Should I expect more to have been done?

[rivian]

Need some advice please!

After a cover lesson last week, I was followed out of the classroom by a boy from the class and his friend, who had not been in the class. (I have issues with being used for cover as a subject teacher, but...)

The boy who hadn't been in the class followed me and started to kick my bag on purpose. I asked him to stop, to which he replied 'Oh, calm down, miss'. I walked a bit faster to try and get away from him, and he ran to catch up with me and kicked my bag again. This time, he was seen by a Senior Leader, a Deputy Head. He asked the boy if he'd been trying to intimidate a member of staff, to which the student replied 'I wasn't hurting her though.'

Deputy Head took student to the isolation/behaviour room and I went to my next lesson.

I later emailed to ask what had happened and had been told the student had written me an apology letter. This student regularly comes into the back of my room at the end of lesson and disrupts things if he has already been let out, and this bag-kicking was another incident from him.

Should I expect more to be done, especially as a member of SLT had witnessed the behaviour? The student is in Year 9.

Help!

I think it depends on whether you have recorded a pattern of behaviour from him and therefore whether Year leader and SLT are aware of it being an ongoing issue for you personally . From what you have said they may well have followed usual behaviour policy on this re his sanction, removal and then apology. However if what you are saying is that there is a pattern, then you need to have ongoing notes with dates and times before anything more can be done and perhaps you might also want to have some strategies for how you manage him when he comes into your classroom. Have you looked whether there is a pattern of this from this student with other female staff or is it just you? It would make it easier to deal with at whole staff level and for you, if it wasn't isolated to just you. IMHO you perhaps don't want to be positioning yourself as a 'victim' in this context with all the power dynamics that that establishes.

I think enough was done. The other member of staff dealt with the child appropriately. However, as marly11 says, the continuing behaviour is a different matter and needs to be dealt with separately.

Ideally, you need to confront child and check the behaviour. Walking away faster may have made him think he could have a game with you or worse. Best outcome is to establish a more friendly relationship with him but one where he has more respect for you. Second best is where he has respect for you but it's not particularly friendly.

If you feel that he won't listen to you or that you can't confront him, you need someone else in your room at the end of lessons, so he can be dealt with. The coming into YOUR classroom uninvited needs to be stopped.

It’s physical assault with plausible deniability isn’t it? Oh I wasn’t kicking her, just her bag. You were carrying it at the time?

I’d want more done, tbh.

@noblegiraffe I was carrying my bag at the time, yes. And @Cynderella I had already told him to stop and he had simply laughed and told me to 'calm down'. What more could I have done in the situation?

How long was he in isolation? I would expect at least the next day.

Some people appear a bit blasé about this, I’d be upset!

I think you need to square up to kids and send them on their way rather than walk away and speed up. I accept that it's hard to do that with some kids especially if they have the upper hand (he comes into your classroom and ignores your instructions).

If you are not able to assert your authority over him, that needs a repair which is easier done away from other kids. If he is a bigger problem than just silly and naughty, then yes, SLT need to be involved. He definitely needs squashing.

I wouldn't see kicking a bag as physical assault (happy to be corrected on that), but it is unacceptable, and his whole attitude (Calm down, Miss) needs dealing with. The deputy head did seem to deal with that. the worry is that you still feel he is challenging you.

@noblegiraffe as far as I'm aware, he wasn't isolated at all. Just wrote the apology letter (which I haven't received) in isolation. After that he was let out to go to lesson. He also wasn't supervised by the member of SLT who witnessed the event as apparently, he had to go and meet with someone else. I've told my head of Faculty, and she isn't too pleased either! @Cynderella square up to the kids? How? That's incredibly unprofessional and I'd definitely be pulled up on that!

When I said 'square up', I meant to challenge him about the way he spoke to you: "What did you say to me? How dare you speak to me like that?" If he too intimidating for you to do that, he needs to be dealt with by someone senior.

I think a lot of boys will try to intimidate female teachers, especially younger teachers or teachers new to a school.

From your OP, it sounded as if he was put into Isolation which I why I said that it seemed that incident had been dealt with appropriately.

I am appalled on your behalf by this behaviour and ,also - sadly- not surprised by the minimising of it at your workplace and on this thread.

Have other posters missed the fact that he is not a student in your class? What's with the victim blaming??

Female staff being treated like this by male students seems to be back in vogue.

