'Absolutely fuming' mother criticises Northampton secondary school for 'failing to deal' with bullying to her son

An ‘absolutely fuming’ mother has criticised a Northampton secondary school for ‘failing to deal’ with bullying to her 11-year old son.

Mother of five Donna Bryant has criticised Malcolm Arnold Academy (MAA), in Trinity Avenue, for the way it has dealt with the issue of bullying to her son.

Donna says her son has recently returned home with strangle marks around his neck and complained about dairy products being thrown at him.

The mother said: “A teacher came out with a safeguarding person and promised that the bully was going to moved. We were really happy this was going to happen.

"However, the day came and we heard nothing from the school. No one was aware of this plan and they told us to hold fire.”

Donna has since kept her son out of school to protect him from further attacks.

The mother says the school came back and said her son must move classes, not the bully.

Donna said: “My child is being punished for someone else’s bad behaviour, which I’m not happy about. He hasn’t done anything wrong. He’s asking why he is being moved classes.

"I phoned this week and said he was not coming in until we have had a proper meeting because this is ridiculous.

"Everyday I’m phoning in to say why my child is not at school and everyday I receive an email saying that my child is not at school and that it’s a safeguarding issue and if it continues they will take it further, which is a joke. I’m making sure there is something in place for my child – I don’t want him to be attacked again.”

Donna says she has now made the decision to move her son to another school.

She said: "I’m just absolutely disgusted I’ve not heard anything back. They don’t reply to emails. They are just horrendous. I’m sick to the back teeth of it.

"We’re leaving the school. It’s got to that point. He doesn’t want to go back. He feels like he is doing something wrong.

"It’s not nice to ever see your child cry. I just have anger towards the school now.”

Explaining why she has come to Chron and Echo, Donna added: “I put a post up on the parents of MAA Facebook page about bullying and the amount of replies I’ve had is quite shocking. I just want to hold the school accountable.”

An MAA spokeswoman responded saying it takes bullying ‘very seriously’ .

The school spokeswoman said: “Whilst we don’t discuss individual cases in any way which would make it possible for the child to be identified, we can confirm that the school have been in regular contact with the family including a home visit as soon as we were made aware of the concern.

“We take bullying very seriously and will continue to work with the family very closely to support the child. We consider our relationships with our community to be a real strength at Malcolm Arnold. We work hard to ensure our families feel we are dealing appropriately with any issues and look to continuously improve our practice.”

To get in touch with The National Bullying Helpline call: 0300 323 0169 or 0845 22 55 787