A blast from the past

Whilst sorting through some paperwork I stumbled across my notes from one of my first few weeks in an SEN setting. Suffice to say I was on a swift learning curve. To be fair, if you haven’t spent time in one of these settings it reads like fiction. This was approximately a twenty minute period of time with one pupil.

Nature of incident:

Whilst trying to get ***** to lessons (he didn’t go) the following incidents are worthy of note.

1. Cooking Room — I stopped ***** from lighting a cigarette on the toaster. He was quite upset about this as his matches had been confiscated already. He picked up the toaster and launched it at me from close range.
2. Common Room — he blocked the sink with tissue paper and left the taps running. He also attempted to break the window with a bookshelf.
3. Corridor — my foot was holding the door to stop it being slammed in my face. ***** kicked the door twice, my ankle once and my foot four times.
4. Front of school — ***** produced a knife and started cutting through the cable ties securing the fencing. He carried on to start carving graffitti into the window sill. Please note that it is quite clear which is his “art work” as he actually carved his full name.
5. The knife was thrown into a bush. At this point reinforcements arrived in the form of the head teacher who retrieved and secured the knife before assisting in trying to talk the heightened pupil down*.

*Please note that “trying” is the key word. She wasn’t actually successful.