Complaint to school

[gwenig2]

Yesterday my 10 year old was grab on the wrist in a attempt to force her from the floor to go to the headmistress office. This was a male teacher in her school. I did post on Facebook I was upset by this but did not name the school. The new headmistress TOLD me I had to remove this or she souls report to police for slander. I have removed post, but feel more angry now as they did not apologise or give any justification for the incident, which to me is assault. I have a meeting on Monday arranged after much foot stomping today. Need advice on how to handle as feel little overwhelmed and emotional.

Mrz, I know my DCs well enough to know how they are likely to behave. The OP's child behaviour seems to be problematic from what she describes and as such social occasions etc can be dealt with by getting a sitter. Trouble is that if you waive goodbye to your child at the school gate there is not much you can do, they are in the hands of the school.

DD1 had the misfortune to have a lot disruptive pupils in her class at primary and although I wish her time at primary was different I would not want my 10 year old witnessing another 10 year old being taken from the classroom using physical force. I was able to explain to my DD back then that "some DCs behave like that for a lot of different reasons" but not sure how I would have explained that a teacher took a child by the wrist to make her leave the room. The teacher is supposed to set an example, their peers are not. Condoning physical force in a non emergency situation is a slippery slope in my opinion.

Also if my DC came out of school with a bruise I would ask what happened and seek clarification from the school if I think it was appropriate to do so.

Ah thank you tethersend! I was confused! Your user name definitely suggested someone teaching in the current climate, but answers indicated more knowledge than someone currently in a classroom

I'm not saying you don't know your children Merlin what I'm asking is for you to imagine the situation and consider how you would handle it.

I like to think I know my children to but one day when she was younger my daughter had a melt down in a very public place (totally out of charter and totally unexpected) I picked her up and removed her!

Mrz- you asked me "where do you get another person?"

I'm a little confused at your berating me for answering the question you asked.

Would you perhaps like to rephrase the question to avoid any supposition?

too

That should be policy knowledge! I am in no way trying to suggest a lack of knowledge in classroom based professionals!

No need finally- mrz is doing a fine job of keeping me on my toes

OP, if you are happy to slate the school on fb (even if you don't mention it by name), then presumably you'd be ok if another parent was to post on social media that their child is annoyed that a classmate is continually disrupting the class? You'd also be fine if you found out the teacher was posting about it?

It's a simple question tethersend - where do I find another person?

And I gave a simple answer, mrz.

Which you seem unhappy with.

All the more odd as you had previously answered it by saying that you would have called for the head.

As would I, but as I said, the Head isn't always available.

The H&S issue you describe is the norm in most primary schools, I would say.

Don't answer if you don't want to, but mrz and feenie what ofsted rating are the schools you work in? I'm genuinely curious, but please don't answer if you'd rather not

Good with outstanding features

And you still feel you would possibly be left in a situation where there wouldn't be another adult to support if you desperately needed it? I'm sorry to hear that

At my son's school they ended up having to train nine staff members in team teach - if an incident occurred they called three of them to deal. I guess they used the non-teaching staff where possible but they did have to take staff members out of class on occasion. Very disruptive but even at this stage we were told no extra support could be put in place - totally wrong but unfortunately a widely held viewpoint.

Should most schools have staff trained in team teach? If not presumably staff can still restrain pupils if they are untrained or does it depend on what the type of restraint is?

Pineapplehedgehog: All teachers can restrain if the child is a danger to themselves or others etc. in an emergency. Some children have to be regularly restrained and physically removed and that is where team teach comes in (team teach includes stuff like deescalation and how to restrain without injuring).

In my experience most schools don't have team teach trained staff. It is usually only if they have a especially difficult child in terms of EBD or are in a special school.

Personally I would never try to physically remove a child from a class. I'd call for support, and has happened in the past, removed all the other students. I'm secondary though so slightly different. I have only had to physical intervene twice during fights and then it was more putting myself between the students, rather than restraining.

Same - good with outstanding features.

Small schools don't have non teaching staff. The school my children attended had 3 classroom teachers. My friend teaches in a school with 1 teacher (her) and a teaching head.

Legally, teachers can restrain a child even if they have not been trained. Best practice would be to train every member of school staff in TeamTeach or other certified training, but it is not a legal requirement.

As for not having a system in place to call on another member of staff in case of emergency, that would concern me. Most schools I have worked with have some sort of system in place, be it sending children to reception/another class with a card, on call staff or phones/alarms in classrooms. I certainly wouldn't say that the majority have no system at all.

Implementing a system where children take a card to reception/next classroom would be a fairly simple process and would afford staff some protection in case of emergency.

If a school refused to implement any kind of system, particularly if there was a child in my class with behavioural needs, I'd consult my union.

I work in a large school, and there are therefore more options with regard to contacting other adults if required.
I've moaned on here before about not having TA support in the afternoons, but I must say that, in general, I do feel supported. The Head, whilst having her faults in other areas, will be there like a shot if there's an issue (she is rarely off-site) and as we currently have a fair few challenging children (behaviourally), she has also organised one specific fantastic TA to be available at all time to swoop in and deal with named children if they kick off. It's working. Just.

Surely there is a difference in protocols between an emergency and dealing with a disruptive child ?

tethersend you seem to be assuming that all schools have a reception to send a message to ...the school my children attended had someone 2 mornings a week and I know many small schools with part time provision as for going to the next classroom - does that techer leave their class unsupervised?

With the best system you can't plan for every eventuality - the other class is doing PE outdoors - the secretary has gone to the loo - the head is attending a meeting and the class teacher faced with the incident has to make a choice on the spot.

In such a situation mrz, the teacher is completely vulnerable to being injured should an incident occur. But you know that.

Yes I do tethersend just as I know they are open to malicious allegations

but do you honestly believe that you can have a system that can foresee every possible eventuality?

I'm fortunate to work in a school where thankfully behaviour isn't an issue but I do know that there are times when you have to make a decision on the spot and perhaps that's what happened to this teacher