Appealing a school exclusion

[ASNQuery]

Our child was recently excluded from school for 2 days. We believe the school’s response to their disregulation exacerbated a situation and protocol was not followed. Obviously we can’t undo the absence from school but we are considering an appeal.

I'm seeking advice if anyone’s been through such a process, understands who hears the appeal, and can also help us decide if we need legal representation. I previously reached out to the Education team at Govan Law Centre regarding placing appeal but have had radio silence from them so perhaps need to hire legal advice privately.

Part of the objective of the appeal is to highlight to the education authority the risk that continues if my child remains in their current setting both to staff and my child - is that likely to get any attention?

finally, if we were to appeal, is it likely to irreparably damage an already fraught relationship with school leadership?

This will be painful for some on the thread to read, but the other side of the story are the children and staff being harmed. We have a child at our school whose behaviour is so challenging the staff cannot physically manage him. Our children are terrified. He has hurt some quite badly. Some have refused to go to school.

We have got together as parents to take this up with everyone we possibly can - head, council, councillors, MSPs. We've spoken to teaching union reps and the situation in Scottish schools is absolutely dire. The rep I spoke to said she thought the only way change would occur is if there was pressure from parents on the ground. The reps are limited in how much the council will listen to them - it needs to come from parents.

FWIW - our group has an agreed code of conduct to protect the child concerned. The focus is safeguarding for all. Not him.

Not Scotland but what you describe @GIRFEChahaha would not be able to be taken into consideration at the PX panels I sit on
We have a statement from The Head and usually hear from other teachers, Social workers etc but not other parents.
Having said that one of things we always take into consideration and something I feel very strongly about is how the child in question affects other pupils learning and if they are stopping other DC from being able to access learning properly it holds a lot of weight.

Parents are utterly powerless. What does the union suggest you do that you haven’t already? And parents who haven’t had their child regularly physically attacked have no idea it’s an issue!

For me the unions calling a strike and refusing to teach is the only thing which will make people realise how serious things are. Oh that and a child or teacher being killed, which will happen sooner or later if things are left to roll on.

I asked the union rep what would happen if a child was killed and she said, 'Sadly, nothing'.

We've had a very small degree of success at our school. Previously, this child was able to teach and hurt other children. Parents of individual children hurt would be called in for one to one chats, deflected, assured 'measures were in place', but not told what they were because 'confidentiality'. By grouping together we pool information and can hold the head to account. We are refusing to meet 1-1 anymore.

The issue of safety will be raised at the next parent council meeting which will draw attention of all parents to it.

Councillors cannot get involved in operational matters, and teachers are staff, so they get dismissed by the council in that way. But they do have to represent constituents and children. So, for example, union rep told us there was a meeting that was meant to be had about safety in schools, but was cancelled when the rep wanted to bring in data about staff hurt. This impacts on our children. So we plan to get our councillors to demand those meetings happen.

It's not easy. But it has become very very clear that the ONLY people looking out for children in schools - wellbeing, safety - are their parents. So we have to try.

There needs to be a code of conduct that new parents in P1 sign and if they're child violently attacks others, they are removed until alternative provision is found.

As it stands, children are being assaulted with extreme violence and just have to sit in the same room and continue to be hurt. It's criminal in my position as a parent who has been through this.

*their child

In England, you would request an urgent review of the ehcp, use the words "child in crisis" and ask for a change of placement in section I ( I might have misremembered the letter for school placement). Not sure how that would translate for the Scottish system. Is the child iep a legally enforceable document and does it state the school placement on it?

I am currently dealing with a Y7 child who tried to set fire to the school, it was a highly planned and well executed attempt that almost succeeded. It wasn't just someone messing about with matches
In order to PX them we have to have firm evidence that all strategies to managed their SEN's were put in place and the childs needs were met to the best of the schools abilities. This is despite funding issues and the school saying from day 1 that they were unable to manage their needs but were forced to take them under the Fair access protocol.
If this evidence is not documented correctly the school will have to take this child back. A lack of a piece of paper or a tick in a box could mean the child will be staying in the school.

As @Hoppinggreen points out below, if anything bad happened fingers would be pointed to 'have you done everything possible to address needs', but no money provided, and also at risk assessments not being done properly etc. It's a fucking disgrace. I feel like this child is heading for jail later in life and no adults are doing anything meaningful to support him. It's really distressing all around. Children accross the board are being harmed.

We kept being assured RAs were updated and thorough until we found one for our school on a public (but hard to find) section of the council website. It was appalling and outdated. We are all over that.

We've made it clear that we will not tolerate another violent attack.

Scotland is essentially 'inclusion at all costs'. It is possible for a child to be excluded, but very very rare. And it is very difficult to find alternative provision that meets the needs of some children. The cost is to children's safety and wellbeing.

How do you force the appropriate support to be put in place when it isn't in Scotland? Surely there may be some sort of appeals process?

I agee. What exactly do you want to happen. That was my immediate thought too. Obviously a 2 day exclusion won't solve anything. Do you want more support in the school or a change of schools.

I think the concept of parents joining together to form a ‘parents concerned about violence’ task force of whatever is interesting and could work. It would be useful if you - when complaining about attacks to your child - could have a more experienced parent in with you would could help ensure you get the best possible outcome for your child and to ensure you weren’t being fobbed off.

It would also be good if someone was there to remind you to make sure the school is recording this with the local authority as a formal bullying / violent incident. Its amazing how few incidents of serious violence the schools declare, and that’s presumably as no parent knows to check.

My friend who is a primary teacher of long standing tells me if they complain about a violent child they are told that it must be their behaviour management skills that are lacking. They aren’t listening to the ‘communication’ (aka violence) properly. So teachers can’t be bothered speaking out as they know nothing will be done.

@Geneticsbunny That's for the parents of the individual child to fight for. And I think it is unbelievably hard. We hoped, as a group of parents, to be able to support demands for additional measures for this child but we've been told it's confidential and they won't discuss his case. Fair enough.

So we are exclusively focussing on safeguarding for ALL children, which is OUR children + him. Education has already been affected because we've lost one teacher to the violence, and the replacement has already been pummelled. But our absolute priority is safety. There was a flurry of 'training' when we first started, but there have also been two narrowly averted attacks and a lot of victim blaming ("if 'x' hadn't said 'y' then the attack wouldn't have happened").

We are actively looking for other parent groups at other schools to link up with.