Boy, four, expelled from school

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/lancashire/8376753.stm

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A four-year-old boy has been expelled from a primary school in Lancashire after assaulting a teacher.

The child, who the BBC has decided not to name, started at the school in September but was described by teachers as having behavioural problems.

His mother, from Preston, denied he was violent and said his behaviour was like any child settling into school.

In a statement the head teacher said it was "very rare" for the school to expel a pupil as young as four.

'Lashing out'

The boy's mother said her son joined school in September and enjoyed it at first but later said he was bored.

She began getting phone calls at work telling her he had been disruptive and was not listening to teachers.

Then, after a few weeks, she was called into the school to be told he was being excluded for assaulting a teacher.

"They said he had been lashing out and he went to kick the teacher and that they were not putting up with it," she told the BBC.

They're saying he's a threat to the school and he's a threat to the teachers, and that all the school kids are scared of him Boy's mother

"I tried arguing the fact he's only four... he's not the little boy that they are making out that he is.

"Because they've got 28 other kids around him I can understand that he doesn't listen sometimes but I don't believe he is violent.

"They're saying he's a threat to the school and he's a threat to the teachers, and that all the school kids are scared of him.

"But he was never like that at nursery and they've got a lot more kids at nursery than they have at school, so I find it really hard to believe what they are saying about him."

The boy's mother is now attempting to have the decision overturned, but said she would not be sending him back to the same school.

She added: "I just want it overturning so I can get him to a new school to start afresh, like it should have been in September, and get on with his life without this following him forever."

In a statement, the school said: "It is only on very rare occasions that a school would consider permanently excluding a child as young as four.

"Our aim is not to punish but to carry out an assessment and successfully reintegrate the child into mainstream school as quickly as possible."