Support plan-advice needed

[PK2019]

On the last day of term I was told very abruptly that I will be going on a support plan. The shortest version I can give. This happened after an incident with a SEN child who has severe mental health issues. No one was able to change her nappy (year 2) due to her hitting, biting and throwing herself on the floor. She was most of the time with the SENCO who is also the assistant head. Something happened in my absence as I was in class and my TA went to the headteacher in an emotional state and ended up calling her a rude lady. I was then told there is an investigation. 1 day later they said to me you are going on a support plan due to negligence of not changing nappy. They completely ignored the fact I was not with the child. My TA told me at 7pm she already knew about it because she and the phase leader already discussed the support plan. I don’t know what to do because it doesn’t seem fair and the procedure isn’t fair. Why did they discuss me with the TA. Should I go to the union, I don’t want to sign anything. It wasn’t me who was negligent it was the SENCO who left the girl in welfare and went to the Christmas fair then refused to call the child’s mum, the child had a head injury from banging on the concrete ground. Later the headteacher emailed me at 8 pm saying you had a stellar start to the year this is just to support you. Then the phase leader whatsapp me. I didn’t reply. I don’t need their help I raised concerns in July they shut me down saying I am discriminating, they never gave me extra help they just left me in the class. My TA keeps complaining she keeps saying she’s better than this job. Please help. They ruined my entire holiday.

This is a horrible end of term / start of the holiday situation for you. There is the issue of having a child who is not toilet trained being in main stream. You had already raised concerns (hopefully there is a paper trail for you to refer back to.) You could also argue that is not the job of you as a teacher to change a nappy of a child. You need 2 adults present to stop any allegations of assault and whilst you are doing this, what are the other students doing ? As the child was at the time being violent then if someone would have placed themselves in a position to be injured.

Prior to attending the school the parents should have had a meeting with the SENCO. The teachers of this student should have been informed of the needs of this child.

Any support plans should not have been discussed with the TA - this I think may well be a GDPR violation.

As the student was in a state of distress and needed a nappy change then parents / carers should have been called immediately.

No one should have contacted you outside of school hours. It sounds as if this is more a back covering exercise than supporting you.

I have not been in a situation like this but I was working as a supply teacher and whilst I was there a very serious allegation was made about me. I was not informed and only found out 18 months later. The Head at the time investigated and found there was no case to answer and yet the new Head who had never met me believe the allegation and passed this onto other members of staff and the agency..

This is what I suggest you do. Write down everything that has happened that has happened since this student arrived at at school. If you have emails forward them to you home account so you have a paper trail. Contact the Union as soon as you can. Do not discuss this with anyone at school. If a meeting is asked for then asked a for an (external) Union representative to be present. Say that you will record this on your phone. It might be an idea to ask the Union to see if it reasonable to expect a member of staff (teacher) to change a child's nappy (even of they are not present).

Try and ignore this this and try and have a good holiday. Please talk to the Union.

We asked for the mum to be called but the SENCO said no on two occasions. The head injury would have been avoided if mum was called.