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?

Hi,

Just thought I'd throw my tuppence in. reality is that the school has a duty of care to protect ALL children in their care from violence (see UN Convention on the rights of the child, Article 19)

In these instances the child is the aggressor (for whatever reason, disability or behaviour) however it is still a chid protection issue.

My son started school last week and has SEN himself and is a wheelchair user. Cognitively he is very well developed though. he has a home/school diary but yesterday he came home and told me another boy in the class had hit him in the face for no reason. He did say that the boy was told off, but none of that was recorded in his diary!

I spoke to his 1-1 ( he has full time 1-1) and asked about it. I explained that i wanted all incidents recorded in his diary as his speech isn't fab and he may not be able to tell me about situations. I explained I didn't want to make a song and dance about this 1 incident but need to know if a pattern develops. ( If my child is kicked in the tummy he could die due to his medical issues) Her response was that this boy has problems and that he has hit almost everyone in the class already. They only started on 19th Aug.

Now I know this boy has problems and I would say in my experience of working with children and young people that he has psychological problems or is perhaps on the spectrum somewhere.I completely sympathise with the child and his family,. However my child has the RIGHT to be safe when at school. Should this continue to be an issue I will raise definitely raise it. Every letter will be CC'd to the LEA and maybe even the Children's Commissioner. if I have to raise it as a child protection issue then i will.

If a child for whatever reason cannot be prevented from harming/being violent (I consider throwing chairs to be violent)even when they have additional support, they need not to be in that environment. Children need to be safe, end of story. This is in no way as a punishment to the child who is aggressive as it maybe is not his/her fault. But that child also needs to be in an environment where he/she is safe.

Violence in the clasroom/playground is just not acceptable in any way/shape or form.

You can hope the school are doing something about the child - referral to educational psych, possibly of just the child, possibly of the whole family, to look at why he is like this and how they can get him to stop. They could well be doing that - it is a long process that i not always making progress - sometimes he'll go backwards rather than forwards, and it depends on his home life as much as his school life. However, if you were at our school, you could be sure that absolutely nothing, at all, would be being done about a child like this! It depends on the school. But I think as your child is effected, you are perfectly entitled to find out if action is being taken, if not the precise details, as it impacts on your child's safety and happiness at school. I wouldn't trust that the right thing is happening without asking. That will put your mind at rest!

You say you don't think it's his fault and there are a number of reasons why a child may behave in the way you describe.
The school has a duty of care for all children including this boy and I would be very surprised if there isn't a great deal happening to find a solution to the problem. It's extremely difficult when as a parent you see these things happening and the school can't tell you what they are doing to resolve the situation.
Sending a child home constitutes a "temporary exclusion" which doesn't resolve anything long term only removes the problem for a very short time.
I would be involving parents and external agencies, initiating a CAF, but of course that would be between the parents of the child and the school and not common knowledge.

My son (just starring Year 1) was 'aggressive' throughout his reception year. We (me and DH), school staff and an army of professionals were on the case, but his aggression continued. He got a diagnosis of Asperger's mid way through term - the aggression is his way of dealing with anxiety, basically. Of course it's not an aexcuse - he will have to learn gradually that hitting is not acceptable, but trust me when I say that 'normal' sanctions and strategies do not work with ym son.

Unfortunately, my DS was excluded several times last year when his behaviour became a risk to others and himself. For us, this didn;t work. It was meaningless, really. A child of that age does not understand such sanctions. It was also unhelpful in the long term for the rest of the class, as on his exclusion days, they may have got 'respite' from his behaviour, but when he came back the next day nothing had changed.

In honesty, there isn't much you can do, unless you want to start some sort of witch hunt against the parents of this child. What you can do (and are perfectly within your rights to do) is to seek assurances from the school that they are trying to deal with this little boy's behaviour.

My DS has finally (after a huge, draining fight with the LEA) got a place at a unit for ASD kids. But I can tell you one thing - the stress of last year nearly drive me to the edge, and one of the things that kept me going was the overwhelming support of other parents at school. We had nothing but understanding, concern and patience from them - and bear in mind, my DS was attacking their children, so this must have been hard for them. But honestly, the mature, kind approach of other parents was wonderful and meant that although things were tough all round last year, they never turned nasty.

