This is the letter I wrote to the headmistress – just in case anyone was interested in the thread of over-zealous parents and current day primary school nonsense: (if you are not – ignore or read the archive – or listen to a podcast here!
Dear XXXXXXX
Re: XXXXXXXXXXXX:
I would like very much to be able to arrange a meeting with you as soon as possible Monday 5th March 2007. I understand X (my son) and XX (his best friend) were involved in some sort of altercation in the playground with XX yesterday. I know that both of them were told off at the time and both X (him who snores) and I have sat X (our son) down for a serious chat today to get to the bottom of this unacceptable behaviour. Although completely unacceptable in any circumstance it appears that the attack was not un-provoked and unfortunately much as girls can be tomboys I know that boys can be generally much rougher than girls when being physical.
My concern is that I received a phone call late last night from X’s father insisting that he felt the school was no longer a safe environment for his child to be in and because of my son’s actions he was alerting the authorities. He also told me that many other parents in the class have told their children to stay away from X (my son). I’m beginning to feel like we are being unnecessarily marginalised and ‘pushed’ out of the school.
I agree that X has been unsettled especially since joining Yr 1 and it was recently deemed via external inspection that he had lost his confidence. The knock-on effect from that has been huge for him and I have worked very hard with X (teacher) to really turn this round. Things have been recently so much better and he loves X (school) despite the fact he has been very unhappy over the last few months.
I would very much like to discuss this further with you as soon as possible as I feel that the situation is possibly getting out of perspective with regards to the above.
I have taken the day off work on Monday in anticipation that we can meet as a matter of urgency. I would be grateful if someone could contact me on the mobile XXXXX with a time to come in.
Many thanks and very best regards
XXXXXX
I’ll let you all know what happens. I’m so angry. I can not believe that people can be so over-protective and wrong. It appears that the girl was chasing my son and kept smacking him on the bottom. He said he didn’t want her to and she wouldn’t stop so he pushed her away and hit her on the arm – unfortunately another child (his best friend) stamped on her foot and called her a crybaby! Fairly normal scrappy playground behaviour but I wouldn’t say bullying. The child told her parents that my son punched her in the stomach and that is why the father has decided to ‘go to the authorities’. It’s ridiculous. Nevertheless I woke up at 05:00 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep for worrying about it. Furthermore, he and his wife have gone round and told all the other parents leading to ostracisation all round it appears. It’s vile. Hopefully it can all get sorted out from Monday.
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