Olympic diver Tom Daley moves school to escape bullying: Guardian

[Maurice]

Tom Daley, who was 15 last month, starts at independent Plymouth College today. He was withdrawn from Eggbuckland Community College after problems with bullies.



As a day boy, Tom's preparation for 2012 will not be disrupted. He will continue to train, after school, at Central Park swimming-pool, Plymouth, where diving facilities include a 10m platform.



Tom competed against adult divers when he won the 10m platform gold medal at the European Championships last year.



see today's Guardian Sport



link - http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009...ullying-diving

[Sgt Sunshine]

name='Maurice']Tom Daley, who was 15 last month, starts at independent Plymouth College today. He was withdrawn from Eggbuckland Community College after problems with bullies.



As a day boy, Tom's preparation for 2012 will not be disrupted. He will continue to train, after school, at Central Park swimming-pool, Plymouth, where diving facilities include a 10m platform.



Tom competed against adult divers when he won the 10m platform gold medal at the European Championships last year.



see today's Guardian Sport

Plymouth is very lucky to have those excellent diving facilities at Central Park, and the chap who teaches there used to coach my eldest son (18).

I think Sharron Davies (olympic swimmer) also used to train there....(I wonder if her parents still live at Plymstock?)

Sad to hear about Tom & the bullies.....maybe he'll fit in better at Plymouth College

My daughter used to go to Eggy but luckily no problem with bullies then

Cheers

Sgt S

[Captain Casper]

This pisses me off. Why haven't the bullies been moved? I used to work in a school and saw my fair share of bullying of younger or less "hard" kids and its heartbreaking to watch them cower or flit between classes for fear of being slammed into a wall or tripped up and stamped on.



Schools never do enough for those who really want to get on in life. Far more resources are spent on the "problem" kids. For instance, from the school I worked at, a minibus would pick up 7 or 8 little hooligans once a week and take them to a local beach to sketch and draw away from school and temptation to bully. 2 staff members were taken too. How fooked up is that? One of the brighter kids said to me, "Why should I work hard in a hot classroom when 5 minutes bad behaviour gets me a day off?"

[DB7]

name='Captain Casper']



Schools never do enough for those who really want to get on in life.

In my experience the worst culprits are the parents, it is after all their task to bring up their kids not the school. When most are called-in and told sweet little Johnny is actual a little scrote they leap to their child's defence and dub him 'high-spirited' (probably the Tesco cider he's knocking back).

[Maurice]

Plymouth College is an independent school for day and boarding pupils from ages 11 to 18.



Founded in 1877, Plymouth College merged with Mannamead School in 1896.



In 2004, the school absorbed St. Dunstan's Abbey School, a nearby, older, independent school for girls.



Former pupils there include Dawn French (b. 1957), comedian and scriptwriter.



Plymouth College Prep School caters for pupils aged 3 to 11.

Former pupil: Michael Foot (b. 1913), Leader of the Labour Party, 1980-83.



After WW2, Plymouth College became a Direct Grant School but reverted to full independence in 1976.



The school is well-known for its Elite Swimming Programme. Numerous former pupils have represented England/Great Britain.



Cassie Patten (b.1987) won a Bronze Medal at the 2008 Olympics.



Two Plymouth College swimmers, Achieng Ajulu-Bushell (14) and Christian Homer (17) have been selected for the World Championships in Rome this summer.



Old Plymothians and Mannameadians (OPMs)

associated with other sports:



Pete Goss, MBE., Legion d'Honneur, yachtsman and Arctic explorer

autobiography: "Close to the Wind" (2000)



Ian D. W. Wright (b. circa 1934), inventor of racketball and racketball champion

Paul Ackford (b. 1958), England rugby union player, journalist

Miles Tunnicliff (b. 1968), golfer

John Fabian (b. 1976), England sevens rugby union player

William James (b. 1976), Wales rugby union player

Patrick K. Collins (b. 1977), Munster rugby union coach

Steve Banyard (b. 1963), football commentator



OPMs in the performing arts:



Eden Philpotts (1862-1960), writer

J. C. Trewin (1908-1990), writer and drama critic

Frank Hoar (1909-1976), architect, cartoonist ("Acanthus")

John Trevaskis (1923-2002), classicist

Gerry Hillman (b. 1948), landscape painter

Richard Deacon (b. 1949), sculptor, Turner Prize winner

Mark Tavener (1954-2007), novelist and scriptwriter

Michael Ball (b. 1962), singer, actor and presenter

Finn Peters (b. 1974), jazz musician

Kavus Torabi (b. 1971), rock musician

Stephen Davies (b. 1976), children's author



source: Wikipedia

[torinfan]

name='Captain Casper']This pisses me off. Why haven't the bullies been moved? I used to work in a school and saw my fair share of bullying of younger or less "hard" kids and its heartbreaking to watch them cower or flit between classes for fear of being slammed into a wall or tripped up and stamped on.



