What can/ should school do about aggressive child

[ermnopecantthinkofanewname]

There's a boy in my dd's reception class who, piecing things together from other parents, is hitting/ biting/ pushing other children in the class on a daily basis.

He has spat on children, kicked someone in the face etc.

I don't think it's his fault (long story) but I am beginning to wonder what school is/ could do about this. Nor is it the type of occasional incident which must be normal for some children in reception.

Surely they have a duty of care to protect our children from persistent aggressiveness like this?

YES they would but I have worked with a few children now who have shown agression.
Dependant on the child we had many ways in which we would deal with the situation ie we had a calm area for a child to go, we had a warning then a concquence for disruptive behaviour, or time out for hitting bitting ect, all incidents were recorderd with info on what lead up to it ect. We praise praise praise more than other children. We follow Dina school (personal and social lessons).

If a child constantly kicks one thing that has worked in the past for me is removing shoes.
We have detailed play plans and a consistant approach.

so what do you want them to do?

That's the thing SEA, I've no idea what they should do. That's why I'm asking I guess. What do schools normally do about this sort of thing?

Sali - thing is he's been there almost three terms and it is not getting any better.

Any more advice please?

Behind the scenes there will probably be plenty of support and help going on in an attempt to improve his behaviour.

You will not be told specifics as he is not your child.

That makes sense cece - it would quite rightly be a breach of confidentiality.

Well I hope whatever they are doing starts working soon or he grows out of it or whatever.

Yes but where would you like him to go? It may not seem it but I am sure that he is makig progess.

I don't know what schools do.
That's why I'm asking the genuine question. I have not made any judgments about him or comments that I want him out of the class or anything like that.

However, the level and extent of these incidents concerns me.

A friend taught a child like this, he attacked her and other kids. The only sanction they seemed to have was to send him home - so on one occasion he went up and hit her, then said, "Can I go home now?" He was supposed to be moved to a special school of some kind but this kept getting delayed due to teachers at said school being on long term sick leave (so would I be if that was my job!)

I do agree - I think that the school has a duty to protect the children from incidents which are quite serious and violent.

I don't want him expelled or anything like that but why should other children be in tears and scared to go to school because they've been hurt by this boy repeatedly.

The school might well be taking action but I have no idea what. I want to simply know what they would normally do in this situation as the school are not telling us anything (due to confidentiality presumably)

I would hope he is on an IEP with targets which relate to his behaviour - and ways in which they are going to support him to reach his targets.

They might also get the behaviour support team in who often work one to one with a child.

Obviously he may have any number of special needs and he may be getting support from any number of specialists.

They could also get the Ed Psych to work with him.

But like the other posters say, you probably wouldn't know about any of these things.

I'm sure his parents are a lot more worried and upset than you are.

Some schools are diabolical at this sort of thing. I don't know why.

My DD and DS BOTH had a child like this in their old school and it never changed. It was awful for my children and the other ones who were at the wrong end of it!

In this new school it hasn't happened yet. I know there are aggressive children but they do get dealt with swiftly. I can't tell you how though - I just know that the level of aggression seems much much lower.

Not being difficult, but if you have had to piece it together from other parents, I presume your DD hasn't actually been involved in these incidents?

My dd had a very violent boy in her class from reception to Y4 when the parents moved away. The school never got to grips with it and all staff had to have physical restraint training as he grew stronger. Parents and kids were so relieved when he finally left.

It was only luck that another child did not suffer a serious and permanent injury. Some heads are too ineffective to deal with aggression effectively and everyone suffers. I hope your school is better than ours.

Lougle - she has, mainly during the first term but there was one incident this term. She was the child who was spat on, and has been shoved hard a number of times. I have seen him hit her )after school/ at function at school too) and whilst I tried to leave her to sort it out herself initially I intervened the third occasion it happened at a party!

It is definitely not just idle gossip or a load of mums getting in a tizz for nothing.

Indigo - that was exactly what I wanted to know. I guess it would be good to find out if they do have an action plan as they aren't always very good at the school with this sort of thing.

Request to see the school behaviour policy. The better schools tend to put it on their website. But I'm kind of guessing your school doesn't. Anyway it is a publically available doc they must have and they must show you if asked.

Once you've read this doc ( and compared it to others you've found on the web from other schools) you'll know what they should be doing for aggression. The best schools spell it out in detail ( eg 5 steps). Then you'll know if the school behaviour policy is not very good ( probably lacking in detail). Or the policy is good and the school is not following it. Either of these things can be taken up with the school governers.

But actually I'd echo what some of the prev posters said. Good schools can handle a wide range of behaviour and bad schools can't. If the school can't handle this kid in reception I'd start to consider moving school. Because the kids only going to get bigger

And I say this as a mother of a kid with special needs which looked like behaviour problems to other mums. School had even me convinced that my son was the problem. But when we finally had enough and moved to the other local school which had a far superior behaviour policy and far more understanding approach to special needs it turned out that my son didn't have a behaviour problem at all. It was the old school that did.

