Son cut his hair in school

When I was still teaching, we used to trade in pritt sticks 😂

Safety scissors have to be capable of cutting thin card, wool, thread etc as well as paper. Cutting hair doesn't require especially sharp scissors.

My son cut his hair in Y1. The teacher was so cross, I was a bit baffled by it tbh - of course he shouldn't have and I did tell him off for cutting something other than what he's been told to cut, but it's hardly the end of the world. I was actually surprised he'd never done it at home, he's had access to safety scissors since he was about 3.

Anyway. At our school the blame was very much on my son being naughty, not the teacher at all. Which is correct, although a bit over the top.

I haven't read the full thread so sorry if this has already been said. I think you should clarify if there was a TA in the class. If not, I would take it to the head. You will sound like 'that parent' but it might help the case for the class getting a TA.
This is from a Y1 teacher and because of budget, we are losing our TAs in the afternoons. Things like this (or worse) happen when 1 adult is supervising 30 five year olds.

There's at least 1 y6 kid that does this every year. Tbh , it happens in nearly every year group. Sometimes at home, sometimes at school. Should children never be allowed access to scissors? Or glue, or rulers, or compasses , or hard backed books , or whiteboard pens/felt tips/paints etc.? Basically anything really that can be damaged or cause damage to themselves or their clothes?

It’s impossible for a teacher to closely supervise 30 kids, and that arrangement rests on a shared social construct that authority figures are to be heeded and obeyed and where failure to comply/obey equals naughtiness in children and lawbreaking in adults with a scale of sanctions appropriate to age.

It’s clear that you don’t subscribe to that view and that’s fair enough. There’s been a huge paradigm shift across the last couple of generations but we’re still leaving 30 dc in the care of a single adult.

I think your initial response is fair enough. You’re not blaming the child, or the teacher. It sounds like your friend is operating in a different paradigm, but if blame is being assigned, then it isn't just the teacher who is at fault - it’s also the child (for not listening) and the parent (for not instilling respect for authority). Your friend is BU

I teach year 1’sand the start of every year we extensively discuss being safe with scissors. Before we use scissors each time we discuss being safe with scissors….. every year someone cuts their own hair ….. every year . I don’t even react anymore

@mrsnjw you have actual Pritt sticks??? Not cheap value glue sticks? And I'm down to my last few of those.... Where are you working? Eton? 😂

Oh wow!!! This is a winner 😆

I remember the game where you spread your fingers on a table and you had to bang a compass down between fingers really fast. I was showing of to a crush of mine after he did an impressive job and I only did it once 😆

I was a teacher and this sort of thing happens all the time. Think how quick the action is of cutting hair is. Then when faced with 30 children it’s easy not to notice. I had a parent complain of a bumped head once. Child didn’t say anything and when I asked she showed me and it was under his hairline, and she only noticed when she washed his hair. Apparently I should’ve had the ability to see things that even she couldn’t until he was in the bath 🤦🏻‍♀️ This is not fully relevant but just an example of how easy it is to miss things.

With the noticeable cut, it’s a big detail to parents, but for a teacher it isn’t necessarily. Another example was at the start of my career I had a girl with the most gorgeous hair. She fancied herself as a stylist and took an inch off. I didn’t notice, but my god the dad did, and didn’t I know about it 🤦🏻‍♀️ Although she told her dad it was a boy in a different class who was absent that day. The dad wanted his parents brought in 🤦🏻‍♀️

My son cut his hair whilst in my care. His fringe was too long and it was during the first lockdown 🤦🏻‍♀️ I was gutted then I tried to right it by trimming his hair, that didn’t go well so I got clippers and crickey , what a mess!! 🤣

sometimes people overreact, it sounds like you haven’t and you’ve done the right thing by having a conversation then being willing to move on.

Your son chose to cut his own hair. Address that as your main point.

Then they shouldn't give them anything. Kids can and do cause damage with water, sand, pens, crayons, wooden blocks, dressing up clothes, etc., even books while the teacher's back is turned or she is too far away from a determined child to physically stop them.

Sit the kids down in an empty room, without shoes and talk at them. Then nothing inappropriate could possibly happen. Kids won't develop properly or learn much but at least they won't have had the opportunity to do anything they shouldn't unnoticed.