Schools never do enough for those who really want to get on in life. Far more resources are spent on the "problem" kids. For instance, from the school I worked at, a minibus would pick up 7 or 8 little hooligans once a week and take them to a local beach to sketch and draw away from school and temptation to bully. 2 staff members were taken too. How fooked up is that? One of the brighter kids said to me, "Why should I work hard in a hot classroom when 5 minutes bad behaviour gets me a day off?"

I'm sorry that happened to Tom. Some parents do the same with their kids if the kids become targets of bullying (or just homeschool them).



During my last year at the UA here in Tucson I had the pleasure of reading August Hollingshead's "Study of Elmtown Youth." No, it wasn't anything assigned to me, I just picked it up because I knew it was a vital social study on understand social mobility and the class system. It is sad for those who hold each other down, but I know Tom will blossom at his new school.

[torinfan]

name='DB7']In my experience the worst culprits are the parents, it is after all their task to bring up their kids not the school. When most are called-in and told sweet little Johnny is actual a little scrote they leap to their child's defence and dub him 'high-spirited' (probably the Tesco cider he's knocking back).

It's that way here, too. Tragic, really.

[Edward G]

Spot on DB7!

I am married to a teacher and until I met her had no idea of the problems caused by parents who sometimes neglect their children or back them up conditionally against staff when they are pulled up for bullying or giving cheek etc. They also expect teachers to transform their brats into decent kids despite years of being conditioned the opposite way!

name='DB7']In my experience the worst culprits are the parents, it is after all their task to bring up their kids not the school. When most are called-in and told sweet little Johnny is actual a little scrote they leap to their child's defence and dub him 'high-spirited' (probably the Tesco cider he's knocking back).

[Maurice]

A report in Swimming Times, June edition (published mid-May), provided the background to today's news:



Change of school for Tom ?



Tom Daley has been offered a place at Plymouth College following a blaze of publicity about the bullying he has had to tolerate at Eggbuckland Community College.



The 14-year-old's dad Rob said he had not yet discussed the offer with his son, who was on a training camp in Florida when the offer was made and was due to compete in the USA before returning to Britain.



But Rob told Swimming Times:

"I will be advising Tom strongly to take up the new offer of schooling he has had from Plymouth College. The offer would allow him to start straight away but whether he will take it up I don't know.



"Plymouth College is the home of Plymouth Leander Swimming Club so there are going to be a lot of other elite athletes there and he wouldn't stick out like a sore thumb as he does at his present school.



"Tom just wants to get educated and lead a normal life without all the nonsense he has had to put up with."



Rob Daley confirmed that Tom has had to deal with some physical bullying as well as a constant stream of taunts and name-calling since achieving international fame over the last year or two.



"One boy asked him how much his legs were worth and threatened to break them," he said.



"There are constant taunts of 'Speedo boy' and 'Diver boy'.



"Tom knows he can't retaliate so he has to endure it. The teachers don't seem to be doing anything about it, though we have been to the school several times to discuss it.



"There is only so much you can tolerate. As a responsible parent, I have to look at other options and that's what I am doing."

[julian_craster]

There is bullying in fee paying schools as well......check out IF (Lindsay Anderson) !

[Mark O]

I'm sure Tom will thrive at Plymouth College and shame on Eggbuckland for not doing something about the Bullies, it's reputation has rightly been sullied...........I know what it's like being bullied in vulnerable teenage years and the despair to the victim it causes.

[darrenburnfan]

The main reason that teachers are afraid to confront a bully about his behaviour these days is because they know that the bully knows that all he has to do is complain to the police that the teacher tried to "touch him up" and the teacher would be arrested and thrown into a police cell and, even if on investigation the charges are dropped, the teacher would lose his job because of the bad publicity the case had attracted to the school and, anyway, there's no smoke without fire and all that. Meanwhile, the bully, having ruined the teacher's career, puts two fingers up at the school and the police.



In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the following conversation had occured in schools up and down the country many times:



TEACHER: "Now put a stop to that, or I'll...."

BULLY: "You'll do what? If you dare lay a finger on me, I'll go straight to the headmaster and tell him you put your hand inside my pants and then where'll you be, eh? You'll be locked up and lose your job and be put on the sex offenders register for life and they always believe the kid, don't they? I mean, we're so innocent that we would never make up a thing like that, so you must have done it!"



This kind of thing, together with the abolition of corporal punishment in schools leading to a total disrepect of teachers by pupils, is the main reason that all schools in the UK today are discipline-free zones. If a teacher so much as looks the wrong way at an unruly pupil, the pupil could accuse him of anything and the kid knows it. That's the main reason why excellent pupils like Tom Daley have to leave a school where he was being bullied instead of the bullies. The teaching staff daren't do a thing about it as they are completely unable to properly discipline unruly kids. In fact, if they were to do so, they would be arrested themselves and charged with assault and they know it. So nothing gets done.

