Britain's Most Challenging Children | Child Mental Health Documentary | Absolute Documentaries

This Absolute Documentary follows life inside 5 UK primary schools to uncover the enormous challenges faced by teachers dealing with violent and disruptive behavior. 97% of teachers say they have to deal with disruptive pupils in their classroom – pupils like Levi in Luton, who regularly has to storm out of class for fear that he might lose control; or Jordyn in Glasgow whose swearing and aggression frightens teachers and classmates alike.

In Jordyn's school, she benefits from a Nurture Group, a special room set up as a bridge between home and school, where the whole spectrum of behaviors that form a barrier to learning, from complete withdrawal to outright aggression, can be addressed. And in Levi's school headteacher, Hilary Goddard puts into practice her "whole-brain behavior management in the classroom" to help both children, teachers, and parents.

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[susansage]

Parents: it's up to you to raise your children, not the teacher. If you don't have time to raise a respectful, responsible child, don't have them.

[jessicaellina]

5 minutes in... phone Levi, s parents and get them to collect him... 3 adults pandering to this boy and wasting everybody, s time is just unbelievable.

[LegalAlien]

When I was being intensely bullied in my school I would have loved for a teacher to threaten me with being sent home. I would have said, “Oh, yes please!”. The irony.

[Escherlife]

I’ve been a teacher for 30 years and the education department has taken the power to enforce rules and discipline away from the staff. This is the result. Sometimes giving kids too many choices is confusing and detrimental to their sense of safety and security. When will the powers that be wake up and see this?

[mariekatherine]

What’s wrong with the adults that one child is permitted to monopolize the entire staff and faculty and bring the other children’s education to a halt? If a child has this much power, why wouldn’t he exercise it? The sisters in my childhood boarding school would NEVER have permitted such a thing.

[reubenmygdal]

The kids are getting so much attention from their bad behaviour. It’s being rewarded.

[lizzynunez]

Levy should have been expelled from school and should have been sent home right away. It's not up to the teachers to have to teach him to behave, that needs to be done at home and with professional assistance for the parents and Levy.

[ponyguy]

“Levi……Make good choices”…He’s told over and over again, day after day, and continues the same willful behavior while putting teachers and students at risk. Enough is enough. Get him into a special school, psychological help, and whatever else it takes. It’s obvious as much as the his current school is trying to help with him, it’s not working.

[MAZ]

The name Levi tells me all I need to know. Why it’s the responsibility of the school/teachers is beyond me. This is a generalisation of unstable kids raised by parents or should I say, one parent who’s probably a kid herself.

[danielakresic]

I'm also a teacher and all I can say that the children have become so protected that they can do whatever they want to and they know it. They can even hit you and you can't do anything. The only bright side is that they are not my own.

[andih]

Am so relieved they have the extra staff to deal with Levi. I remember a few disruptive kids at my school. And as a slow learner it was incredibly detrimental to my own learning. When I was in primary school a good few years ago. The disiplined kids went unnoticed the bad children took up all the true learning time.

[jobee]

Giving children choices instead of instructions when they behave like this …. Wow.

[daphne]

Mental health issues, issues at home, and trauma all cause children to act out like this. It’s very important to get to the root of the problem. Without doing so, the behavior likely will escalate as the child ages. I knew several children growing up who behaved like this, and it was because of severe trauma/neglect or abuse and was likely exasperated by other mental health issues and being improperly medicated. The school never tried to get to the root of the problem and the parents (if present) did not care to either. Now these boys are largely in jail. One recently opened fire on police officers in a church parking lot.

[teresapolkinghorne]

To soft on kids of today all these teachers being used for one child its ridiculous.

[jojocanon]

Unfortunately...Levi is probably on his way to prison...and his parents are to blame for that.

[eyestotheskies]

My best friend is a teacher in a school that has several kids like this and most of the time they're acting out because of stress, whether at home or elsewhere. That or some form of learning difficulty. She is unbelievably gifted with disruptive kids and I honestly salute any teacher who encourages progress from them in a kind and professional way. It's no mean feat.

[deidraleonard]

I'm tired of seeing our educators having to be the parents and being abused by these little monsters. It's rediculous.

[commonsense]

Never in my life did I have the
”choice” to decide to go to class..🤔

[paulaerasmus]

They paying too much attention to him and put him in the silent room for longer. They are giving him too much option / choices. All that attention for one course he will continue being negative attention, is

[adc]

I am old. We had no kids, zero that acted like this when I was in elementary school. No quiet rooms. You know you would be in trouble at home if your parents found out about bad behavior. What changed? Parents! Now the parents may show the same behavior towards teachers.