General Chat

I have just seen an article about a Teaching Assistant who was pregnant. She was kicked in the stomach by a pupil which resulted in the staff member having a miscarriage.
It said she was not supported by her workplace and once recovered returned to work.


That is absolutely unacceptable! I would have not returned but would have taken it to the union or further.

Everyday thousands of staff face pupils who threaten to injure staff in some way and yet we are told, it goes with the job. I once had a child who suddenly opened his mouth and clamped his jaw firmly on my hand nearly cutting off my thumb. The pain was awful and my hand was black and blue within seconds.


Procedure tells you to fill out an incident form and report. Nothing can be done apparently, par for the course.


Where possible children with Additional Support Needs should be included in mainstream school. But if a pupil is so aggressive and his behaviour uncontrollable then they should be sent to a special needs school. unfortunately if the parents disagree with that decision, they can take it to court as their child has the right to be included!


On a daily basis, schools are understaffed by support staff. Firstly the pay is very basic and secondly no one wants to be at risk from injury. Staff have the right to expect pupils to behave in a reasonable way but they have little authority over them when challenging their negative behaviour.


As quoted in some newspaper. When the discipline was removed in schools, a minefield was created and now children think they can do what they like and parents too.



Florence in the hebrides :-(

Florence

not only that, but if the UK is the same as here, there are children in mainstream school who need much more support than they get, and teachers are NOT trained to handle them.

Both sides lose out ........ the child and the others in the classroom, including the teacher.

Which is exactly why I resigned :-|

......... and why I didn't continue teaching after we left the UK!

I was educated in the fifties and sixties by some teachers I still regard as very unpleasant people who should never have been allowed any contact with children. They had no classroom assistants then but they did have recourse to the cane and were very free with their nasty slapping hands.

They certainly taught us how to get away with being a bully if nothing else.

Classes are far too big in mainstream schools, even without Special Needs pupils.

I've worked as a LSA in both mainstream and special schools.
Special schools have between 8 - 10 pupils per class, and most have 2 LSA's.
All glass is strengthened, and potentially violent/'running' pupils have a dedicated LSA, with a Walkie Talkie.
They also have a more relaxed attitude towards the pupils.

It seems that feral students can do what they like & nothing much will be done about it.

I just cant believe that the poor lady who has lost her baby has just had to get over it and carry on!


We too had the cane when I was at school and I am glad that it was banned.Some children need to be taught right from wrong but not by beating them with a stick....


I personally think the whole system needs overhauling as it really is in a mess. Just wait til next year when on the curriculum we will be letting children choose their gender!(but that will do for another thread)

Florence in the hebrides

The trouble is since Maggie Thatcher took away Discipline in Schools and now Homes.
This is the consequence of it.

We had a teacher stabbed and killed in Leeds a few year ago.she was retiring in around 3/4 weeks but landed up in a box.

Until the government bring back Discipline in Schools and homes and parents taking responsibility for the actions of their children then nothing is going to change.

Up in Scotland there is a proposal to ban smacking any child for misbehaving but My personnel opinion is that smacking on the top of the leg is ok if you don't go too far by beating the child.

Before long there are going to be 2/3/4/5 yr olds running the household.

Governments want to get with it and realise that children are going to end up being murdered or murderers in future years.


So glad I won't be around to see it all happening.

I think the smacking debate is a bit like the corporal punishment in schools debate. Because there will always be parents and teachers with no self-control,the option must be removed from all.

Considering our present educational system was instigated to make the labouring poor easier to control to accommodate the needs of the impending industrialization of the country and of capitalism, it certainly is time there was a radical re-think of education.

A.S Neill had some quite surprising results.

I think the smacking debate is a bit like the corporal punishment in schools debate. Because there will always be parents and teachers with no self-control,the option must be removed from all.

Considering our present educational system was instigated to make the labouring poor easier to control to accommodate the needs of the impending industrialization of the country and of capitalism, it certainly is time there was a radical re-think of education.

A.S Neill had some quite surprising results.

The 2014 fatal stabbing of Leeds schoolteacher Ann Maguire in front of her class is another case to be added to the long list of out-of-control pupils.

In 1995, head teacher Philip Lawrence was stabbed to death outside his school in London's Maida Vale district. The incident was witnessed by a number of students & staff. The mental effects of the crime have been long-lasting.

Generally speaking though, we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that most schools are safe places to either work or be educated.

I agree ref A S Neill, Sharron.
There was a relaxed atmosphere - as there also was in the Special Needs school I worked in.
I think one of the problems now, is children aren't being educated - they're being taught to make the 'correct' responses to exam questions - which can be very boring, and stressful.

