Supporting teachers on the front-line

It has been a summer marred by tragedy. The case of four year-old Daniel Pelka, whose death as a result of what a judge called the “incomprehensible brutality” of his mother and her partner, caused widespread outrage at why apparently evident signs of abuse had not been spotted earlier.

At the same time, the suicide of Hannah Smith sparked a backlash against the social networking site Ask.fm, where the 14-year-old is said to have received a series of messages telling her to “drink bleach” and “go die”. Yet, as unbelievably tragic as these cases might be, what do they have to do with teachers? Everything it seems. Once the anger, despair and heartbreak begin to settle, questions are asked of how such atrocities might have happened, why no-one intervened, and how similar tragedies might be avoided. Inevitably, teachers become part of this debate.