January's Behaviour Blues

Returning to work after Christmas I had convinced myself that the behaviour would have improved and I'd be coming back to a new and improved academy.  Just prior to the holidays one of the most challenging students I work with, JB, was involved in an altercation with a senior member of staff at the school in which he began to attack the staff member and beat him up so violently that the police had to be called.  JB was bundled out of the school in the back of a police van and, needless to say, I was informed that it was highly unlikely he would be returning.  I went home that night and cried.  Not because I thought it was unfair treatment, I completely agree with the sanctions that the school put in place.  I cried because, realistically, we were it for JB.  In an area like ours there really isn't another school who will take a 12 year old boy with a record like his...

Unfortunately, it seems, incidents like this are becoming more and more common in the school and there is little being done to prevent them from reoccurring.  JB is the first student in Year 8 to be permanently excluded this year, despite the fact that there have been some awful incidences that, in any other school, would have resulted in the permanent expulsion of the students in question!

As a result of all of this the behaviour is hectic.  In an average week it is likely I will be hit out at, sworn at on numerous occasions, screamed at and have something thrown at me. I've become so used to this that at times I forget it's not the norm.

I love the kids I teach, don't get me wrong.  They are what keep me going back day in day out...  But I think I need to take a break from this for a while.  By far the highlight of my job is the pastoral responsibility I have in the shape of my Year 8 form.  They are the bookends to my day and I think every single one of them is so talented and unique!  Although at the moment I'm not completely sure what the plan is at the end of this year when the 2 year Teach First programme ends, but I would love to move over into a pastoral role within a school.

Right, I'm exhausted and I need a good long shower and then a decent nights sleep so that I can get up in the morning and go into work bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready for whatever the kids of kenny have to throw at me (hopefully not literally...)