Question/suggestion for primary school teachers

[Lovelybitofsquirrel3]

I’m not a teacher and I’m not interested in becoming one.
behavioural issues can be partly caused by diet, sleep, or stress. If children filled in a diary daily to record bits of information about their week each day, it could reveal a lot about that child. I’m not sure why it isn’t routinely done in schools, or if there’s some kind of rule that doesn’t allow it?

My class would probably just write a pack of lies!!

this thread is influenced by another thread (not about another thread) and is a suggestion to a big problem. but I am also biased because you’re right, my behavioural issues were partly caused by abuse at home and I was reprimanded by teachers and staff. But that’s another story in itself. I also have a 6 year old.

When my child was 4 years old, he told his Reception teacher I made him eat cat litter for breakfast.

The truth was, I'd given him a small bowl of muesli to try after his toast.

I wouldn't mind but he ate it all and seemed to quite like it 😳

When I was in primary school - forty years ago- every Monday you had to write about what the priest had discussed in his sermon in church to make sure you went to Church.

Even I knew at seven just to ask one of the altar boys when we lined up because we were a bit hit and Miss about going to Mass.

have you ever asked a class what time they go to bed?? Oh my word, the answers you get. In Year 3 half of them swear it’s past ten o’clock and midnight on weekends. As long as they right it correctly in French I don’t mind but I can’t see the data collection being reliable. DD6 told me today her homework had taken her 52 hours.

We can't get children/parents to write a sentence in their reading diary once a week, let alone this.

I am a teacher. Biggest problem is getting the wee feckers to actually write something.

FAR, FAR too much effort for many kids these days.

As for "revealing a lot about that child," I'm just wondering what the terabytes of DAILY Instagram/ Tic Toc uploads reveal about most kids these days.

Soooo bored by their constant Skibidi Toilet crap. Kids are REALLY not that interesting.

Was going to say the same. My kid actually reads a lot, keeps the books by his chair, we set a reminder to write in the diary what he's read, and he's still oblivious to what he's supposed to write and has forgotten what book he just read.

OP is living in a dreamland where all kids consistently recall accurate factual information and have the ability and inclination too communicate that.... and that's aside from the practical and privacy restructions!

Suppose you did get a near accurate diary account and it showed bad diet, poor sleep and high stress. What would you do about it then?

I suppose what I want to ask is what might help then? I don’t expect children to be factual or be honest just like that. Questions could be phrased in a certain way. I don’t have all the answers but there must be a way? Or maybe it’s just completely impractical and impossible after all. I don’t know what the answer is then but thought it could be a start. It was just a suggestion.

Speak to the head I imagine?

So the head could do what?

I once had Year 7 students do a writing journal - anything, though topics were pasted in at the front of the exercise book. I read them regularly, ticked to show I'd seen it. No corrections, only encouraging comments of having enjoyed it.

One student wrote about their fear of their parent when they had been drinking. It was so clearly true.
I reported it as a safeguarding issue - In Victoria there is a 24/7 in and outside school legal obligation for teachers to report safeguarding matters.

Back to the OP. Your well-intentioned proposal is impractical.

The journal you describe is the kind of thing I mean

You can imagine a lot of things but clearly don’t have a clue. All day is busy. There is not a moment of slack, and certainly no time to look over what a child has written in the book. And then what? The teacher phones up Oscar’s parents because he’s a bit out of sorts and it might be the bag of haribo he had last night.

While it's very good for encouraging writing, short pieces only, it imposes a duty on the teacher to thoroughly check it, so something else has to give way.

What would that be?

Imagine the shitstorm if a teacher missed a disclosure.

It’s better than not encouraging disclosures at all though?

I was always very specific in saying that while the writing is personal, the rules said it was not private and explained the safeguarding rules.

I never encouraged disclosures. WTF?

You don't need a diary you can tell which children aren't getting what they need and they don't get what they need for many different reasons and one of those is living in an abusive household and a diary is going to do naff all about that considering how high the bar is for help.

Children who are stressed are worried and jumpy and have low resilience not putting themselves forward for things and being timid and easily upset, those that don't get outside enough, enough exercise or the right nutrition are over/under weight with low muscle tone and sallow or pale skin. Schools already offer breakfast clubs, the daily mile, free after-school and holiday clubs. There is no more money in the pot for additional assistance and parents have to be willing to take it up which many aren't.

There are more behavioural issues in schools because the curriculum changed and is more demanding, funding changed so more children who would have been in specialist schools are now in mainstream, staffing reduced with less adults to support the children. Keeping a diary is f going to change any of those things.

Maybe I could’ve worded that differently

Isn’t it’s better to keep a diary, than no diary at all? If you explain it’s ok to disclose if there is anything, that should be ok?

Actually, we do a monthly well-being check in (secondary school), where students take about 5 minutes in form time to record how they are feeling at the moment with a possibility to mention if they have worries or if they feel they need help with anything. Similarly a child that was having time management problems at home in the morning and once mentioned that they never eat breakfast, has been supported to get into school early enough to attend breakfast club and is now in school and on time having eaten breakfast. So these things are monitored a bit more informally.

I get to know the kids in my class pretty well, OP. I already know that X has Doritos for breakfast because there's no food in the house, that Y is afraid of her dad, and that Z is up until gone midnight playing video games most nights. I don't need to instigate a fake diary exercise to spy on them. I am a person they trust, and they tell me stuff. When I can or am legally obliged to, I report if it will get families help, but a lot of the time families are already on the radar. There is no government service that bustles in and gives them a healthy dinner and puts them to bed at a reasonable time and makes sure they've got clean uniform for tomorrow. Mostly, all I can do is make my classroom a safe space and a happy place to spend school hours. I have spare uniform available, I keep snacks for those who need them, and I do my job which is to instill high expectations and value in their education.

There just isn’t time to do that daily. However, staff build strong relationships and know their students very well. We know when they aren’t themselves and will seek to understand what is behind behaviours that are shown. Any relevant action is taken and concerns are logged. Children are encouraged to speak to an adult any time they need and often will share things with an adult they feel comfortable with.

You'd make a safeguarding referral to the designated safeguarding lead and if appropriate speak to a parent. But there's no space in the curriculum for daily diary.writing just on the off chance a child makes a disclosure and the whole idea makes me quite uncomfortable to be honest. Not to mention the many practical reasons people have mentioned.

School staff do loads of safeguarding training to pick up signs of abuse/ neglect without having to actively question children every day.

Schools do not exist to spy on the private lives of children.

This. It sounds incredibly overbearing and intrusive. I have nothing to hide but I would not allow my children fill out something like this. My children are well looked after and what they sleep and eat is really none of their school’s business. It oversteps hugely.