Teacher paralysed after attack by pupil (in 2002) (Heber Primary)

[Earl Aelfheah]

I came across this terrible story in the Independent. Truely shocking:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/as-one-teacher-is-cleared-of-pupil-assault-another-tells-of-her-life-sentence-1977673.html

[jam]

That is shocking, more so also as I had assumed that working in a secondary school would involve more assaults on staff, it a shock to read that Primary school children top the table for assaulting their teachers.

[Amelie]

She should have prosecuted the child and his parents, and the Council for assault GBH and criminal negligence.

[njc97]

Amelie - I'm not trying to play down this tragedy, but it's a bit ridiculous suggesting a 9 year old is criminally responsible.

[alice]

the child no [ well not in our legal system] but the employer yes - anyway longer version in this weeks tes.

[SteveT]

If a child is capable of attacking and disabling the teacher, in my view it is capable of being tried for it's misdeeds.

I think the parents releasing such an animal on society, should be tried too and made to pay for all the damages caused by their offspring to the victim.

[James Barber]

I'm sure the main point was it happened in 2002 when Heber was a different school and the Local Education Authority was a very different LEA.

The LEA had been privatised by Labour gov't as the council were so truly hopeless then. After the LEA beign handed back to a different council leadership it had 7 years of record improvements in schools results which I'd suggest would'nt be possible in ill disciplined schools.

I guess something like this could happen again but much much less likely.

[KidKruger]

Strange, there's no mention in the Independent's article about the woman's prior serious back condition which had been previously operated on when the woman was a student.

That'll be the back condition which was aggravated by the woman's fall during the attack by the pupil.

The attack by the pupil was inexcusable.

[SteveT]

KidKruger good post, you can put that down to crap reporting.

The populace of this country so frequently has to tolerate low standards,

from intelligent and educated people who know better.

Far too much of this corrupt behaviour of not displaying the true picture.

[pearl1]

Isn't the issue here, not so much with the child - often children in inner city schools have problems with behaviour, or indeed other issues, but with the lack of support for teachers from the headteacher of the school and the local education authority?

[intexasatthe moment]

There won't be any local education authorities - or ones with only the weakest most troubling schools to manage - if the current political thinking about more schools becoming Academies carries on .

Academies keep the funding that local authorities get for providing support and manage their own schools .

So Lord Harris with his chain of schools replaces Southwark Education Authority .

Primary schools will be next into the fold I guess.

[SteveT]

Teachers should be in charge in the classrooms,

sadly this is rarely the case these days and as pearl1 says there is little or no support for them.

When teachers spoke to me in the 50s you had to be polite and know your place, and it was never bedlam in class either.

[Alec John Moore]

I think your prediction about the role of the LEA in school management is accurate and worrying. However, it's not clear yet who will be the winners in this. It seems that the Harris Academies are suffering form the success of Kingsdale Foundation School. Kingsdale is so oversubscribed this year that they want to create a "bulge" class and several heads of other secondary schools in Southwark have complained, delaying the decision to go ahead. It seems that Kingsdale's success is attracting pupils away from other schools, including the Harris Academies. There is a good chance that Kingsdale will get Academy status for September and that may lead to increased "success" that will further affect other Southwark secondary schools negatively. My concern is that we will get a distorted, increasingly market-led system with everyone trying to get in to the "best" schools with reduced support for the schools that need it.

[intexasatthe moment]

I think one of the things that worries me most is the fragmentation of the education system so that there are winners and loosers .

In Southwark we already have state funded secondary schools with widely differing admissions criteria being run by different bodies .I can't even vote ( as I could when Southwark controlled the secondary schools ) to change Southwark' political colour - I just have to sit back and watch Lord Harris ,Kingsdale ,Charter decide how they think my taxes should be spent in these state schools .

Across the country all the most succesful schools can move out of local authority control leaving the authorities with diminshed budgets to look after the schools with the most difficulties.

Our education system is already divisive enough as it is with private schools ,but this way we'll end up with 3 tiers -

private schools ,privately run state schools /Academies and local government schools at the bottom of the pile .

And you'd better hope that your children have no need of a special school - where will they fit into the above picture ?

[James Barber]

Hi intexasatthemoment,

The national policy of allowing primary and secondary schools that Ofsted have declared as outstanding to be fast tracked into Academies will have very different impacts in different local authorities. Many tory controlled LEA's provide fewer centralised school support services. So little to stay for and I suspect the numbers of schools wishing to become academies are much higher in such areas. Whereas, many LEA's still do provide many centralised useful services that even outstanding schools will find useful and hard to replicate. My hunch is that such authorities are more likely to be Lib Dem and labour controlled. Also, issues of school governors not wanting the additional responsibilities.

We'll know soon enough.

[BB100]

A bulge class at Kingsdale! My child says she already walks up and down the corridor looking for an available classroom with her teacher and the class wasting half the lesson. Can Kingsdale really fit anymore kids in?

[BB100]

Alec John Moore Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> My concern

> is that we will get a distorted, increasingly

> market-led system with everyone trying to get in

> to the "best" schools with reduced support for the

> schools that need it.

If you look at the mess early years provision is in with fragmented market-led nurseries and playgroups it's not difficult to see the future.

[Alec John Moore]

It seems that Southwark has bowed to headteachers' pressure and are not allowing Kingsdale to have a bulge class this September. So, where will all those children go if their appeals fail and they are not left wandering the corridors of Kingsdale, I wonder?

[BB100]

From my experience from last year there seems to be more than enough school places - there were so many kids on the move last year it was difficult to beleive there were a lack of spaces. I know of quite a few kids who turned up to their new schools in the Sept didn't like it and seemed to get a place in another school within a matter of days/weeks. One parent managed to move two children at the same time.

With the expansion and improvement of Kingsdale and some other previously failing schools, the opening of Harris Boys, rebuilds of some schools making them more attractive learning environments and people yearly moving away to 'better' schools, it seems to be relieving the burden. It doesn't seem that way during the application process becuase everyone has to wait for the rich kids to decide whether they are taking their private school places or not and then it frees up the spaces. Then everyone starts moving around. No wonder it was even worse before the Pan-London scheme.