Sorry to post again but I just wanted to say that I agree 100% with IndigoBell.

we moved schools because my DD had someone in his class who hit lots of kids and DD was punched in the face twice and in another instance shoved so far she was pushed to the floor and hurt her arm badly. sadly the school didn't talk to us about it, we had to find out ourselves from our DD. Other parents had similar incidents.

Then my DS started school and he had a similar boy in his class. He got also kicked punched in the stomach, he had bruises on his arms. This again was happening to lots of other kids. One kid almost got strangled and ended up in A&E. Sadly we also didn't find out about this until much later on.

I came to the conclusion that the school just didn't have a handle on this sort of thing, and after speaking to the teachers, Head and taking it as far as it went, I thought I didn't want my children to grow in an environment like that.

Speak to other parents of older children and see if these incidents happen a lot. That's what I did and that's why we moved them...

Our school is well equipped to deal with this sort of situation as it has a special needs unit so the teachers have lots of strategies to deal with a very wide variety of children.

The school definitely has a duty to protect your child and when my children have had an altercation with such a child the school have told me about it and explained the punishment too.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to this sort of thing. It will depend on so many factors like the child and their parents. There is a child like the one that you describe in my daughter's class and he has a horrible home life with parents who don't care about his behaviour. The bad behaviour at school gets lots of adult attention - his mum summoned to pick him up , adults telling him off etc and the cycle continues.

Our school is well equipped to deal with this sort of situation as it has a special needs unit so the teachers have lots of strategies to deal with a very wide variety of children.

The school definitely has a duty to protect your child and when my children have had an altercation with such a child the school have told me about it and explained the punishment too.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all solution to this sort of thing. It will depend on so many factors like the child and their parents. There is a child like the one that you describe in my daughter's class and he has a horrible home life with parents who don't care about his behaviour. The bad behaviour at school gets lots of adult attention - his mum summoned to pick him up , adults telling him off etc and the cycle continues.

I agree with emy, as it's unacceptable if it continues and the school can't contain it, but thought it worth throwing down a few slightly more optimistic thoughts for you.

First is that DS had a child like this in reception. (Chair throwing at one point.) School worked with him and though he still has his moments (Yr1), he's stopped hitting and fighting. The school handled this boy really, really well though and I can see it could easily have gone the other way.

Though I didn't really want DS to see that level of aggression, in a way it was a positive, because it's part of life to be able to learn how to deal with all situations/ people. DS learnt a lot by seeing how the teachers dealt with it, how to behave when this boy kicked off, etc, so in lots of ways it wasn't all negative.

There might well be a SN aspect to it, which if there is the school should be onto and sorting help for him. Again, depends on how the school handles it - ie does it see SN as a problem to be buried, or do they embrace it as a positive. Big difference between schools imo.

Final example I promise, but another boy in DS's class has profound autism. He gets aggressive if anyone's upset as he can't handle it - ie it upsets him and he loses control. This boy has a 1:1 helper, and the children take it in turns to play with him, have learnt what his triggers are and though this boy shows some violence, the children have all seen past that to the real person. When he loses it (and it's scary, I've seen it), the kids step back/ fetch an adult and handle it maturely and well. Again I think that's a valuable thing and am really glad the boy's part of my son's class.

Have you got a parents' evening coming up though? Why not add it to your list of questions. You may be encouraged by what they say. Hope you are.

If the incident involved your child: put it in writing to the head, as calmly and unemotionally as possible. Ask them to assure you that they are taking steps to handle and avoid repeating such incidents. Keep a copy. Ask for a reply in writing. Keep it to just the incident(s) involving your own child. Include dates.

I too say this as a parent of a child with SEN. If his parents need to apply for further help for him, it could be invaluable to have it on record that the school is NOT managing his behaviour successfully with their current resources.

That all sounded a bit bleak! Sorry your daughter is being affected in this way, and yes, the school does have a duty of care to your daughter AND to this child.

we have a similar situation in DTs' school, they are now in Y1 and the same boy has been agressive since they started reception, he is now on his second 5 day exclusion this year. I am a secondary teacher so very aware of the strategies they are using and of how hard they will be trying, also aware that he is as entitled to an education as my DTs. He is bright and can turn his anger on and off, his mum happily announces she doesn't care what he's like at school so long as he doesn't give her any grief at home...I want to say something to the school, but can see it from their pov too and don't want to upset the the teacher who my DTs adore and who is obviously working her socks off to handle him, but when he kicks off and this results in the rest of the class having to be removed to watch a dvd else where, I do wonder...