Trevor McDonald tonight on teachers and pupils

[hercules]

It's about the violence I think.

time?

8PM

Anyone see it?

I saw it Hulababy!

Scary stuff, for the teachers and the other pupils!

Scary all round really as it made me think that if i child really IS abused in a school, will they then be seen as a trouble maker because of all the false allegations! How do you get that genuine case heard?

Very sensationalist, made it look like teachers are assaulted every lesson by lots of kids.

Sadly i think it will put off an awful lot of people from entering the profession although it did highlight a good point about countersuing families where the child has falsely accused the teacher.

I'm a governor at my dd's school. We've just been investigated after an incident (which was found to be unjustified). I cannot give any details as I have to be confidential, however, I can report that the powers that be are now satifisfied that the school has a clean record and that any recommendations have been acted on. The Director of Education in our LEA has written to the staff congratulating them on how they have reacted positively - that's the good side.

The bad side - our Head Teacher remains off work indefinately due to stress - her Union told her to take this action. It is unlikely she will return. The teacher who was accused offered to resign, however, we persuaded him to revoke his resignation. Our middle school head teacher remains off due to stress.

What caused the upset is that Social Services instigated the investigation ever so quickly (because they now have to following the Victoria Columbie (?sp.) (V.C.) enquiry. The LEA said in hindsight that the the investigation was too heavy handed and it was the first one they'd dealt with post V.C.

As Governors we acknowledged child protection is paramount above all else which is in lines with the Social Service action and we hope we have learned from the recommendations.

Now, if a child is being abused in school, then s/he has much better protection than before following the 'Post-V.C.' White Paper which has been subsequently produced after the enquiry. (Social Services are now very, very hot on this stuff following the Paper!)

I am very conscious about this sort of thing ie never alone with a pupil with the door shut and always report if a pupil hints anything.
A friend in school was told by a pupil they were going to say something so she nipped it in the bud and it wasokay.
Very scary if you are accused falsely. I didnt see what happened with the guy and the kid who said he kicked hime. Did he?

That's terrible dottee.

Think I am gald I didn't see it. Don't think it needs the sensational approach TBH. Don't need more things to put people off the job.

Pity they didn't try and look at approaches of how some schools have dealt with the issues and cracked it

Agree hercules. I am really careful. If possible I try and make sure that there are always at least 2 pupils in the room and I never shut my door. And where possible I avoid any touching at all.

That would have been a good idea Hulababy or even to show the other side of the coin discussed on the other thread ie most pupils are fine. They picked on extreme cases instead.

ooh yes, no touching which was why whatdoyoucallher on the documentary made me so cross constantly touching all the kids.

Didn't see the prog, however as someone pointed out on another teaching thread, if a teenager assualted you outside school (anyone, not just a teacher) you'd use the law to sort them out, so teachers ought to be able to do the same.

Also if a child makes a false accusation its family should be sued for damages.

Seems to be a very one-way street for aggressive kids/families at the moment.

Sometimes it is hard not to give a reassuring touch on the shoulder to a pupil who is upset but we are warned against it so much in my school. Although i did hug a girl after she told me she'd been raped - more than her bloody mother did!

I have given in to hercules. 12yo boy came to school obviously upset. His grandad had died that morning but his parents had sent him to school so they could sort things out. Bless him, he was devasted. When he fell into floods of tears in my room, what else could I do

But I did report it straight after the head of year - just in case.

The sad thing is Hulababy, if anything did come out of such things then I wonder how much support we would get as the advice is never to touch and so if you do touch are you then leaving yourself open?

BTW - one of the kids in question on the TV programme is now excluded because of another incident. (His dad went to the police because the Head had allegedly rubbed a fish head in the boys face because he wouldn't pick it up - the boy said he'd been given the fish head and had been chasing other kids with it.)

No other school will take him on and he remains at home.

How sad for that little boy. What sort of future can he look forward to?

I didn't see the programme but found this interesting. I often have to remind myself no touching - not in a weird way, but so many of the kids I teach have no real contact at home they are desperate for some sympathy and human contact. Some of them are also very manipulative. it must be more than awful to be wrongly accused however. Wish I had seen the programme.