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Home educating a six year old
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My six year old son is being bullied at school. His teacher has intervened but to no avail. He has gone from being a happy confident little boy to being sad and saying that he hates himself. Obviously this cannot continue. The school seem to be taking an awfully long time to do anything really constructive about the situation and I really can't allow him to be treated in this way. Whilst I look for an alternative school I was considering the option of home education. Does anyone have experience of this? I realise it is a huge undertaking but I am prepared for that and the added work of ensuring a social life for my son. ANy constructive comments welcomed!
Thanks Jiggi
Thanks Jiggi
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Comments
good luck with it!
Thanks
Jiggi
If it comes to home schooling I shall do my best and get help as much as possible.
Any thoughts?
Why should your son (and you) have to alter your life for the sake of a few scroats?
Wont your son feel he's somehow to blame if you take him out of school now? 6 is an awfully young age for this to happen.
Unfortunately, I reckon this is a situation where you have to be strong and face it out.
Bullies cannot be allowed to get away with it and imagine how good it would feel to get this resolved, both for you and your son.
Good luck!
sounds like the teacher/headmaster needs a good kick up the bum themselves, this is appalling. I'm no expert, but i would think the social side of school SHOULD be as important as the academic part. It should be dealt with today, not tomorrow or the next day. I think very strong words are in order, and i would be tempted to stay at the school until they will assure you that he will not be bullied. Disgusting.
It may be worth putting things in writing and copying them to to Chair of Governors too.
I can see that you don't want to sacrifice your son on the alter of getting the school to wake up and deal with this properly, but equally it can't be allowed to carry on without someone being brave enough to challenge the school's seeming ineffectiveness.
From the school's perspective, they are going to need evidence. You need to be able to give precise examples of exactly waht is going on. They have a duty of care towards your son, but rule son exclusion have been firmly tightened, and Head s now need to havea clear idea, ' beyond all reasonable doubt' rather than the old ' on the balance of probability'.
Be prepared to be constructive and listen to a range of possible strategies, but don't accept, ' there's nothing we can do, your son needs to stand up for himself'. Thats just not good enough.
These things are fixable.
The school does have an obligation as I understand it.
Are other children aware of what is going on ( ie, could there be witnesses?)
How has this been drawn to the attention of the school in the past? What was done when you last spoke? Have there been incidents outside school?
And yes, the school needs to be able to produce it's policy on bullying.
Have you someone who can support you and go to meetings with you? I've recently had a similar problem and found that the school staff closed ranks very swiftly and we had to take the matter elsewhere both within and outwith the education department.
This was a clear case of a gentle but odd (autistic) boy with an English accent being repeatedly verbally and physically assaulted in a Scottish school by two other boys who both have police records and formidable reputations, yet the school seemed keen to deflect the blame on to the victim.
I don't expect this to happen elsewhere, but be prepared to have to stand your ground.
I once went on a very good in-service day course about bullying. I have all the handouts if you would like them - email me if so. They're aimed at teachers but would give you an idea of what a good school should be doing. A couple of sheets give suggestions of what the bullied child might say to the bully.
Hope it gets sorted out quickly.
First of all I'm very sorry to hear this. It must be very worrying for you.
Also I deeply admire you for being prepared to take such a radical step. You are right that this sort of move isn't easy, and has lots of implications for all of you.
For that reason I would urge you to exhaust all other avenues first. I would echo all the advice that you've been given.
Most of all though, build your son up. he is probably being bullied because he's cleverer, or kinder, or more popular than the bullies. Tell him that he is clever, kind etc,. make sure he understands that he is a "good" person. make sure that he understands that you will do whatever it takes to make things better for him.
I do understand that this makes you angry, but anger is very corrosive, and sometimes the person you are angry for ends up thinking that you are angry with them. You should explain this to your son as well - that you aren't angry with him - that this isn't his fault.
And it isn't your fault either - so don't beat yourself up about it.
Sorry if this all seems obvious - my experience is, though, that sometimes the obvious needs to be stated to keep the focus right.
but seriously, arguing with chavs is always completely pointless. you might as well find a dog sh*t on the pavement and start trying to convince it to stop being a dog sh*t. it just aint gonna happen.
...what have "filthy chavs" ever done to you, to get you in such a state.
;0)