Second family withdrew their child from Chesterfield Primary over "bullying"

11:50am Thursday 24th September 2009

By Hannah Crown

A SECOND family removed their child from Chesterfield primary school because they claim he was suffering physical abuse from other children.

Mr and Mrs Bence, who took their son Harry, 10, out of Chesterfield School in February 2008, came forward after the Enfield Independent published a story about five year old Gabriella Musollari was also withdrawn from Chesterfield School because she claimed to have suffered five months of bullying, including being left with a black eye, spat at and mock-strangled, from children in her class.

The claims were flatly denied by the school who said: “that there was one small incident…[involving another child], which led to the Headteacher meeting with Mrs Musollari, but this was resolved.”

Harry has Asperger’s and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and requires a learning support assistant to provide 20 hours of support per week.

His parents claim that Harry has been tripped over, spat at, kicked and punched in lunch hour.

As a child with a statement for special needs, he was due to be given 20 hours of dedicated support a week. His parents claim he was only given six months of dedicated support in the five years he was there.

Chesterfield School, in Chesterfield Road actually began court proceedings against them when they removed their son in February, which the Bence’s claim was because the school receives money for his support.

Stephen Bence said: “I have had to listen to them reading my rights for protecting my son. It is absolutely disgusting. They throw you about and your kids are the ones that are suffering.”

His mother Karen said: “They keep calling it incidents but at least five incidents from the same kids doing the same thing is a problem as far as I am concerned. They just don’t want to call it bullying.”

Harry’s school reports have shown a marked decline in his achievement since 2005 when he was achieving national standards in five out of 19 subjects. According to his mother he is a high achieving Asperger’s with strengths in science and the school say he had an average reading age in September 2008 in year 5. However according to his 2008 report, he was underachieving in all but two of his subjects.

However, the school has pointed to its recent Ofsted report where it was praised by inspectors for “placing a high priority on the personal well-being of its pupils.”

The report also stated that “pupils are confident that adults will tackle any incidents of bullying effectively.”

Executive head teacher, Sarah Turner, said, “Harry Bence has challenging behaviour which is characteristic of his Aspergers condition. This means that there are occasions when other children are provoked by his random outbursts.

“This is not bullying but part of the general behaviour that is encountered in all schools. We are alert to Harry’s behaviour and other children’s responses and take appropriate action whenever necessary.

“Harry is, however, an able pupil and can cope with mainstream education very well. We at Chesterfield recognise his special needs and have allocated a teaching assistant to support his needs in class”.

“There are no more than 30 children in our classes and Harry receives the right number of hours for special attention.”

“Special Education Needs services investigated the support Harry was receiving at Chesterfield and found that it completely met the requirements in his statement.

“I am proud of the children and parents at this school and refute any suggestion that there is any bullying here. Our school community is a happy one and staff work extremely hard to assist any child with a particular difficulty.”