speak to you or a family member and therefore childline is invaluable to them.

I dont think year 4/5 is too young TBH and I dont think school needs your permission to tell your DS about the service childline provides

tiggerlovestobounce · 02/05/2009 22:40

I agree with cheekster.
I would worry that the children most in need of childline would have parents who would refuse to let them be told about it.

MrsJamesMartin · 02/05/2009 22:41

Its part of PSHE they don't need your permission to talk about it.

Jux · 02/05/2009 22:46

I was very pleased when this was done at dd's school. I don't understand your problem - surely you want your son to be aware of all resources available to him?

Paolosgirl · 02/05/2009 22:51

Childline is a fantastic resource, which should be made known to all children IMO. The number of children who phone the charity are testament to the fact that there are thousands who need this help.

That being said, I do get a leeetle bit fed up with the DC's (11 and 9) flouncing off "to phone childline" (they haven't btw!) becuase I've made them tidy their rooms/clean the loo/hoover when they are watching TV which is their right.

Original poster

vixma · 02/05/2009 22:52

TA's are not qualified to teach children in this subject (I am sorry, I do not want to offend anybody), although they are awesome, they are not qualified like teachers and I am worried she will say something that may be incorrect....sorry, I am not trying to offend.

OP posts:

MrsJamesMartin · 02/05/2009 22:57

She will have been delivering standard information, there are guidelines in national curricullum about what has to be covered. I don't think the qualification really comes into it if the school felt she was able.
Schools deliver information on sexual health but they are not qualified nurses or doctors.

kid · 02/05/2009 23:04

I had a feeling that your issue wasn't about what was said to your DS but more about who told your DS.

mrsmaidamess · 02/05/2009 23:13

TA's are perfectly qualified to talk to children about bullying. She would only be following her own lesson plan, or one drawn up for her by a teacher. You are being over precious.

robinpud · 02/05/2009 23:17

vixma- your attitude is appalling. Would you care to justify your remark about the qualifications that TAs do have?

mrsmaidamess · 02/05/2009 23:17

robin, are you a TA?

notsoteenagemum · 02/05/2009 23:31

TA's are not "qualified like Teachers", however more often than not TA's have to deal with the pupils who need the most help from the Teachers.
You are suggesting that the TA in question has just rambled on giving inappropriate advice to the children.
Year 4/5 is not too young to have a talk on bullying.Sadly bullying can happen at this age group. It is nice that your son can talk to you but as cheekster said not all children are that lucky.

tigerdriver · 02/05/2009 23:34

I can't believe OP's attitude, is this a joke? Or perhaps children should be seen (not too often of course) and not heard.

TheLadyofShalott · 02/05/2009 23:37

I'm IT support manager at a junior school & I talk to children about internet safety from Year 3 - I may not be a teacher, but I'm actually more 'qualified' to talk to the children about it than most of the teachers, and less likely to 'say something incorrect'. I can't see why you would not want your child to be aware of dangers.

Every year we have Year 3 children who have internet connected pcs in their bedrooms with no supervision, who are giving out personal details to people they 'know' on social networks.

We teach the 'SMART' rules - we have them as the desktop wallpaper on all the ICT suite PCs and we use the resources on the Kidsmart site to educate them about safer internet use - it has some useful page for parents too.

MaryMotherOfCheeses · 02/05/2009 23:37

I misread the OP originally. I thought she'd said AGE 4/5.

But YEAR 4/5? Completely appropriate to talk about bullying and Childline. TBH, I'd worry if the school hadn't mentioned what to do if you're bullied. Why on earth is Childline inappropriate for a 8 or 9 year old?

MaryMotherOfCheeses · 02/05/2009 23:38

"Every year we have Year 3 children who have internet connected pcs in their bedrooms with no supervision, who are giving out personal details to people they 'know' on social networks."

My goodness. Now, that's scary.

Jux · 02/05/2009 23:40

Good heavens, I misread too. I'd be appalled if dd's school had waited this long to tell them about it. She knew about Childline in year 3, possibly year 2. It's a vitally important resource.

BCNS · 02/05/2009 23:41

Bullying is an area which needs to be addressed even to the very young .. and childline is there for children, including those who are being bullied.. and they need to know about it IMO.

You may feel your son can talk to you.. but you just don't know what will happen if he is being bullied.. if you think he doesn't understand.. have a chat to him so he does.

piscesmoon · 02/05/2009 23:45

I thought it was age 4/5 to start with. Yr 4/5 are quite capable of phoning and need to be told-I can't see why a parent would want to keep it secret. I think most schools have a poster up with the number. I don't see why a teacher needs to do it-I don't suppose that the majority of childline volunteers are teachers. For all you know the TA might be a qualified teacher anyway-quite a lot are, they want to work with DCs without the workload. Children can be bullied at home.

BCNS · 02/05/2009 23:48

ahh I too thought age 4/5

well year 4/5 is very very reasonable IMO.

seriously there are other things to be annoyed about.

kid · 02/05/2009 23:54

By vixma on Sat 02-May-09 22:52:13
TA's are not qualified to teach children in this subject (I am sorry, I do not want to offend anybody), although they are awesome, they are not qualified like teachers and I am worried she will say something that may be incorrect....sorry, I am not trying to offend.

Judging from that post, I feel that Vixma is more annoyed that it was a TA that told her son about childline rather then the being told about it. I mean, fancy letting a TA talk to kids, whatever is the school going to do next

I am a TA and I delivered a history lesson last week and also an ICT session. The children survived and even learned something new!

mumeeee · 03/05/2009 00:05

TA's are qualified to talk about bullying and years 4 and 5 are not to young.

rachels103 · 05/05/2009 21:17

Why on earth would OP make such comments about TAs if she didn't want to offend?

And I mis-read the age too. If only there were no 8 and 9 year olds in this country who had ever needed childline...

kid · 05/05/2009 21:43

I checked the OP previous threads to see if this was a wind up and it appears that she used to be a TA herself?

Surely this must be a wind up though as I she hasn't come back to explain her point. (well okay she came back once but then went into hiding again!)

hellywobs · 06/05/2009 18:09

TAs often have Masters degrees and are extremely well qualified - they are TAs because they want a role which fits in with school hours. Belittle their experience or qualifications at your peril.

It is good for children to discuss how to deal with bullying. And it goes on at infant schools so maybe they should have these conversations earlier.

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