[Mark O]

I agree with everything you say darrenburnfan, but in these punishment free days wouldn't Schools have been issued with Government guidelines on dealing with Bullying?



Any School Teachers round here!

[Lord Brett]

To be fair, darrenburnfan, in the circumstances you describe the teacher is hardly being 'namby-pamby' - more likely they are afraid of losing their profession and their liberty because some horrible little shit might tell lies about them.



As others have commented, the fault lies not with the teachers, but with the parents. As my partner (who is a primary school teacher) always says, you can't teach pork!

[CaptainWaggett]

I'd be interested to know of any actual examples of a teacher being put on the sex offender register for life over a single allegation with no other evidence. It may well be something teachers worry about but does it really happen? And as Lord Brett says, if it does happen, how many of us would be willing to risk our careers and indeed freedom over a single pupil? Not me for sure.

[darrenburnfan]

name='Lord Brett']To be fair, darrenburnfan, in the circumstances you describe the teacher is hardly being 'namby-pamby' - more likely they are afraid of losing their profession and their liberty because some horrible little shit might tell lies about them.



As others have commented, the fault lies not with the teachers, but with the parents. As my partner (who is a primary school teacher) always says, you can't teach pork!

I withdraw the "namby-pamby" remark, Lord Brett, as with hindsight, I realise that's unfair on teachers who are too afraid to tackle a bully because of the consequences. I think that the law should be changed so that no child could accuse a teacher of anything like that without evidence and witnesses to the "assault." That would make teachers more confident in dealing with unruly kids. Also, teachers should be able to physically restrain a troublesome kid without fear of being arrested for "assault."



There's no way of knowing how many teachers accused of sexual assault on a pupil were actually innocent, but almost all of them, I'd say.

[CaptainWaggett]

name='darrenburnfan']I withdraw the "namby-pamby" remark, Lord Brett, as with hindsight, I realise that's unfair on teachers who are too afraid to tackle a bully because of the consequences. I think that the law should be changed so that no child could accuse a teacher of anything like that without evidence and witnesses to the "assault." That would make teachers more confident in dealing with unruly kids. Also, teachers should be able to physically restrain a troublesome kid without fear of being arrested for "assault."



There's no way of knowing how many teachers accused of sexual assault on a pupil were actually innocent, but almost all of them, I'd say.

So all a teacher would need to do if he wanted to assault a pupil (and it certainly does happen though hopefully rarely) would be to make sure there are no witnesses. Do people often commit sexual assaults on minors in front of witnesses? It's fairly unusual I would have thought. And do teachers often get convicted on the word of a single pupil.

[darrenburnfan]

Yes, you're right, Captain Waggett. No teacher, if he was that way inclined, would do something like that in front of witnesses. But the kid could claim that it happened when he and the teacher were alone together...a scenario that may never have happened in reality. It's a difficult problem to sort out. It always has been and today, the kids know all about their rights and nothing about their responsibilities. I have read about teachers being convicted solely on the word of a child, due to the misguided belief that all children are sexually "innocent" and so could never have dreamed up such an accusation...so it must have happened. But that also applies to vicars and choirboys and any situation where there are no witnesses to such a thing. It's always gone on. In fact, I remember reading reports about such things in the Sunday papers over fifty years ago. The problem is that even if a teacher (or a priest or a scout leader) is entirely innocent, mud sticks and there will always be people who are only too ready to believe the worst about someone even in the absence of any evidence.

[Captain Casper]

I was verbally assaulted by 2 kids from the school I worked while with my wife on a Saturday morning.



I simply walked across the road, picked one up by the throat and lifted him up a wall. The following Monday I was called to a meeting with parents and headteacher. I simply denied everything and was believed as the kid was a known yob and troublemaker. Next day I told him I would make his life a living hell if he tried anything again.



He left me alone from then.



The parents are solely to blame for their children and ultimately responsible for their upbringing. No-one else. You cannot blame society, Society doesn't allow them to wander the streets until 11pm, causing damage to property, parents do. I came from a fairly poor background by todays standards, we had nothing but our parents brought us up respecting others. Corny, but it worked.



In my school days, assaults on teachers were simply myths. I was only at a comprehensive but rarely did anyone talk back to a teacher. That has changed irrevocably.

[darrenburnfan]

Could for you, Captain Casper. What you did may not have been Politically Correct, but you did the right thing. I remember way back in 1961, while I was 14 and still at Secondary Modern School, no boy or girl dared talk out of turn or answer a teacher back and discipline was strictly enforced. At around that time, I went to see a film called Spare the Rod, set in an east end of London school where the kids were totally out of control. I didn't recognise what was happening at that school as being anything like my school at all and thought it must be all made up and that no school in the country could be as bad as that. These days, there are probably plenty of schools where the kids are out of control, but the teachers aren't allowed to cane them or restrain them in any way.