How would you expect school to deal with bullying?

[Bluebindays]

A few boys are targeting DS in the playground - pushing him and trapping him. What would you expect the School to do? What's a reasonable response? I expect they will say they will 'keep an eye on it'.

How old are they - my expected approach for 6yo’s would be different to what I’d want to see for 10yo’s

6 year olds.

I agree, it depends very much on their age.

Close eye being kept in the playground and intervening if necessary to divert, alongside some work in class around playing nicely. Review after a week or two.

My advice to you would be stay very calm and get everything in writing with the school in case you need to escalate it.

What would I expect? I would expect them to follow the letter of their Anti-bullying policy. What is their Anti-bullying policy? It should be published on their website, and if it isn't, ask for a copy of it immediately and hold them to it. Word for word. Email them and get all responses by email so you have a record. If they want to deal with it by talking to you, or phoning you, fine, but follow it up with an email to them detailing everything that was said.

I say stay calm because if you go in all guns blazing at this point, youkve nowhere else to go. Keep your powder dry at this stage and work with the school to solve this. My experience is you get better results with this approach, plus if you do need to go nuclear at some later stage, it’s much more effective when they know you as a calm and reasonable parent. This is all from bitter but successful experience!

Ok, at 6 it would rarely be considered as "bullying" in the true sense. I would expect children that age to be quite well supervised, especially obce a concern has been raised by a parent. If playground staff at DS's school saw this behaviour the children concerned would not be allowed play as a group, and may lose a playtime if it continued.

Thanks for the replies. I've reviewed the policy and am trying to keep a cool head.

How would you encourage your child? Would you expect them to let the teacher know?

Tell your child to report it to a teacher everytime. Different schools have different reactions. For the behaviour you describe our school would send the boys to see the headteacher for a telling off and parents would be toldnso they could tell off at home.

I know another primary school where bullies are punished by doing litterpick duty in playground wearing a high vis vest while others are playing. Seems to work well.

Email the head and ask what they’re going to do to keep your son safe.

Firstly read the behaviour and bullying policy. If this is repeated behaviour, it could be bullying. It certainly should be stopped. You should raise it with his teacher.

He should tell the play supervisors when this happens. His teacher might not be in the playground. Make sure the supervisors are aware of the issue. Usually this is via the class teacher. I would also ask that he is encouraged to play with other children and stay around them. Safety in numbers! Often supervisors can facilitate this.

I do wonder if he sees this group of boys as, initially, sparky and fun. All children have to be discerning in the playground eventually and maybe he thought playing chase with them was a good idea at first?

Does he have friends at school? I would encourage nice friends. See if other dc will come round to play. Do you know other mums? Can you network for him? I know that sounds somewhat controlling but being with a group of decent boys tends to mean he will have support and not be singled out.

A lot of schools would not initially send the unruly boys to the HT. At 6 they would supervise play and watch. Only then, if this was a persistent play scenario, would the head be involved. Certainly the head would have a role if adults saw this behaviour all the time. He’s not really unsafe as he’s not been hurt. However it’s not pleasant and the school must deal with it snd escalate to head if not resolved. However taking practical steps as I outlined can help.