The teacher can't supervise them more. There is no way for her to see every child in the class for every second of the day. Unless your DC and the others who did this have a lot of form for behaving inappropriately, if you complain the only way they can mitigate this specific risk is to not let them have scissors, which will mean they have less opportunity to develop skills.

I assume the scissors are blunt ended. They can cut paper (and hair!) and probably clothing, but they aren't particularly risky in terms of children hurting themselves. At most I would ask the teacher if they could emphasise that the scissors must only be used to cut paper (or what ever they are supposed to be cutting!). Mainly I would have a stern word with DC about not using scissors on things they aren't supposed to be using them on.

I remember the rather rat-like boy that cut off a classmate's long pigtail. The mother of the girl sent his parents the bill for the hairdresser cutting the remains into a short style. And they were far older than five. I think we were about 9 or so. That was about 50 years ago too. I don't think anybody attempted to blame the teacher

Then they shouldn’t give them scissors if they can’t supervise them properly.

And how would you feel if another child cut a huge chunk off another child’s hair? I remember hearing an article in the news about a little girl who was bullied at school by kids because she had lovely hair and her mum used to plait it beautifully for school. Another child at the school cut off her plait at school one day, leaving the little girl feeling devastated. I think the teacher should take responsibility if they are going to give children scissors and supervise them properly.

Its not possible for one teacher to have their eyes on every single child. So many children do this at some point. When my son was 5, his friend cut my son's hair, they were playing. His poor teacher was mortified telling me, I just laughed. These things happen. One of my children has cut their own hair at home too.

I work in a school with dc of this age. There are usually a couple of hair cutters each year. Most parents are fine and know you can't watch them all the time but you do get the odd complaint, which tbh doesn't achieve anything as we can't ban scissors! Better than the ones that stick dried peas or a bead up there noses - those require a hospital trip!

The tennis ball cutting is a made up brag by a child! No 5 year old is strong enoughand the scissors are not sharp or big enough.

Where do i start with this.
Me as a child chopped off on of my pigtails at school i was 4 cut my fringe at 5.
My sister cut my fringe when i was 12 it was awful.
I cut my sisters hair again in our teens.
The worst was when we both wanted blond hair i was 5 and sister was 6 so got in the garden shed an used paint yes wall paint my mother was not happy and dad had to shave our heads.
Its funny now.
Fast forward 20 odd year we had kids of our own omg i felt sorry for my parents.
My son got the shavers out at 10 to give him and his brother a under cut they looked like mushrooms pic was taken.
When they were smaller eldest 4 at the time cut a lump of hair off the side of his head at school reason it was itching his ear.
Youngest son age 5 cut chunks out his hair at school because he wanted to be a rock star then went on to use pva glue to spike it up.
Both had shaved heads many times.
I have many more storys.
My sister has 2 daughters that loved to play hair dressers need i say more.

All our kids are now in there 20s and have grown out of cutting there hair.
Op this is what parenting is.

We explain the rules to children when using scissors. We always remind them.

In a class of 5 year olds, there will be 1 teacher and (possibly) 1 TA. No one can keep their eyes on 30 or even 15 children at all times because most humans (including teachers) only have one pair of eyes and those eyes can't see 15 - 30 people in detail at once.

We have to let them use scissors.

School scissors can barely cut card. They wouldn't be able to cut through a tennis ball.

DD and her friend cut each others hair, in after-school club. She(now aged 16) still talks about how the head teacher picked the hair out of the bin and put it into two separate evidence bags (the girls are different ethnicities so easy to do!). Headteacher was in your friends camp, seemed non plussed when I and the other mum both just shrugged about it.

I agree.
A full class and you are supposed to be able to stop this.

In the teachers place if they decided to call the parents in a give THEM a talking to about their child, I wouldn't blame them.

At 5 I would be bloody cross with my children messing with a sissors...they should know not to do that at 3.

At montessori my children were warned about sissors and being very careful with them, and they were the blunt tiny childrens ones.

I know because they told me!

Tell your friends they’re the reason why so many teachers are quitting!