The headteacher said that in 10 years of teaching, he’d never seen a child like this (Picture: Getty Images)
The first time my son Jayden was suspended, he was just five years old – he’d only been in reception for a few months.
I’d given birth to my daughter a few days earlier so I was looking forward to getting home and resting after dropping him off at school that morning.
I’d just sat down when the phone rang – it was the school telling me I had to get back immediately as Jayden was ‘kicking off’. At first I was confused as he’d been totally fine at home that morning.
As soon as I got to school, I could hear his voice – he was shouting and swearing and hitting out at anyone who approached him. I was really distressed and very nervous as I headed to the office because I didn’t know what I would be facing.
The headteacher said that in 10 years of teaching, he’d never seen a child like this. I felt embarrassed and ashamed. I took Jayden home and the next day the school rang to say he was being suspended for two days.
I was told that no child had ever been suspended in reception before – and I felt it was all my fault.
Although the school was calling me a lot, I didn’t feel that they were listening to my concerns about Jayden
That was just the start of what would be months of being called back to school to pick Jayden up after he was disruptive. At one point, I was getting phone calls from the school every day. If it got to 10am and I hadn’t had a call, then I knew it was safe to have my breakfast, but normally I’d have to go and pick him up.
This all came as a real shock to me because – before Jayden started school – he had been a normal, boisterous five-year-old. Even when he was acting up at school, I wasn’t really seeing anything like that at home and his previous childminder was also really surprised.
In the first nine months of school, he was suspended 17 times. It was always the same thing – getting angry in the classroom, hitting out, being abusive.
Although the school was calling me a lot, I didn’t feel that they were listening to my concerns about Jayden. There wasn’t any suggestion that the school would look into if Jayden had additional needs (we later found out he had ADHD and several other conditions) he was just labelled a ‘difficult child’.
I felt this was totally unfair as he was so young and clearly there was much more to it than him just being ‘difficult’.
The shame and guilt I felt at the time is why I’ve decided to tell my story. There are so many children like Jayden who are being suspended and even excluded at a very young age and often it’s because they have additional needs …read more
Source:: Metro