He kicked your bag. That is an extension of your body. I'd want more done. But I am pretty sure you won't get it....

cynderella once upon a time (and still now) I would confront kids in the way you describe. In the last five years or so I have found this unsuccessful. It has escalated their behaviours, gathered an audience and led to me being shouted at by the student or completely blanked. And I am absolutely not a pushover.

The (usually un) spoken message from SLT as well is that we should not confront and passively accept and then go through about 8 layers of (unreplied to) emails to form an 'evidence chain'. It's stuff and nonsense.

I’d expect at least a day in isolation for that. It’s threatening behaviour towards a member of staff.
I don’t think you should have done anything differently at the time. If he’s kicking your bag then walking away is the best option as long as he’s not a danger to other students.
I would report him every time he comes into your classroom. Cc your union rep and say you want it felt with a as harassment.
This sort of shit is just not on. Teachers should have to put up with it. I’m sick of low level violence and intimidation in schools.

Dealt with not felt with. Can’t spell.

I hear you @piggywaspushed and recognise all you say. In no way am I 'victim blaming'. The opposite. If a teacher cannot challenge a pupil because s/he is intimidating and/or management is not supportive of teachers, it needs to be dealt with by SLT.

The OP said DH took student aside, put him in isolation and got him to write an apology. Good. If he is still being a nuisance, it needs dealing with. If he is a threat rather than a nuisance, it's even more important that it's challenged, punished and stopped, whatever it takes to achieve that.

I agree that it's not enough, and I think it would be taken more seriously at the school where I work- either a couple of days in isolation or possibly (depending on context, aggression etc), a FTE.

He could have easily kicked you, and personally I'd want it dealt with as physical aggression towards a member of staff- and I'm sure the punishment for that is more than 30 minutes or so in isolation.

I’d expect at least a day in isolation for that, more if you reported it as a pattern of behaviour.

To suggest this isn’t a big deal is absolutely batshit. This is intimidating, bullying behaviour by an almost grown up young person against an adult in a position of authority. I would be raging, OP.

In my DS secondary this would have resulted in exclusion - a young person I know - 15 - excluded for 2 weeks then managed move for 2 weeks to a diff school, he wrote something on snapchat about a teacher (derogatory).

These are academies that all have ‘positive discipline’ and they don’t take any type of bullying behaviour lightly.

On the isolation list that comes around I often see the reason as ‘aggression towards a member of staff’. That’s usually a one day internal exclusion, with three days for PHYSICAL aggression. I would call this physical - I think the other type is usually for swearing at staff without an act of physical intimidation.

The problem is that people tend to contextualise what they see against what they have seen before. So the more we see students behaving like this, the less serious it will seem. Whereas in and of itself - ignoring how often it or similar incidents occur - kicking your teacher (and this is kicking the teacher) is very very serious.

This is physical aggression towards a teacher and I'd expect it to be taken extremely seriously. At my school I think it would be a 5 day fixed term exclusion.

Thanks all for your messages. I wasn't in school yesterday due to having a look round another school (thankfully this is maternity contract and ends at the end of March).

There have been no further emails from DH about the student, and I still have not received the apology letter. It might be in my pigeon hole in the staff room, but I haven't checked yet.

When I said he was put in isolation, he was taken there and asked to write an apology letter (read: forced). After he'd written the letter, which I assume didn't take very long, he was let back out to go to lesson. As far as I'm aware, that was the end of that.

I don't want to get union rep involved as I feel I wouldn't be taken seriously by members of SLT as this is pretty normal behaviour for this school. I regularly get ignored, or told to calm down by students. The latest gem is that midday staff have been told to let students smoke if they see them doing it! (and not just tobacco cigarettes either...)

What an utterly shit school! They sound scared of their students and like the place is actually run by the kids.
OP what’s happened to you is unacceptable. And they’re failing to support you and give the students that message. Instead they are undermining you.

I am absolutely gobsmacked by your final sentences!

Run! Run for the Hills!!

I'm a link Governor for Attendance and Behaviour at my school. I'd be worried this wasn't enough of a sanction/punishment.

Depending on his behaviour record I would want him on report at least. We have 4 Behaviour stages and aggression towards a member of staff is a very severe breach of rules. I would expect a Stage 3 where he is closely monitored by Head of House or maybe even Stage 4 which is a panel hearing and their last chance before a PEX.

One child was PEX'd last year for throwing a full, heavy juice carton directly in the face of a teacher (there was also a large poor behaviour record too to be fair).

Aggression towards staff should be stamped on completely.

Inform Ofsted and governors immediately. That is a serious safeguarding breach, and they are forcing you into an untenable position.