My 4 yr says he’s being hit in reception

[Treasurechest8374749]

My 4 yr old son has come home twice now saying that another boy in his class has hit him in the face in the dinner hall. He even has a mark from it.

Ive told the teacher and she has said she didn’t see it nor was my son upset at any point, even though it’s likely she wouldn’t be in the dinner hall.

I’m so worried about it and would hate for my son to be being picked on. Or am I worrying nothing and is this just 4 yr olds? Any help greatly appreciated.

This happened to my daughter.
i said to the teacher I would like to speak to said child’s parents and then they kept them apart after that. You need to be firm and deal direct with child and parent .. and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

I would be asking to speak to head teacher about it. Make sure that you know the dates. There may or may not be an “explanation” such as that they like playing rough games, but someone needs to be giving you that explanation - and prevent a recurrence.

How on earth can you keep children apart in a class? I’m a teacher and would love to know as it’s been asked of me before and I can never manage it. Please suggest some effective tips.

Encourage your child to tell the teacher when things happen. They can't do anything if they don't know about it.

My son doesn't tend to tell anyone when he hurts himself or if someone hurts him but I tell him to tell the teacher so they can help and to move away from a child if they hurt him. I'd tell your child to stay away from whoever is hitting him too.

Also the teacher sounds a bit useless, your child comes home with a mark on them they can't explain, they need to be preventing that!

This is sadly common. I am not blaming the teacher as they can't see everything that goes on, but there are a lot more kids at school without the basics you would have expected up until recently, like not hitting people. Ask your child each day, and send the info to the teacher and ask what will happen in the dining room going forward, to avoid this.

You have to email the head, list the incidents, name the child.

Then ask how they will ensure it doesn't happen again.

Kids hurt themselves all the time. Can you explain every bruise on your child? Try doing that with a class of 30+.

I'd be telling my son to hit him back. Schools are utterly useless at dealing with stuff like this. You have to really spend a lot of time kicking up a fuss for them to even consider taking it seriously, it's ridiculous.

Start a fight in the dinner hall? That will end well 🙄.

I would start by finding out (gently, even if this goes against your nature) exactly what happened, maybe by getting him to demonstrate. It could have been an accident with a dinner tray for instance. Then take it from there but rein in your aggression please.

Sorry i'm another one for telling a child it's ok to hit back if you've been hit on purpose.

Kids aren't stupid they know when they've been hit (twice already by the same hitter) and it was not an accident.

Yes tell them to tell the teacher they were hit first if a fight ensues. Likelihood is that it wont though. The type of kid which goes round hitting others tends to not expect retaliation and will be too surprised to carry it on. They'll likely target those who don't retaliate next time. They remember.

Not taking any shit is a perfectly ok life lesson. Teachers don't have the time to micromanage interactions between kids all day any more. The standard of behaviour of kids these days is awful. It's nice to imagine a lovely calm environment where good behaviour is always rewarded and bad behaviour is always acted upon and learning and kindness is all. But let me tell you - the average school day in the average primary class is pretty much anarchy unless you have a fantastic teacher who holds total sway over the kids. And they are few and far between.

I've just left as a TA. I could deal with it any more. I've seen so many upsetting scenes where lots of kids are getting bullied by specific members of class day in day out and they have no clue how to deal with it. Teachers are saying about the bully 'oh i'm sure he didn't mean it, or oh he needs ''space'', or oh just keep away ....'🙄 Never hit back ect ect And it goes on and on. Because there's not much else the teachers can do!! There's not enough staff to have these kids taken out of class and accompanied to a quiet room because there's so many of them! Schools can't ban young kids from school they're not allowed to. The teachers can't man-handle these children. I've seen kids as young as 7 or 8 literally rampaging round the corridors and all the teachers can do is follow them about using 'calming measures' and hope they don't get hold a anything they can brandish around. God help the teachers and God help the other kids i'm glad i'm out!

The standard of behaviour of kids these days is awful. not as bad as the aggressive parents. I'm glad I'm retired.

Agreed but this kid hasn't hurt themself, they've been hurt by someone else and in my eyes the teachers response wasn't good enough, they weren't there, kid didn't cry, so no action. If they weren't there fair enough but they can still pass it on to whoever supervises lunchtime so they can keep an eye out. They could also help figure out which child it was and request they don't sit together.