School kids: Rant & outcome

[Jonathan M]

OK, I'll come clean here guys, I'm probably not a real commuter, but due to a medical problem my hobby has now become my primary form of transport. And something that many of you will be pleased to hear is that it has also become my sons main way of getting to school (he is 9) so we have a 6 mile round trip to do.

Yesterday we were riding home from school, we'd deliberately hung around to let the traffic rush from the local primary & secondary schools clear somewhat, then we could take the more direct route home which include a mile of so along an urban "A" road.

Well, the cars might have cleared, but the kids hadn't. Usually I've found cycling near high school kids of year 9 (third year seniors) upwards to be the most troublesome, so when I clocked a group of year 7 runts (smaller than my 9 year old, uniform two sizes too big & shiny clean) I didn't really stress too much.

But one of the little shites charges across the road, oblivious to traffic, to "roar" at us, as though it makes a difference - little dickhead There was a PCSO just around the corner so we stopped, spoke to him and he went back. Hopefully he had words with them.

So when we got home I rang the school, got the standard "all the teachers have gone home" response. When I told Mrs JonathanM about it when she got in, she went ballistic. You must understand that she thought I might die just over 3 months ago, so is still being somewhat over-protective about me. I'm doing well to be allowed out on a bike, never mind her prescious offspring being allowed to cycle to school!!!

Well, she has just telephoned me to say she has spoken to one of the deputy headteachers at the school, and suggested that the deputy raises this with year 7&8 (and the others while she is at it) and that we expect a response otherwise we will fire a letter off to OFSTED. Didn't go down well with the school as they already have a bit of a reputation re their pupils behaviour, yet the school are wanting to get more funds for specialist college status, so anything that goes against them is something that they want to deflect.

What really got me was that I've contacted this school many times before about their pupils behaviour when I've cycled past the property, but the head is completely dis-interested with repect to anything which occurs even when it is directly outside the school gates. I'm used to the higher years behaving this way, but all I can think is that these year 7 kids assume you put a blue blazer on and you can act like a complete twat - mimicking the behaviour that they have seen from the older kids.

I'll be passing the place regularly on the bike in the months to come, and if this sort of crap carries on, then I won't let this rest. If one of these little creeps make me come of my bike I have a higher than average chance of ending up in hospital due to my medical condition, and while I'm not one for the compensation culture in this case I'd certainly want some action taken by a higher authority. Might not happen, but school has only been in for less that two weeks, FFS! If they are doing this now, what will they be like in a couple of months

Rant over, I feel a lot better now.

 

[XmisterIS]

the head is completely dis-interested with repect to anything which occurs even when it is directly outside the school gates

That, I must say, leaves me with my jaw firmly planted on the floor, in utter disbelief!

When I went to school, if we had made a dangerous nuisance of ourselves outside the school gates, then by God and by Christ we would be in for such a punishment! Said punishment would, of course, be repeated by our parents once they had been told.

In short -- we would not *dare* do anything like that!

EDIT: Our headmaster in the mid-1980's had been a Regimental Sergeant-Major in the 2nd World War ... as you can imagine, you absolutely did *not* mess with him!

 

[thomas]

If it carries on contact the local paper.

 

[skrx]

Why should the school be responsible for the pupils' behaviour outside school?

(Consider last week's thread about the headteacher "not allowing" pupils to cycle to school before replying...)

 

[swee'pea99]

Good rant JM - and stick with your position. If the head really is behaving like that, he needs his bum smacked.

As for schools not being responsible for what happens outside school, I'm not sure JM suggested they were. I think, though, he would be right in thinking that schools are about preparing kids to be grown ups, and one aspect of that is teaching them (insofar as parents have failed to do so) how to behave, so's not to be a burden on the rest of society. If evidence from inside or outside the school is brought to their attention that suggests one or more of their charges is acting like a dangerous pillock, and potentially endangering other people, it behoves them to do something about it, not just shrug their shoulders and say 'what's it got to do with us, it happened out there, innit?'

 

[Jonathan M]

OFSTED considers how a school contributes to the community, so projects such as CLIC (community learning & information centres), that the school in question is involved in, have a bearing upon their status. Schools also have an obligation to provide PHSE - in short, this should aloow schools to contribute to how an individual pupil matures.

The school in question has extremely good exam results, but pastorally is poor - I work as a nurse specialist with kids with health problems, and have been stonewalled by this school in terms of providing training to staff to allow them to ensure reasonable adjustment to meet the kids needs. My wife knows teachers still serving there who say that the head is purely focused upon his own career, regardless of the cost to other staff & the outcomes for the pupils.

It is about that 6 or 7 hours where kids are away from parents, and where the duty of care falls to the school to ensure that those kids behave in a manner suitable to societies expectations - I'm fairly certain little Jimmy's mother would want him to not run across a road to make a prick of himself in that manner. If the kid is identifiable as a pupil of XXXXX arts & media college, then any school worth its salt will want some sort of minimum standards to been seen as maintaining standards.


