Today the bullying situation at Thomas's school seems to have come to a head, and I am now left with no choice but to follow the school's complaints procedure. The bullying has been relentless this school year, and although Thomas is being brave and dealing with it very well, we feel it's high time the school pulled its finger out and started taking this issue seriously. They've been aware of this particular bully's behaviour for three years - now am I being over-sensitive, or is three year's too long for a bullying problem to persist?!
The bully does not only target Thomas, he targets several other children as well. I have been talking to other parents and we are all of the same mind: the bullying must stop now.
The kind of bullying that we are dealing with is mostly psychological, the intimidation kind of bullying, the threatening behaviour and language, the bully trying to encourage others to do his bullying for him. It's the secretive kind of bullying, the kind that's particularly difficult for the victim to prove. I have looked at the school's policy on bullying, and to be perfectly honest, it's rather pathetic. This particular school favours a softly, softly approach to the bully, and prefers not to use a blame and punishment approach. Well, this approach clearly is not working AT ALL, since my son is still being bullied. I have a right to expect the bullying to be stopped immediately, and for the school to ensure that it is prevented from now on.
So, I have made an appointment to meet with the Head Teacher, and Kev will be with me, and at least two other parents. I asked for the appointment in writing so that I could put down a list of points that we want to discuss. I copied the letter to the Chair of Governors, and I have to copy it to the Local Education Authority as well. So now it will be a case of seeing what progress we can make at each stage. I have various options, and steps to investigate a little further - the extremest of which would be looking into moving my boys to a different school: I do not want to do this, but if in a few weeks I am banging my head against this same brick wall, it might have to be considered and threatened. There are two other Excellent schools in the area, and my children could be thriving at either of those, instead of just getting by at this one.
Sorry, I don't usually write blog posts like this, but I just needed to get this information out of my head so that I can relax for the rest of the evening and weekend.
I'm sure there will be updates as we go along!
A picture of the contents of my head right now?
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