What now?

[Gigis]

New to this school and think it's not the right school for me but determined to stay the year. Have tried to be so positive in lessons, with the team etc to get over the feeling that I've made a huge mistake.

Yesterday a kid swore at me. Not in a fuck off way (Not that that's ok), they actually called me a cunt. To my face. In front of the whole class, who already are challenging.

School has so far been supportive, e.g. head is apparently personally dealing with it (although no one is sure what that means other than he'll phone home instead of me), but this student already has a long line of exclusions and detentions and internals just from September so the old cliche of 'it's not just you' has also been trotted out.

I am not a bad teacher. My behaviour management is good. I get that this student is an anomaly within the School and my own teaching experience. But I just feel like hanging my notice in even more now.

If this happened in your school, what would happen?

I think people can read that the head is 'dealing with it' but the OP hasn't been told what that 'dealing with' actually means. In some schools it would mean a FTE, in others it would mean the pupil has a nice chat with the head and doesn't even apologise to the member of staff.

Sadly so @RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie

I would expect the head or the deputy for that key stage to come find the OP before the end of the school day (too late now) or in the morning and update then on what the outcome is. Said child needs to apologise. None of that ‘restorative justice’ crap.

What happened to you sounds quite threatening and I’m not surprised you’re a bit shaken. It’s a very different experience being personally insulted to your face than simply being told to fuck off, and I don’t think I would take it well either (not young or inexperienced).

Does your school have a history of a lack of support with poor behaviour? It sounds like you’re not sure it will be taken sufficiently seriously and you want to know what ‘sufficiently seriously’ sounds like at other schools so that you can compare when the results are in.

So the incident happened. The OP reported it. It was escalated to the HT. So far, that's all we know surrounding the incident. Nothing here seems amiss.

The OP has said the incident is not the main reason for her feeling unhappy at the school. It was an aside and she was wanting to vent on this forum. There are other issues going on for her but she is not wanting to share those. So I can't really work out what the crux of this post is.

Agree with EdinburghFox

I agree with @EdinburghFox .

Its a good job youre in teaching & not nursing @Gigis ! I would be a millionaire if i was paid every time someone verbally abused me .

Time & experience helps in experiences like these , you learn to not let it distress you.

I’m really rather shocked by the number of posts that suggest the OP just toughen up a bit. Yes, it’s important not to take things personally, but the school don’t sound like they’ve dealt with this well at all. Just saying that the HT is “dealing with it” doesn’t really offer the OP much reassurance. Like her, I would expect to be given some indication of what “dealing with it” would involve. The HT having a cosy chat over a mug of hot chocolate about how little Timmy needs to control his temper even if Miss is being very annoying, with sympathetic nods about just how “extra” the OP was being by asking poor Timmy to stick to the rules, is what “dealing with it” involves in some schools. Fuck working in a school like that.
In my school dealing with it would involve a serious meeting with the parents and a FTE as a minimum. Why wouldn’t the HT give her some indication of what s/he intends to do? I disagree with the advice that she should leave SLT to deal with it as it’s no business of hers what happens next. SLT need to ensure that staff who have been subject to abuse are reassured that poor behaviour will be sanctioned properly in order for them to have the confidence to tackle poor behaviour in the classroom. A kid came at me with a chair, swearing and holding it over me, threatening to hit me with it when I was a trainee. He got a quick telling off outside by the head of department and was sent back into my classroom where I was alone with the class. I can tell you that after that that class ran riot. No way was I tackling volatile and violent kids on calling out if that was the kind of back-up I’d get if they kicked off. I’d rather chew off my own arm than work in a school where serious poor behaviour is dealt with by “having a chat”.

I would expect a fixed term exclusion and this is what is in our school policy. If you suspect it is going to be brushed under the carpet, speak up. I think some of the comments about brushing it off and being naive are completely wrong. I would not feel hurt but I would expect it to be dealt with. We are supposed to be teaching the kids how to manage themselves and treat people with respect as well as teach them different subjects. The child needs to be shown that calling a teacher a cunt is unacceptable.

I agree, any direct swearing at staff is an automatic FTE at my school and we enforce this every time with no exceptions.

At my primary, the pupil was only given an internal exclusion for a day after calling me the c word. The pupil can be internally excluded an infinite number of times due to attachment problems in the past. SN pupils can be in mainstream schools but we are not allowed to use mainstream sanctions. I have since been called that word again and had various bits of furniture thrown at me; still no permanent exclusion as HT ‘can’t’ apparently.

I'm experienced and I would take this personally and be very upset! As said upthread it's a totally different kettle of fish to a generic, lashing out fuck off. I would be really demoralised.

In pru and other alternative provisions I have worked with at I actually found them to have a harder line on this than the mainstream.

If it were me, and it happened again, I would be put off remaining there. Life's too short to be bullied at work.