When I was at school, if you put extra information into an exam answer, you got points added on. Papers were marked by those who knew the subject.
Nowadays, those marking have a 'tick box' system, and in some cases very little knowledge of the subject they are marking.
If a child puts in extra information - that isn't in the tick boxes - they actually lose marks.

My CPC was multiple-choice as I recall and I didn't like it, there was no room for explanation.

It was like going back to the Victorian rote learning.

Is a teacher, male or female, allowed to hit a pupil back ;-)

Umm, no, David.

No, the role is reversed now.

No David...As staff we are not aloud to do very much. Ignore the negative but praise the positive. Children repeat everything back to their parents, so one really has to watch what you say and the tone you say it in.

Once, many years ago, I worked in a nursery. A child kept rudely sticking their tongue out at me. Without thinking(I was very new) I said " if you don't put that tongue back in your mouth, I will chop it off," I said it tho in a very childish way. The next day, the parent came in to complain that I had said I was going to cut his tongue out and didn't like my tone!

I was spoken to and very quickly realised just what is told back to parents.

Its worse in upper primary. Everything you say, do, wear..lol it all gets repeated back. Its really got to the point, where we are scared to engage in any general conversation these days.I never say what I did at the weekend.


One teacher was telling her news and sharing the weekend with her class and in turn they did the same. She happened to say she went to party and she liked a glass of wine.One pupil then said I expect you got drunk miss? Word got around and other parents were saying she was a drunkard!!!! Totally untrue but that's kids for you starting rumours.


I do my job because I enjoy helping those that need it more. Its true that the majority of schools are safe to work in but more recently we are seeing a whole new breed of children who are literally out of control. The parents have no skills to discipline their children.


In secondary school, life skills should be taught as a subject and parenting should be included in the hope that the next generation might stand a chance with their own children.

Florence in the hebrides

It seems that the children are trapped in between parents and teachers.

I could never believe that a parent would allow their child to be caned without causing the greatest grief possible but our parents were still afraid of teachers (fear is not respect I might add!) and assumed they knew best.

One of the reasons I did not have children was that I would not want to subject any young child to primary education as I remembered it but my contemporaries who did were not as afraid as were our parents.

Children, who have no voice of their own, have to make the best of whatever the state of play is at the time between the other factions.

Some children aren't given limits by their parents, and some children themselves seem incapable/unwilling to 'toe the line'.

I was at the bus station a couple of years ago.
There was a not so young woman with a boy aged about 10.
There was an older boy, about 12, who appeared to be bothering the younger boy.
He was being noisy, using foul language, and over-zealously 'play fighting' (or not) with the younger boy, who was running between waiting passengers in an effort to get away. The lady was asking him to stop - but he carried on.
The bus came. The elder boy tried to push in, to get on first.
I deftly manoeuvred myself so he couldn't, and others followed suit.
The lady and younger boy sat in front of me, the other boy at the front.
The bus was pretty full.
The elder boy shouts to the younger boy something (expletives deleted) about sitting with the 'old bag'.

I wasn't a happy bunny, so pointed out (shouted down the bus) words to the effect that he was a very rude boy, who had been bothersome at the bus stop. That, quite frankly at his age he should know how to behave, and everyone on the bus was utterly fed up with him. No-one wanted to hear another word from him.
There was a bit of a shocked silence - then a murmur of appreciation.

The lady with the younger boy turned around and thanked me.
Both boys were her grandsons! :-0

Now, I know none of my grandchildren would ever be so rude to me, or anyone else in my company. That isn't to say they're afraid to say anything, they take the mickey, and I give it back.
I mean, my 2 grandsons (8 and 10) both started doing the 'floss' dance at the bus stop once. I walked away (laughing) and pretended I wasn't with them. I could have threatened to do it as well, but they wouldn't have been bothered.
Fortunately, there were no other people waiting. :-\

But why did the 12 year old think ignoring his nan and calling her names was acceptable?
Why are adults frightened of showing their disapproval?
Why are adults so frightened, full stop?

Where I worked once, the quickest way to the bus stop home was down an alleyway with steps near the end.
A group of teenage lads regularly gathered there smoking (I didn't ask what!)
When I came across them, I just said 'excuse me please' - and they moved!!
It got to the point where I just said 'Hello, it's me', and they'd say 'hello' back, and ask how my day had gone.

Yet a couple of the people I worked with wouldn't go down the alley, because of the lads.