School hit by bully boycott row



A GROUP of parents so fed up with bullying at a city school have pulled their children out of lessons and are teaching them at home.


Alex White, 37, of Beecheno Road, North Earlham, is keeping his 11-year-old son Dean at home because he has been picked on by other boys.

Mr White, a cleaner for Bernard Matthews, regularly collects work for his son from school to make sure his education does not suffer.

He told the Evening News: "I just had enough of Dean coming home with bruises and nothing getting done about it.

"He's a good lad, but this was having a terrible effect on him. He would just go into a shell and not speak about it."

He said during nine months of persecution Dean had been punched, kicked, headbutted and stabbed with a pencil.

"He's still got a mark in his head from the pencil six months ago, and he's come home bruised no end of times, sometimes five or six bruises in a day.

"He's a different boy now that he's at home. The bullying has to be stamped out."

Nicola Blanchflower, 29, of Gilbard Road, has been keeping her 11-year-old son, Lee Seaman, at home for a week.

She said the difference in his mood has been profound.

She said: "He doesn't talk about it much, but he woke up Tuesday morning last week and said he'd slept better than he had for ages.

"It's just the relief of not having to go through that every day."

She said Lee had been having problems with bullying for about a year.

She said: "It just started off like boys do, but it got to the stage where there were quite a few joining in.

"He's run away from school on a number of occasions."

She said the school's handling of the situation would not make any difference.

"They said they would sort it out but they just sent letters to the parents which is not going to be very effective."

Doreen Atkins, 32, of Clarkson Road, said two of her sons had also experienced problems at the school.

She said: "It's 10 or 11 children doing this, and it's the same names coming up all the time.

"It's been going on since September and I've had enough of it. It needs to be sorted out. It's getting out of control."

Head teacher Martin Neave said everything was being done to root out bullying at the school.

He said: "Letters to parents are just one stage of the process which contains many sanctions, including use of the exclusion centre.

"We are concerned that two pupils are being kept out of school because of this and I am in contact with their parents.

"Our next step is to work with the parents to resolve the situation. The best place for children is in school, but no head teacher can guarantee total protection."

He acknowledged that some pupils' names were regularly mentioned in connection with incidents but stressed that every allegation of bullying had two sides.

He said: "There are some who are named more than others, but every child here matters. We work with all of them and take account of all sides of the argument."

David Walker, chairman of the governors, said: "There are some problems which we are aware of and Mr Neave and his team are dealing with them.

"We are making it clear that bullying is not acceptable behaviour. Whenever there are accusations, we investigate them thoroughly.

"No school is exempt from this sort of problem, and I am confident we will come out of this situation."

He said the school had been on special measures, but had come off well in a 2002 Ofsted inspection.

He said: "We are ranked as one of the most improved schools in England. We are on the way up, but we do not expect it to be without difficulties."

A spokeswoman for Norfolk County Council said: "Bullying is an issue that we take very seriously. If parents have concerns about bullying their first point of contact should be the school.

"We offer training to teachers and school support staff, organise anti-bullying conferences and give schools guidance on anti-bullying policies and strategies.

"We have a team of experts on hand who can, if needed, support and help children, parents and schools, for example, by offering a facilitator to help the school and the parent resolve an issue.

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