Wife in the North by Judith O'Reilly

Author:Judith O'Reilly
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780141918105
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2016-08-11T04:00:00+00:00

Wednesday, 21 March 2007

‘Welcome home, Mummy’

Well, I’m back. Mummy’s home and did I mention the six-year-old is getting bullied at school? ‘Crisis? What crisis?’ I want to gnash my teeth in rage and push someone smaller than me over. I was thousands of miles away and my husband revealed the six-year-old had told him he likes school, he loves his teacher but that ‘sometimes the other children aren’t nice to me.’ He is heartbreakingly reasonable about it: ‘Some people aren’t nice to other people. That’s just how it is.’ Cor blimey. Maybe the world is like that but you do not want your six-year-old aware of that fact.

I had already remarked on the number of accidents he had been involved in at school. The head teacher wondered if he had something wrong with his ears, or maybe his eyesight. He does not fall over at home; apparently he is like a young Norman Wisdom at school. During his time there, he has fallen over playing horse (a massive lump on his forehead), been hit with the rounders bat, and walked into a cupboard (because, a note informed us, my son ‘forgot it was there’); he has also hit his head during a tug of war. Oh, and not forgetting the broom in the eye. If these injuries had happened at home, the social workers would have us on a list by now.

Accidents are unfortunate but they happen. I am infinitely more concerned by reports of physical aggression and that my son is feeling socially isolated. Now I know why he is biting his nails. One youngster told him: ‘I wish you weren’t at school any more.’ He tells me that at break: ‘Sometimes I don’t play. Sometimes I just walk around the playground and sometimes I sit on the bench.’ This is your cue as a parent to drop your head on to the wooden kitchen table and groan loudly. I am trying very hard to be as reasonable as my six-year-old about it. On Thursday, he was swung round and hit his chin on a wall. (On the upside, at least he was playing with someone. Fair enough: another accident.) But on Friday, he was kicked hard enough for my boy to fall to the floor, hitting his head and prompting another trip to hospital. Monday, he had a day off for good behaviour, then on Tuesday he was pushed over in the playground. Today, he was bitten on the cheek and a door repeatedly kicked in his face as he tried to get back into school from the playground. I believe, taken together, this amounts to bullying.

We now have a little collection of notes from the school. Today’s note read that one boy ‘hurt’ my son’s cheek and ‘apologized’ for it. That’s all right then. Friday’s note bears little relation to what my son says happened. It says he ‘overbalanced on his chair’ and ‘fell, bumping his head slightly’. He says he was standing beside a different schoolmate when he was kicked and fell to the floor.

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