Bit like me (a nurse) walking down the road in a drunken state in uniform. I'd be sacked by employer, then struck off (probably) by the nursing council.

 

[Bristol Dave]

Get a camera. This will a) give you documented evidence of who the d*ckheads are and B) when word gets around they will leave the "tw@ with the camera" (not personal ) alone.

I'm sure the school, whilst not responsible, would not like bad publicity about those wearing their uniform.

BD

 

[belairman]

As a school governor, I can say that any school which takes responsibly its position in the community would be concerned about the behaviour of its pupils while they are wearing the uniform, so that includes while travelling to and from school.

My sons' school (not the same one) has not infrequently had to get involved in respect of behaviour on the school bus - usually involving inter-school warfare of some kind.

In defence of the head concerned, maybe he or she just has too much on his or her plate to be concerned about this. I am sure there are teacher members of this forum who will vouch for the continual deluge of government initiatives which swamp our education system on an almost daily basis. But as a governor I would still expect this to be an issue to be addressed wherever possible.

Cheers Tim

 

[J4CKO]

Whilst they are in uniform, they may not be the heads responsibility but there is a duty of care for the kids and the people they come into contact with, I remember someone at our school harassing a housewife, our headteacher got us all in the hall and ranted, wrath of god type stuff for an hour, culprits came forward and got suspended.

Assume the lille fookers are going to do something and just totally ignore them, they just look so silly, failing that, go past circle, creep up and kick soundly up the arse when not looking.

 

[Jonathan M]

Whilst they are in uniform, they may not be the heads responsibility but there is a duty of care for the kids and the people they come into contact with, I remember someone at our school harassing a housewife, our headteacher got us all in the hall and ranted, wrath of god type stuff for an hour, culprits came forward and got suspended.

Assume the lille fookers are going to do something and just totally ignore them, they just look so silly, failing that, go past circle, creep up and kick soundly up the arse when not looking.

Sadly, as much as I would like to do this, the resulting prosecution would render me unemployed and jobless in the future.

Regarding the HT's position on this, he is reputed to be a man who is very interested in his own career progression, and achieved a headship at a relatively young age. Agree that schools are inundated with policies, paperwork, & targets, like most public agencies, but the HT's lack of leadership on the matter seems to trickle down through all layers of staff unfortunately.

 

[Camgreen]

Get a camera. This will a) give you documented evidence of who the d*ckheads are and when word gets around they will leave the "tw@ with the camera" (not personal ) alone.

I'm sure the school, whilst not responsible, would not like bad publicity about those wearing their uniform.

BD

Nooooooooooo!!! ...... you'll then be accused of being the "pervert with the camera taking snaps of kiddies in their uniforms" , opening a quite unnecessary can of worms entirely

 

[Cubist]

Merseyside receive a large proportion of a £56 million funding stream to tackle youth crime (2008/11) Part of that should pay for extended patrols at and after school run time, especially if the school already has ASB issues. Ring your local Neighbourhood Policing Team, and ask why the PCSO stood by while the little scrotae harrassed and endangered you. Then ask the school what they think they are going to do about it. They should have joined up by now.

If no-one cares mow the little f*ckers over. (a police spokepserson didn't say)

 

[Jonathan M]

Ring your local Neighbourhood Policing Team, and ask why the PCSO stood by while the little scrotae harrassed and endangered you.

To be fair to the PCSO was further up the road, walking away and I really do not think he would have been aware of the incident - even I didn't read the little scrotes as being on my radar until the runt ran across the road at me.

 

[purplepolly]

We used to get a detention if a teacher saw any of us on our way to or from school not in full uniform.

the boys my high school all had to wear their blazers outside on the way to/from school (girls didn't have blazers), I'm not sure what happened to transgressors as I can't ever remember seeing any except once when they were exempted during a heatwave. The headmaster was rather stern and he would certainly have seen it as his business if pupils were causing trouble while in uniform.

 

[Joe24]

Well, years 7,8,9,10,11,12 are all little buggers.
Its gone up through the school, its noticeable. They are all bad. Dont care about teachers, or any punishment, just makes them look harder.
They walk through 6th form, which they arent allowed to do. They know it. They will even come up to the common room door and tell us it stinks of sweat in there, even though we are telling them to **** off.
Well, they dont half shoot themself when we get up, grab hold of them then shove them in a bin, or pick them up and throw them out.
School rules dont apply when you come into the 6th form bit and you shouldnt be there
Head of 6th form will come in if theres someone trying to get in, ready for when the little idiot does come in, so he can be picked up and thrown back out

Detentions dont bother kids now. Nor does 'On-call'(taking them out of the lesson and shoving them in a room to sit in silence and work)

Shoot them, i say.