Would you say anything?

Andrew_Ryan_89

Leave it as it's none of your business. If you saw the child take something right in front of your eyes then fair enough, say something to the shopkeepers if you must. Otherwise, what will you achieve? Shopkeepers now know that kids are steeling from the store? Big surprise!

You tell the mother, even in the best case scenario where the child is taught a lesson and never steals again, your actions haven't cured cancer or removed Trump from his presidency so it's not worth the probable agro you'll get from saying something.

Your child knows right from wrong and impressively doesn't seem to bow down to peer pressure at the age of 10. You've done a good enough job as it is.

chesky

Do you absolutely know the items were stolen? Children often lie to try to look 'good' in front of their mates.

lush_walrus

peachyprice wrote: »

That simply isn't true.

I think you're in for a shock if you believe bad behaviour doesn't exist in private schools, in fact private schools are likely to turn a blind because either they don't want to lose the fees or the parents give a generous 'donation' to keep their delinquent in school.

Not sure what area you would be referring to in this statement, but all preps in our area are incredibly selective both in terms of behaviour and capability. Each is oversubscribed therefore they really do not need to tolerate any child falling below their expectations for a 'donation' from a parent. Their is no obligation for them to accept any one child and in my experience at least are quite comfortable informing a parent a child is no longer able to attend if their expectations are not met.

To attract new parents, compete with state schools and encourage parents to spend their money with them they need to maintain a good academic and behaviour record. They simply can not allow for a bad reputation either in terms of results or behaviours - it's a small world in public schools.

I am sure your statements are based on your own experience, however mine as a parent and a pupil is nterestingly quite different.

Fireflyaway

annandale wrote: »

Wow. What a sweeping statement. State schools have little power to deal with bad behaviour? You can speak for every non private school in the whole of the UK?

My mum was a teacher for 40 years, in a primary school. If anything happened concerning a pupil that needed dealt with she dealt with it.

I'm in Scotland and pupils can be suspended or expelled.

Oh and believe me speaking as someone who worked as a youth worker for a long time, some of the most difficult areas I worked in were the most affluent. Parents who had lots of cash to spend and gave it to their kids who went out and caused havoc. If you think kids from private schools don't go off the rails then I think you might be in for a bit of a rude awakening

If I spoke to anyone, it would be to the shopkeeper.

And you didn't witness any of this. I'd tread very carefully

Yes it is a sweeping statement and I can only speak from my experience, but from what I have witnessed at my sons school, my nephews secondary school and the school my friend teaches at (yes thats only 3 schools) there isnt much they can do about bad behaviour. It has to get really bad before a child is expelled which is unfair on staff and the other kids. Private schools can decline to except children with poor behaviour and can expel naughty kids far easier. That's one of the reasons many parents choose to go private. I'm not so niave to believe all private school kids are angels! Just that private schools have more power to get rid of disruptive kids. They are run as a business and its not in thier interest to get a bad reputation for poor behaviour. My son had to attend for 2 days before he was accepted and provide references from his current school to check his behaviour was OK! State schools are just given a list of who is coming in September and have to deal with what they are given.I'm not bashing state schools - I went to one and there are some great ones, its just they have less power to tackle the disruptive kids.

Proxima_Centauri

Fireflyaway wrote: »

I'm not so niave to believe all private school kids are angels! Just that private schools have more power to get rid of disruptive kids. They are run as a business and its not in thier interest to get a bad reputation for poor behaviour.

Absolutely!

State schools have very few controls over who they take in, by comparison.

hazyjo

God no, just ignore it. If you'd seen it, hopefully you'd have given them a right b******ing there and then (I don't care that they're not their kids).


I recently posted something on a local FB group about a shop banning all school kids (from 2 schools) as there'd been thefts and abuse. OMG it went absolutely mental. I had nearly 200 comments. I seriously wasn't expecting it, I'd only put it down as a local subject and said it reflected really bad on the schools/borough.


You would be surprised at the amount of people who were incredibly defensive over it. One woman even sent me a PM saying I should take it down.


It happens everywhere all the time now.


And I absolutely agree with Fireflyaway. It never used to be anywhere near as bad as that when I was at school. We had respect - and the fear of my parents finding out was enough to deter me! I bunked off assembly once and hid in the loos, but that was about the extent of my naughtiness lol.


Jx

Fireflyaway

Update - so turns out another child told his teacher about what happened. The teacher told the head teacher who phoned the thief childs parents. It was obviously bothering a lot of the children.