Hi! My DS, who is 5, attends a school which employs the traffic light system for behaviour. He has previously had one red card this year, when him and two other reception children hit a year 2 child in September (which is fine, I understand that one!!!)
But when I picked him up from school today, the teacher told me that DS had been put on red because he’d been “in his own little world all day, staring into space and not listening.”
I was furious, but felt I couldn’t say anything because all the other parents were listening queing right behind us waiting for the teacher to let their children go.
I don’t understand how you can put a child on a red card for, what is essentially, daydreaming. It’s not disrupting or hurting anyone, and not putting him in danger. In my experience at home, DS only does this when he’s bored or not being stimulated enough. He’s not hard work, and doesn’t have any challenging behaviours.
I think this daydreaming is a result of him being so tired (he knows half term is this weekend) and not being stimulated/challenged enough in class, as he’s one of the eldest, and doing really well in his reading, literacy and numeracy, which usually, in my experience as a nursery nurse, means that the teachers will just leave him to it, and focus on the children who aren’t doing as well.
But having mental health issues, I know that I wouldn’t be able to confront the teacher about this, (I’m not able to express my feelings very well verbally, and am often misunderstood, then I get frustrated and give up) so just wondered if anyone had any advice? I don’t want DS being labelled as a troublemaker (since he’s now had the most red cards in his class) and that reputation affecting the rest of his school life.
I also don’t want to be the trouble making mum! (The teacher and I got off to a bad start over reading books- despite them having his reading record from nursery, they started him on picture books, when he was already able to read simple sentences of 3-4 words... then I think I annoyed her by telling her that I don’t like the phonic system, and won’t use it with him at home (I never learned to read using phonics, and I find it unhelpful when sounding out words, since in some words the letters aren’t the right sound at all, and it was frustrating DS so much!!!) - in case anyone was wondering how I confronted her about this, it was via little messages to and fro in his reading record book!!!)
TIA!
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Primary education
Red card sanctions in reception
41 replies
Taddi · 24/05/2018 16:43
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