Violence at primary school.

[mumstuff]

My son is in year one. He has been on the receiving end of a lot of violence - stamping on, jumping on, punching, kicking, pushing, various head bangs. I used to think that he was being targeted but I now find out his cohort are a VERY boisterous bunch. School appear to have very little control / interest in control over the playground. I'm thinking of leaving as my son is now learning this behaviour. I wanted to seek views. Am I being too precious?! He went to a lovely nursery and I'm wondering if my views are jaded by this. Is it normal to have 2 incidents such as hits / kicks a day. I feel like pressing the eject button, but just wonder if it's like this everywhere. State primary large village / small town. All thoughts welcomed.

I would have taken my son out of that situation immediately! There's clearly no control in the classroom.

That is madness! I'm a supply teacher so often see classes at their worst and I've never seen behaviour like that in any school, never mind in year one.

just want to clarify, very little is happening in the classroom. It's all in the playground.

thank you for confirming my suspicions

How it the school dealing with it?

Another supply teacher here and there should be far more supervision in the playground if this is happening. You are not being precious- he has the right to be unmolested at school!

I have a home school book so the head can keep an eye on his incidents.....
They are saying there's no safeguarding issue...
They appear to sweep most things under the carpet, when he was stamped on we had clear photographic evidence from the sole of the bottom of the shoe bruise across him. School have tried to deny this incident.
Their main response is that the staff knew nothing about it as they didn't see it, the kids didn't report it. Which strikes me as lack of duty of care.
No other actions being communicated. I think they may be doing things, but NOTHING gets communicated past the school doors

That is definitely not normal for year one. I would consider keeping him home if the school are not taking it seriously.

I would ask for he bullying and safeguarding policies and write to the governors.

I have the policies. There's breaches of pretty much every statement in there. I think I will take it to the govs. In my eyes, we need to move. A school can't change it's culture in months never mind years. Possibly if they put a massive amount of adult resource in the playground, but there's no sign of that.

Don't accept it - it shouldn't happen.

My son is in Year 1 in a state school, in a small town and they don't tolerate fighting, play fighting or any form of rough play (there were a few instances of rough play some time ago in my son's class, but it was dealt with and hasn't happened again). The fact they don't seem interested is worrying and I would be inclined to take my son out of the school, but maybe you can talk to the headteacher first about your concerns.

Sounds horrid. I would definitely approach the headteacher first.

Most good schools which have even a hint of this problem ban play-fighting.