School advice please...

tomtontom

The school cannot suspend or otherwise sanction the child indefinitely - they are not allowed to. It sounds like the boy is not being expelled, but an alternative school is being found so everyone can move forward from the incident. In the meantime, as frustrating as it is for you, focus on keeping your child safe - ensure he is always in sight of playground assistants etc.

Mojisola

silvercar wrote: »

The local authority has to offer an education. This can be in the form of sending tutors to the student's house until they persuade a school to find room for the terror.

And the LA will have centres called something like Pupil Referral Units which are specially for disruptive or violent children.

tomtontom

GobbledyGook wrote: »

The LA have to offer the child an education, this is true.

However the also 'have' to offer your child an education in a safe and secure environment where he feels protected and isn't likely to bump into his attacker.

You need to get onto the LA, the governors and the police again. Your child is the victim and it should not be your child whose education suffers any further because he was attacked in what should have been a safe place.

The LA duty certainly extends to keeping him safe, but that does not necessarily equate to not being in the same building as the other boy. The school needs to be doing a risk assessment, reviewing how this happened and how they can make sure it does not happen again.

GobbledyGook

tomtontom wrote: »

The LA duty certainly extends to keeping him safe, but that does not necessarily equate to not being in the same building as the other boy. The school needs to be doing a risk assessment, reviewing how this happened and how they can make sure it does not happen again.

It shouldn't equate to segregated lessons, but mingling at lunch and breaks. That makes no sense whatsoever. A child who caused serious injury to another child shouldn't be free to play/wander at breaks - they should be under constant supervision. That isn't easy for a school, especially a secondary school, but it can be done. It usually requires the rejigging of a member of staff's lunch break.

As is often the case with situations like this the victim ends up with the biggest impact on their education because there are so many rules and rights to be followed.


OP have the school completely accepted the other boy was the one who caused the injuries? There's no mention of 'need to see what action police take' etc? If they've stated that the child is being removed from the school because of their actions and because of the injuries onto your child then you need to ask them what their risk assessment of this current set up is. How have they come to conclusion that it's safe for your child and this child to be in school at the same time? Was their a reason behind the attack - I don't mean 'did your son deserve it' I mean was it something specific or should questions be being asked about the safety of the other children with this child being at school? Do you have the school handbook? What is their exclusion policy? Are they following it?

speakeasy

The removal from school is due to this and other unacceptable behaviour.
I don't want to go into too much detail on here, but the other child said they were provoked when my child pushed them (with one hand) this resulted in a slap back to my child then all hell broke loose, resulting in my child being held down whilst the other child's knee repeatedly struck my child's face.


Thank you Gobbledygook, you have raised some question's I will most definitely ask. For the last few weeks I have been in complete shock and only now feel more should have been done.


Have spoke to LA who told me a transfer can take "how long is a piece of string".

Mojisola

speakeasy wrote: »

Have spoke to LA who told me a transfer can take "how long is a piece of string".

So ask why he isn't being taught at home or in a unit until the transfer can happen.

speakeasy

I have, I'm waiting for a reply.

GobbledyGook

It's totally understandable you've been in shock - no-one expects their child to sustain injuries like that at school.

It's also very easy to completely trust a school because we think Head Teachers have control of their school and will keep our child safe. However, some HT's are rubbish when it comes to disciplinary matters, some will bend to whichever set of parents shout the loudest and some will be given no choice but to keep a child in school because of the LA.

So if he's being removed because of his actions then who is supervising him at breaks? Is he under constant monitoring? What is in place to ensure your child can come to school and feel safe? Does the child mingle in the playground in the morning for example?

Pupil referral units, home tutoring and other options - why have the LA discounted these for the child?

Is it that it's June and the intend to let this run on until the summer break so the other child can start the other school after the summer? (This happens often in my experience). If not that then what is it that's holding it up because you need to know this to allow you to know which steps to take next (it could be they are struggling to find a school that the other child will be able to take the same options or is it that other HT's don't want a dangerous pupil on their books?). Are they being transferred or expelled? If they are not being expelled then why not?

Basically you need to tell them you don't overly want to know about this child's right to an education massively, you want to know what they intend to do to ensure that your child gets their education and is not prevented from doing so because they were a victim of a nasty attack. Make sure they know that you are prepared to go to Governors, LA, MP and whoever it takes to make this happen.

In some ways you need to be like the other child's parents - they complained about him being in isolation, no doubt because his education was suffering, and complaining works.

You are entitled to expect them to keep your child safe.

fabforty

speakeasy wrote: »

I don't want to go into too much detail on here, but the other child said they were provoked when my child pushed them (with one hand) this resulted in a slap back to my child then all hell broke loose, resulting in my child being held down whilst the other child's knee repeatedly struck my child's face.

.

Does your son confirm that this is what happened OP?


That puts a different slant on it (to me anywhay). If 'by all hell broke loose', you mean that they traded blows then, I wouldn't call that an 'attack', but as I said in a previous post, a fight - which your son lost. If he did indeed start it by pushing the other boy first (even if it was with one hand), I can understand the other boys parents complaining about him being excluded.
Were both boys punished for fighting?

speakeasy

I came across wrong when I said all hell broke loose. My child pushed, was then slapped and then it went straight into the attack. The other child apart from the push was not touched in any way, couldn't have been as it was impossible, their head was held down. So no, my child has not been punished.


Just to add, this has been an on-going problem, the school were made aware in January.