My plan for the week has been completely turned on its head. Monday was a complete wash out as it was spent recovering from the weekend, Saturday we had friends over and they left incredibly late when we all lost track of time, and Sunday was spent on a cold air strip in Warwick watching the “father in law” (we’re not married but you get what I mean) fly a light aircraft around in circles, (we’d bought him a flying experience for his birthday).

Today has been derailed as I have the blonde kid off school. I walked out the school with him today after a disgusting response to my complaints about the bullying that was going on.

For the past 2 weeks Jordan has been returning home from school complaining about a particular group of boys in his class, they had been punching and pushing him around, calling him names and general being spiteful and sadistic. We’ve tried the “try to be nice to them and they may be nice to you tactic”. We’ve been to see his teachers not once, not twice, but 4 times, Once when I had to go and complain to a teacher that telling the child that is being bullied to ” keep away from X” was an unsatisfactory response as it should be the bully being dealt with NOT the victim. The final meeting being Friday just gone when it was suggested that because of the size difference between the boys (J is considerably bigger than the ringleader) it shouldn’t be an issue and that a note would be left for the headmistress to speak to both of them monday morning. In my opinion an issue where size really doesn’t matter it doesn’t matter how big you are you can still be a victim!

Monday afternoon comes and I pick J up out of school, he was jeered at on the playground as we left via the back gate and I tell them to ignore them and we continue on our route home, which, unfortunately takes us past the ringleaders house.

Further up the pathway leading from the school a young lad from J’s school approached him and I heard J having to defend himself against something, “It’s not true, I don’t, I really really don’t” I heard him imploring to a this lad and when I asked him what had been said he shrugged it off saying it was nothing he was o.k but then turned around and stated that X had told everyone in his class that he “hangs around in the bathroom all day at home because he still has to wear nappies” and he was telling this other lad that it was all lies, he looked visibly upset, This comment seems petty even to a 7 year old on its own but when coupled with a fortnights worth of taunting and when its made about the “new boy” in the class who is already trying to find his footing in a new school it is just down right mean! I asked what had the teacher said. It turned out he hadn’t told the teacher as he didn’t think there was anything they could do and I said NO there is always somebody who can put a stop to this YOU MUST TELL YOUR TEACHER.

As we get further along our journey and approach the ringleaders house we see that a group of the boys have beaten us there and are standing on the wall and proceed to shout insults at Jordan as we pass, I tell him to ignore them but he looks very glum and we continue home. When we get in the house we ask him what the head teacher had to say to them today presuming as a response from the meeting Friday it would all be in hand. It turned out that she hadn’t said a thing, so I immediately called the school to speak to her myself about getting this dealt with, she conveniently was in a meeting and was unable to come to the phone but I was promised a call back. None was forthcoming.

Today I walked J to school and went into speak to the head in person. I didn’t even get past the secretary. The head was too busy to speak to me and sent a message saying “It’s all in hand” something we’d been told repeatedly over the last two weeks with no change in the circumstance, and apparently no one else was available to discuss this matter with me.

So what was I to do. Leave Jordan there to face the bullies for yet another day with seemingly no support from the staff? Demand to see some one there and then, aggravating the situation and winding myself up in the process? I didn’t seem to have much of a choice so I did what I thought was best…

I told the secretary that it ” showed a clear lack of communication within the school that it had been allowed to progress to this point And there was obviously a clear disregard for the implementation of the school rules as outlined in the school prospectus!” (something I shall repeat to the head myself when I see her) I then went on to say that “I wont be leaving Jordan in school today and he will not be returning until I have spoken to the head about this matter as the welfare of my son was my priority adn I can not leave him in a classroom where this is allowed to happen.”. At that we left, walking past the window to the staff room where the head could be clearly seen talking to another teacher.

It took them another hour after we walked away to call me with an appointment to speak to the head and even then she can’t possibly fit me into her buy schedule until Thursday morning!

It is disgusting, I thought that a child’s welfare is of paramount importance, that nothing could be too important that would delay speaking with ANY parent about an issue such as this, but apparently I am wrong.

I don’t know what she was so busy doing that she was unable to return my call on Monday evening and then also couldn’t find 5 minutes of her precious time to speak to me this morning but whatever it was has resulted in me having to keep Jordan at home today and by her delaying tactics tomorrow as well.

Luckily I have this week off work so I can spend the time with Jordan and he’s not missing out on anything. We have a copy of his timetable and via the power of the internet we printed out worksheets relating to all of his relevant subjects.This morning was literacy we read his book and discussed the moral of story with him, which actually turned out to be very apt. It was about treating people nicely so that they would reciprocate in kind. Then it was numeracy, he said he was working on place values. I found a brilliant website with free downloads of worksheets so I took full advantage of it and printed of the relevant ones which he worked through in record time.

This afternoon was PSHE (Personal Social Health Education) apparently they are learning about hygiene, but I felt it was more in keeping for Jordan to learn about bullying. We found lots of literature online and I set him the task of writing a brief statement about how he felt like he deserved to be treated, including how he should treat others using some of the sites we’d found on the internet and some of the leaflets I picked up at HESFES for reference. It seems to have empowered him into saying what it is he doesn’t like about the way he’s being treated at school so hopefully he will be more willing to approach his teachers when all this is sorted and he’s back in school. I’m a going to take this in with me when i speak to the head as I think she also needs to see it in Jordan’s own words that he “shouldn’t be treated like garbage” a very telling remark!

It should have been R.E this afternoon but I think that one has to be left to the “professionals” (although I use that word loosely at the moment) as I had NO idea where to begin so instead we did some science and fetched his light and optics kit down from the bedroom and made a telescope instead!

Tomorrow is literacy an numeracy in the morning, and then music (singing games) and P.E (invasion games) in the afternoon, it could be an interesting afternoon. I have no idea how I’m going to approach these subjects but having been forced to take this action to get this matter resolved I equally don’t want him to fall behind so I shall find a way!

We shall see what Thursday brings!