you wouldn't make a good judge,
Judge of what?
what about the parents of that boy?
He wasn't in my class so I didn't know the parents. But the consensus from the staff that did, was that they were ok.
So how was it dealt with in case of that "bleach and bursting hamster" boy?
Meeting between teacher, principal and parents together, then a meeting between principal and parents, then referral to the child psychologist, then assigned to the 'resource' teacher as she's known, for a certain number of hours per week. The resource teacher is a qualified primary school teacher who does other kinds of training in addition, to work with children who have various difficulties. It could be autism or some specific disorder or a general behavioural problem. Possible ongoing visits from the psychologist. The general idea is that the parents feel they're being supported in dealing with the behaviour and you try to work as a team.
As for whether it worked, I don't know the details of his case because they're kept confidential of course. He went to the resource teacher every week. He didn't do anything else outrageous, I know that, but he continued to be a difficult child. He left us to go to a boys' school when he was seven. Our school was only co-educational for the first three years, then all girls, which is usually the case in Ireland, single sex schools.
