Victim of assault, advice needed

[ParentOfPunchedChild]

I am trying to find out what happens re safeguarding in secondary following an exclusion for assault. I don't want to be too specific but it happened in a classroom and the teacher agreed it was completely unprovoked attack.

My child is in year 11, his best mate pissed off a classmate verbally, no name calling or anything that would provoke an attack. They were all getting their stuff together at the end of the lesson and so were standing. X stomped over, slapped the glasses off the best mate, my son then went to say something and he had his glasses slapped off his face and then was punched more than once in the face. He backed away fast not engaging and the kid then punches best mate too. The teacher witnessed it all but it was so fast and X then stormed out of the classroom.

X has been excluded externally for a week and on return will spend some days in isolation. I understand that there will be a meeting before his return. Would this be with his parents? School have said he will be made to apologise to both my son and mate. They did say we could involve the police so school aren't I don't think.

Obviously they are in a class with this boy so I assume they read him the riot act before he returns. Could any teachers shed some light on it for me? Or any parents who have been through this. I was in a bit of a daze when school rang to tell me about it so I have probably forgotten stuff. Is there anything I need to be asking school?

My son was in a similar situation recently (his friend was attacked, he tried to stop it). School involved the police and the child was excluded.

If someone punched my child in school I would report it to the police. I'd be very unhappy with that child returning to the same class after a period of punishment.

I'd also be interested to know if it was a one off or whether there had been behaviour like that before as that would be relevant. If the attacker had 'form', I'd want to be reassured there were measures in place to help them. But my priority would still be my child and their safety.

I had something like this but it was one punch and a black eye. I told school if it happened again I would contact the police.

The school was useless tbh. I'm glad your school are taking action.

Read their behaviour policy and just double check they are following it as that should also explain next steps if it recurs

What does your son think?

Involve the police yourself. A week off and a talking to isn't good enough.

Thank you. All of us think no police at this point. Son thinks that the kid realised how much he had messed up when he stomped out of the class. However, if anything happens again we will insist school notifies police. Ds wasn't in any pain, he did have a slight lump but he is not phased and very stoic.

We want the boy to be moved to the front of the class right under the teacher's nose. I want him to feel like he is being monitored.

We think school's response is good after all they are year 11 and have just finished their mocks. When they are at home they have to log in to all their lessons as they can be accessed remotely, so not sat on his arse. For us a week exclusion plus 3 days isolation on return is a measured response.

Their policies only cover bullying or safeguarding so it is difficult to see where this falls in terms of violence within school. I am sorry others have had similar incidents.

If this had happened between two adults then you wouldn’t think twice to inform the police. Why wouldn’t you let them know? Why do people seem to think that a physical assault on a child in school is any less important or can be dealt with in a different way?

It’s your job to report this to police on behalf of your son.
At our school we wouldn’t make a report to police ourselves but would fully support the victim’s right to do so.
Could you ask for the perpetrator to be switched classes?