I hope this will be the case here. A child that young needs support from professionals and his family, to try to work out why he is behaving like this and how he can be helped to change his behaviour. I hope he gets that help.

This is an interesting debate for me to see as I currently support a child who is on the autistic spectrum and had started to show aggressive tendencies in the last term on a fairly regular basis. I did wonder if the OP related to him, but it's the wrong school year, so isn't.

He's a lovely boy, but his frustration spills over and he reacts violently on occasion. He has no concept of his behaviour or the impact on others. He has no empathy. He forgets the incident 5 minutes after it's happened and he NEVER ever takes responsibility for what's happened.

I'm still quite new in this kind of work and am enrolling on a course in Autism to see if there's anything I can do to help with the support. The school has no special needs unit and has very few children on the spectrum, so isn't really well equipped to handle it.

Every child does have a right to be protected. The school may be doing all they can to help suppot the child and his family. You, however, need to ask questions to ensure that your child is being supported to. And your complaint could make a difference to the approach the school takes to the child in question and could actually help to improve his care and support.

There is a boy like this in DD's class, but she's 9yo so worse in a way as he is bigger. I believe he does have ADHD. He is very violent, thankfully DD has not been badly attacked just the odd shove but he has smacked the teacher in the face, badly hurt other boys, very disruptive in the playground, terrible language which DD has picked up on.

He now has a full time personal TA, he has to sit by himself. He has been sent home for the odd day last term when he was really naughty.

Hi,

I already posted and I fully empathise with anyone who has a child who is aggressive or whose child is being assaulted.

Absolutely the child who is aggressive does need top be supported and educated in away which is safe for him/her.

However these questions are for those parents of a child who does assault other children for whatever reason/disability. I understand that uyou are in an extremely ddifficult position and that you do everything in you power to ensure your child is appropriately supported and the aggrssive behaviour is discouraged.It must be an extremely difficult place to be. I mean that sincerely, having worked with many children with differing reasons for displaying aggressive behaviour over the years.

What would you like the parents of the child/children who have been assaulted to do?

How can they protect their children from assault and ensure that they are safe when they are in school?

How do we achieve the best outcome for all of the children?

I understand that many children who display aggressive behaviours do not have the ability to control it, but i, as a parent, will never accept that because my child is assaulted by someone with a disability ( he himself is disabled) that he just has to put up with it until such times as the authorities/professionals actually get their finger out to provide the support the child needs within the school or finds an alternative, more suitable placement.

I do believe, and I do not mean it disrespectfully, that in order to ensure the safety of all, there may be times when the support systems aren't working,that a child has to be removed from that particular school environment. Not as a few day exclusion but as a permanent measure whereby another more suitable placement would be utilised.

We all have the right to send our children to mainstream school. however I believe that there are some instances when that is not in the best interests of that child. I am quite clear, as the parent of an SN child that should his behaviour become such that he was to be lashing out at others and disrupting the learning of his peers then i would take the decision, very quickly to move him to a more appropriate learning environment. That could be an alternative placement or could be home education. however if he is disrupting the class then he himself would not be learning and therefore by keeping him there i would be preventing him from achieving his true potential.

Sharon x

Short answer, talk to the class teacher and head, if you still feel unhappy, you should take it up with a parent governor

My younger cousin was and still is very aggressive, threatening to do things to teachers and other pupils, swearing, physical violenece etc.

He does have an Aspergers diagnosis, is thought to have severe anxiety problems and several OCD diagnosis.

He has been to 5 primary schools, lasting from 2 - 6 terms in each before being permanently excluded. He first got permanently excluded at 5 and a half years old.

He is know going to a state boarding school for secondary school where they have a much better way of dealing with him.

So, if this child's behaviour does not improve then the school may feel the need to permanently exclude him, but this is normally only in exceptional circumstances and after other methods have been tried.