How to challenge this secondary schools terrible bullying policy

[theprincessthepea]

My DD started secondary school. It is a decent school, however the comment (from parents) that made me reluctant to send her there was that it has an awful policy towards ongoing bullying.

THE VIDEO
A video was circulated of a girl being beaten outside of the school in their uniform. We (a whatsapp group of parents with children attending the school) were concerned. A member of the group asked the parents of the girl directly what the school is doing about it (as the parents of the girl being bullied were vocal on social media). The parents reply was something like this:

PARENTS RESPONSE
"My daughter has been bullied for 4 years, since year 7. After the video was taken, her bullies bashed her head against the wall and she came home and she was taken to A&E with serious injuries. We have reported to the school over the years and despite them having medical evidence and other evidence they have done nothing"

OUR RESPONSE (AS PARENTS)
When we, as parents in the whatsapp group, who are concerned about the fact that an incident like this can happen for several years and right outside the school gates - we asked the headteacher, have sent emails and the schools response has been: this was a "minor incident" so they do not need to intervene.

As parents we think this is a weak response and want to challenge how they tackle long term bulling.

WHAT CAN WE DO?
What would you expect a school to do in this situation? Is this something to raise with Governors. I know teachers are stretched but an intervention at least!

Interested in hearing from teachers and general tips if a child attends a school with a horrible attitude towards solving bullying. Can we as a group push for change?

I know a few people will comment with an "it's not your business approach" but I would hate to think that our children are unsafe or nobody looks out for our kids anymore because everyone is too busy minding their own business. Resulting in - nothing ever changing.

I would seriously question the motives of anyone who thinks the school should be off the hook just because the girl got her head bashed in right outside the school, rather than inside. Especially given that the same students were bullying her for four years and the school took no effective measures to stop it.

And even were that legally the case, which I doubt, I would still spread the word on social media and to the press that this is a school where lower-level bullying is freely allowed, and you may be severely beaten by students as soon as you leave campus.

In practice heads won’t exclude if there is no AP in place and as AP is provided by the LA, LAs have an effective veto. No AP, no PE. This is the reality on the ground, whatever the current DfE fantasy happens to be.

How do they prevent the head excluding? The LA doesn’t make the decision. Legally it’s the heads decision. Always was by the way.

If a head refuses to exclude in justifiable circumstances to keep pupils safe, the LA has no veto. But, the school must provide work. This is most likely why they don’t exclude. They expect AP or pru to do it.

They prevent the head from excluding by saying there is no AP available. You do know the meaning of ‘effective’ as a qualifier don’t you?

Effective ? Where is that in the law?

As I thought, you don’t understand the meaning of the word. I imagine de facto would be even more confusing.

Newsflash: lots of stuff that has no basis in law, or is downright unlawful, happens.