Managing a want-out child

 I was worried about this class all week. One of the boys had complete conniption (had to spell check that!) last week and blew my game plan out of the water. Trying to maintain a class and at the same time have an in-building truant to worry about is not easy. Flat refusal to come back to the class (I'd asked him to move because he was disturbing his neighbour, fled the room in gales of tears) but also to go anywhere else, like downstairs to mummy (and therefore get 'busted').

I gave him time to calm down (and me too) and maybe figure he was missing out on a fun activity (he did miss out, and was peeping around the door to see what we were doing). His friends decided to go and get him, but that didn't work either (they were very nice about it, but they gave up in the end and got back to the game).

Eventually it was obvious he wasn't coming back, and I didn't want him to get pointed at when other students came upstairs - nor did I want to set a precedent i.e. bailing out of class is OK. His mum also needed to know what had happened without a big song & dance/in front of his peers, give them a chance to go home a bit early & minimise the crushing embarrassment etc. Loads of wailing...

I made sure mum got the message that I did not need bowing at profusely this week before class. An apology was in order, and I got a quiet one as we trailed the others into class. No big deal - please behave?

Any prizes for guessing who was the star student this week? Funny how it goes like that. Tested the limits, found the breaking strain and didn't enjoy the result. So, maybe now we can stay in bounds and lead the class rather than trip it up.