Are your children "punished" for going to the toilet during lessons?

[yoyo]

My DD (aged 7) told me that because she had to go to the toilet during a lesson she lost 5 mins of Golden Time and had to stand facing the wall in the book corner. My older DD said that the rule is you lose 5 mins of Golden Time (which I can understand as there are plenty of children who no doubt love getting out of lessons).

I think facing the wall makes it a form of punishment and feel I should write to the Head. What do they do in other schools?

[Mum2girls]

Sounds barbaric. DD only in reception so no advice.

[gigglinggoblin]

dont see why they should miss the 5 minutes either actually. mine are now yr 1 and yr 2 and have to ask to go, bnut permission is never denied and they dont miss out on anythying because of it. i think thats disgraceful

[coppertop]

That sounds very harsh, Yoyo. Ds1 is in Yr1. The children are expected to ask if they want to go but that's all. They aren't punished for it in any way.

[frogs]

When dd1 was in Reception (!) the teacher made a rule that they were only allowed to go to the loo in break times. There were numerous incidents of children wetting themselves, in one case while standing in the corner for some unrelated offence. Oh god, it sounds really barbaric with hindsight. The teacher was a seriously tough South African, lovely on a one-to-one adult basis, but far too tough for Reception, even though they were a very difficult class. The rule was allowed to quietly fizzle out after an incident where I was called in from work after dd1 had an accident (I didn't look too closely at the nature of the accident, but she'd had a tummy upset, and I'm pretty sure she wasn't just wet).

I think for some classes some kind of disincentive is not unreasonable if there is a big problem with children running in and out to the loo just for the fun of it, and probably getting up to no good while they are there (that has certainly been the case at our school). But facing the wall is punishment and should be unnecessary.

[freakyzebra]

Absolutely ok for students to go use the toilet here, just have to ask first.

It's parents and non-school children who can't use our school toilets!

[Nightynight]

I would have a word with the teacher and find out the policy is. I agree, punishment is well out of order.

[Caligula]

I think there's a balance between making the children time-manage properly so that they understand that they should go in breaks, and accepting that sometimes, they still forget to do that and even if they don't, they sometimes need to go again.

Amazed by the standing in corner though - is that because she's done it once too many times?

[yoyo]

Thanks for these. I do think they need to learn to use the toilets at break to minimise disruption to the class. It is the "punishment" angle I object to. I will ask some of the other parents before approaching the teacher although I do not think DD2 would make it up (she said she didn't mind doing it!). I don't think she would do it frequently although she is the sort of child who really would forget to go during playtime.