Whole class punishments when only some children are misbehaving!

[Ineedmorepatience]

Is this good practice?

Dd3 has Asd and can get very upset about situations she thinks are unfair.

Today the boys in her class were playing up and the teacher (a student) told the whole class that they would lose 5 minutes off their playtime tomorrow.

I know its only 5 minutes but why do all the children need to be punished for the sake of a few children. To me it just seems to cause resentment.
It has a knock on because she thinks she wont be able to get a snack and drink if they are late out of class.

I have never really understood this method of discipline but if someone can sell it to me feel free.

Opinions welcome, before I go and moan (again)!

[StuffezLaYoni]

No it is not good practice. I see the teacher is a student - I would hope her mentor would bring it up with her and encourage her to use other methods of discipline.

[learnandsay]

I think the idea is to get some children to pressure others to behave. It's a crap idea.

[StuffezLaYoni]

That's exactly it, learnandsay, and it's lazy - effectively getting the "good" kids berate the ones you don't dare pull up yourself.

[TigOldBitties]

I think it generally tends to work with older children because of peer pressure being more at play.

There is also the possibility it might have been numerous kids playing up or that the teacher couldn't identify exactly who the culprits are.

Its an unfair system of punishment but that being said, things are often unfair, maybe helping your DD with this concept would also be a good idea.

[Ineedmorepatience]

That is what I thought, but if Dd3 went and told another child to behave then she would get into trouble as her social skills arent the best and she comes across as being bossy and controlling.

I have moaned to the supervising teacher already about something and he tried to pass the buck to the student but surely he needs to take some responsibility!

Its really difficult to see the teachers in the mornings so I might have to go to the HT. I am really not happy about her missing her social/relaxing time when she has done nothing wrong

[learnandsay]

The girl can't alter the fact that she has ASD. The teacher can alter the way she punishes misbehaving boys.

[cornyblend37]

No it's crap teaching and generally frowned upon.

[Ineedmorepatience]

tig I see your point but dont particularly want her to think that it is ok for her to be punished for something she hasnt done.

At her old school she once owned up to something she hadnt done because the teacher said the class couldnt go out until somebody owned up, so she did. She didnt understand that it was meant to be the culprit who owned up.

If the teacher doesnt know who is messing about he could just take her aside and ask her, she would soon tell him (think Gus from the dumping ground).

[TheCrackFox]

It really is shit.

DS1 is just finishing primary school and it is the same handful of children that have been a pain in the arse from the get go. Just last month the whole class was banned from doing an art project because of the same children. It is very unfair and doesn't even work - in fact I think it makes the annoying kids worse as it makes them feel more powerful.

[StuffezLaYoni]

Actually, I must hold my hands up and admit I threatened to keep my whole class in all day fairly recently. I had found a note on the floor saying "fuck you" and other silly insults. I knew the handwriting straight off, but said they would all be kept in if nobody owned up. Luckily they crumbled in about six minutes...

[wheresthebeach]

My DDs school does this. Drives my dd nuts as she gets punished when she's done nothing wrong. The troublesome kids just laugh at her if she complaints. They just don't care. I think it's lazy and counterproductive.

[Churmy123]

My DDs school does this. And it's not down to the individual teacher either its school procedure. It happened in my DDs class (yr 1) a couple of weeks ago. The class were set a writing challange at the beginning of the week. They were asked to write a short story and were to spend some time on it every day. My DD wrote a full side of A4 and her story was picked out by the headteacher as an outstanding piece of work and she received the headsteachers award (a trophy) and got to read her story out to the whole school at the celebration assemby on the Friday afternoon. However 4 children only managed two or three lines of writing and were messing about when then should have been writing. So the entire class lost their golden time which they get at the end of the week if they have been well behaved. Normally in golden time the class get to choose an activity to do for their golden time. So instead the whole clas spent the whole og golden time writing out 'Baa baa black sheep' to practice their writing. So effectively my DD was punished even though she had produced a fantastic piece of work. It was difficult to explain to her.

[yamsareyammy]

Cant stand this sort of thing.
If the school continues to do this, round up some other parestn who dont agree with it, and write/email/speak to the Head.
If that doesnt work, write/email the Governors.
How would they like it if a teacher did something wrong, and they all had to be hauled over the coals.

[Churmy123]

It didn't appear to bother my DD very much. It was all forgotton about the next day. I do remember a few parents being a little upset about it though. But as far as I know noone took it any further. Behaviour is generally very good at my DDs school so I don't think it happens very often.

[Mirage]

DD1 and her friends were complaining about this yesterday.Apparently someone was whistling in class and the teacher couldn't see who it was,so said that if no one owned up,the whole class would lose playtime.After half an hour,the culprit did own up,but the teacher said it was too late and they'd still have to miss out.

This is the only time I've heard of this punishment in all of her time at school,and I'd be raising it with her teacher if it wasn't for the fact that she is leaving at the end of term anyway.

[Ineedmorepatience]

churmy my Dd3 would have been devastated if that writing thing happened to her.

A similar thing happened to my Dd1 when the whole class was due to be forced to repeat a spelling test at playtime she had scored 20/20 on the original test and was very unimpressed at having to do it again.

On that occasion I did go in and expressed my concerns about the punishment and she then didnt have to stay in.

Dd3's teacher has moved the goalposts today (again) he was on playground duty today so couldnt keep them in. He told them that the punishment was being carried over to tomorrow!!

I am getting less and less happy about this and am hoping that he is just going to back down and not keep them in at all. I know they are not babies but surely a punishment 2 days after the event is a bit too late??