Do you think Primary schools are.......

Open minded enough.

Reason I ask, most of the Foster Children patrick and I have are over 13 years so we have had many many dealings with Secondary Schools, who we have found ''open minded'' to most suggestions and have even asked us to take part in coming into school and doing talks etc.,

However we have a younger Foster Child at the moment who is at Primary school soon to go into year 6.

Now we have recieved letters by the abundance talking about parents needing to speak to thier children about...
knife crime,
Drugs,
Gangs
Tag names etc etc., all of which they suggest in the letters that the children ''find exciting'' and they as a school have concerns.

Recently as you are aware a pitbull attack happened outside our house, and I asked about maybe someone giving a talk about ''how to react if a child feels threatened or is attacked by a dog'' perhaps the Police Dog handlers, and Dog behaviourist, someone with knowledge, even offered to take Skye in so children who are unsure about dogs can see they are not all attackers.
Just been into the school today, to be greeted with ''whilst I (teacher) feel that this could be beneficial after talking it over, the general opinion is that the Governers of the school, feel it would not.

So I asked why, as previously when I have recieved the above letters I have made several suggestions about having talks from EX drug users, EX gang leaders, Members of family that have been/have a relative of knife crime. All of which the Governers felt may not be a good idea.

The answer was, well we do have a policy that dog owners do not fetch dogs to the school as there could be dangers with children running past them, but the Governers feel that if you brought in these kind of people, it would make the children IDOLIZE the idea more, and as regards the dog attack make them want to go out and get such a dog to turn onto others, same with drugs,Gangs,and knife crime. The Governers feel it is the parents who should teach these things, not bring it into school.

Anyone else had this ''shut our eyes to it'' experiences.

oh Steph, that is so sad (if sad is the right word).

Shame the school is not more local - I think you'd make a great school governor

The one thing that i think is strange though is the speed with which they came back with the governors' views....perhaps someone else will be able to clarify, but I'd be surprised if they could get a hold of all the governors and come back with their views so quickly?

Just wonder whether it is the teacher blaming the governors because they can't be bothered to ask about it?

Is there any facility for putting questions/proposals face to face with the governors?

I personally haven't found this with the boys school (wish they would spend more time teaching English and Maths rather than the variety of topics they do cover - but that is for a different thread).

I find it ironic that a school would feel that education is a bad thing. I didn't surprise me though as I found the same barriers when I worked in Sexual Health. If you talk about that in schools then you will just encourage children to have sex . This is despite all evidence showing the opposite.

You have tried

But surely the Governors, which some of them will be parents would find this kind of contact helpful for the kids, not detrimental in any way!!!

If the children could be sat down and a talk given by say an ex gang member about his dealing with said gang and the fear and violence it creates not only in society but within the gang members family then surely they would see that it's not so alluring to become part of a gang, Same goes for knife crime etc...Forearmed is forewarned. The schools are quick enough to talk about safe sex to under 12's WTF

I think it's a great idea about bringing dogs into schools and educating children. This is why there is so much hysteria because some schools when they close the gates at the begining of the day also close the children off from the 'real' world.

Maybe you could ask to sit in on a Governors meeting and put your arguments forward that way..maybe they would listen to you instead of getting it second hand from a 'teacher'

I would have thought that that decision was done too quickly...Doesn't it have to be brought up in a Governors meeting and minutes logged etc?

Elaine xxx

My name is Rachel and I am a school governor.....

LOL now that bit is done I will respond.Any suggestions of that nature would normally be handled by the headteacher. It is not in the governors remit to have any sway over the curriculum. We are there to monitor and challenge standards etc....

If the headteacher felt it was appropriate to discuss it with governors then it could go to a sub commitee such as curriculum. If they have been given power of decision making the discussion could take place and stop there. If they don't then any decision would have to go to a full governors meeting and be ratified. Full governors meetings normally take place once a term uless extra meetings have been scheduled.

Therefore it is possible that it was discussed at a sub-committee if they happened to have met around the time of the request.

However all the meetings will have minutes that you are allowed to see apart from items which fall under part 2. part 2 items should however only be things which discuss a specific individual rather than a curriculum issue.

It depends on how far you want to take it I suppose but you could ask to see the minutes of the governors meeting where it was discussed....

I agree it does seem narrow minded.....

good luck!

Errrrrrrrrrrrrr think Rach may of answered the buzzzzzzzzing nagggggggging feeling I had
RACH your an angel, and thank you from the bottom of my heart hun......................because the nagging feeling I had was it IS NO from the head...................OK me and HER are going to battle.

I imagine the Head is either weak or hiding behind the Governors to avoid an arguement. A good Head sets the agenda. Ask to see the School`s policy, try going through the LEA or perhaps the PTA?
If not, run it as an Outreach session? Your local Secondary should be linked to this school and may be able to act for you.

Right so let me get this right.......(the school is no-where near us see we have 18 miles to travel) but your saying that the senior school right next door, could help......have I understood that right and i can do it as an outreach session.

I have contacted Bournville Police as their dog handlers are there (more often than any other station) so waiting thier response

I doubt the school itself would feel happy if they thought you had gone behind their back as it were....

However. If the local secondary school wer to run such an event they could invite their feeder schools. It would however still be at the discretion of the headteacher if the school attended so you would in fact be no further forward.

If it was me I would either go back in and speak to the headteacher. Lessons like this would come into the PHSE curriculum.Or if you have dog handlers ready to come in and help ,you could provide her with a detailed proposal stating clearly the organisation and the curriculum to be developed. This way she may be inclined to agree as she will see it does not add any additional workload to her or her staff......Remeber primary schools do not have floating staff or free lessons and a lot of heads will try and balance what is best for the kids with relevant workload for the staff....softly softly catchy monkey....

Steph - there must also be a parent governor who is there to act as a voice for the parents on the governing body. I would find out who she/he is and speak to them about it too.