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?

When I was at primary we did this. You had to write in your 'news' book every Monday morning. It was a writing exercise not safeguarding though.
Then on the first day back each term came the 'what I did in the holidays' essay.
It's a terrible idea op - time wasti g, perceived spying, Plus children do tell the adults in their classroom, a lot about their lives. The student, ts who do not tell you significant things, are hardly likely to write it in their planner

@Threeandahalf that's very interesting, thank you. I know it is not perfect as you have said (I don't think any system could be), but that seems like the most appropriate way of dealing with safeguarding. I am sure almost all children have said/done something concerning, but in isolation isn't worrying, but being able to log it somewhere and see previous concerns sounds like a very good system.

My child once wrote about what he did in the holidays 'slept in bed all day and played with a ball' we had been abroad, to museums, events, parks, soft plays etc. I asked him why he didn't write any of that he said he tried to think of the shortest words because he did not feel like writing!

Love this! What a strategic mind!

Ridiculous. I dont want schools intruding on my personal life. Not would they want to or have the time!

I remember one child getting stroppy before going on a trip. When spoken to about it he said ‘I don’t want to go because you’ll make me write about it’.

No one has time to follow up relatively minor issues like 'I didn't have any fruit or vegetables yesterday', even if there was a way of accurately getting hold of that information. The suggestion to 'tell the Head' if there is something concerning is already something schools do as part of safeguarding, and as a result, the Head is up to their neck in these situations already. SS can't follow up even some of the serious-but-not-serious issues quickly enough as it is, and the Head can't be responsible for that personally either.

Also, a lot of the stuff you are talking about as issues, is subjective. How many teachers eat beige food and don't get enough sleep? What if Miss X or Mr Y think that fishfingers, chips and beans for every tea is fine? What if Miss X or Mr Y think that only quinoa, hummus and roast vegetables for every tea is fine?

Mostly though, why is this the responsibility of a school?

You could just install cctv cameras in their homes OP.

Because most primary kids wouldn't have a clue how long they slept for and many would just say the same bedtime as their friend for fear of looking different or would say a later time to look 'cool'. Most would forget a lot of the things they ate the day before. Most parents wouldn't want their child's teacher analysing what they feed their child, their sleep routines etc because it's none of their business and most teachers wouldn't want to be that intrusive into someone's life.

It is a struggle to get some parents to even read with a child and fill in a reading record. Parents can be very defensive about their lifestyles and even the suggestion of something that may be help is often not received how it is intended

Also, if this were to be implemented, something else would have to be written off. There is so much to fit into a school day already, there is no space for anything like that.

Pastoral leads are normally utilised for any child who is deemed to need it, to discuss and issues but to think parents are going to start saying their child lives on a diet of processed food and go to bed at 11 every night is extremely unrealistic.

TBH the OP's suggestion sounds like the sort of batshit policy a brand new education secretary who has no idea of what actually goes on in schools or what they do would come up with.

You struggle to get many parents to sign a homework planner once a week as a teacher, can't see this taking off

This looks more like public health monitoring rather than education.
I'm sure it would be very useful information and reveal a lot but, no chance the public would respond. You'd get a self selecting group of, I would imagine, above average parents doing it and the most valuable information/incite would be missed. Look at the fuss some parents make even about just weighing children.

Kid misbehaves

Let's make loads of excuses for it rather than telling kid to stop

Surely that needs to be something done at home?

In a very few situations we have helped a parent with a similar kind of record, which they were keeping for a GP and/or medical appointment but we didn't instigate it.

Behaviour is generally quite a complex thing and just recording food and sleep wouldn't be enough.

I'd imagine many parents wouldn't be over.y happy if this was something schools did daily, long term. It would feel like an invasion of privacy i]to many.

We also just wouldn't have the time to complete the , let alone the time for it to be processed and conclusions made. Nor would we have the expertise to make those conclusions,

I think this reflects most teachers and their classes, especially in primary where we're with them most if not all of the day.
Some schools give toast to every child each morning, because they know that some children don't have breakfast. More and more schools I visit have food pantries and rails of uniform and other clothes in their entrance lobby. Schools are already responding to poverty and neglect, @Lovelybitofsquirrel3 without trying to cram in a diary of what's been eaten, bedtime, whether they've got yesterday's uniform on. Schools don't have enough resource to fully respond to learners needs as it is.
If you're from some quango seeing if an idea might have traction and how it might be received before looking to roll it out, forget it. Schools are under enough pressure to cram everything in as it is.

As primary school teachers we generally don't need such a written record. We tend to know which children struggle at home with food issues, money issues, sleep issues, parenting issues, etc.

Whilst you might not know every little thing, and sometimes the odd child will slip through the net, you generally have a good idea. And those that you don't know, who have slipped through the net, probably would be same ones who would with a written system - you'd be relying in everything be written down by a 4-11 year old as being fact,

Children you'd need to catch are often late, often need extra reading, extra maths and extra help with writing. Then they need time with friends and to play. When the diary would happen I don't know. Who would read it? What happens next?

X with a lovely life who craves a bit of time with the teacher has said this meaning we now need to sit down with X. Meanwhile, the child being neglected at home wrote everything was fine so no one is looking into him and his life.

Someone has been sick/wet themselves/distraught their dog has died -this all needs to be dealt with. A parent has said their child is being bullied, this needs to be investigated. Someone has been crying all lunch and needs taking out of the classroom
And speaking to. Without sounding patronising OP, I don't think you realise how busy it is in a school day to day.

Yes so the benefit is if schools share the information we can see the concerns raised by previous settings etc, which does help build a picture, particularly when they come to secondary and we might know the families less well than a primary school did.

Or it is unusual, or it forms a pattern.

Educators have eyes, they typically understand pupil behaviours sometimes better than parents. They communicate their concerns with leaders, and begin to watch harder.

Pretty soon the "tell" will emerge and a conversation with the child's adults happens.

You don't need the kids to write a diary. The ones that are covering likely won't tell. You'll also get the odd "I was up all night" when they'd been to a family party that ended at 10.

I've even had a kid who, because of other complex reasons, falsely accused his parents who had to be investigated.

No fucking time, that's why!

Children are notoriously unreliable. I've just asked my kids off the cuff if they eat loads of fruit and veg at home. The older one said 'only when you make me' and the younger one said 'no'.

Fwiw we had a meal that involved mini corn on the cobs and salad at tea last night. The older one willingly ate 3 cobs, the younger one ate 1 and helped themselves to salad. When I asked the younger one 'what about your salad' they said that it was salad, not a vegetable and therefore didn't count.

I'd be less than impressed if I got a phonecall home from school about that.

For ‘what I did on my holidays’ my young DC wrote that we had visited the supermarket!
Not the seaside, where we had spent several weeks, and which you’d think would be the more traditional reply.
Aldi must have made quite an impression 😂

I'm sorry that you had a crap home life and experienced abuse. Did you ever say anything to anyone at school? Did it happen over a number of years?

Your posts suggest that you felt not enough was done to help you in school. You don't say when it was but there is a LOT of training that ALL school staff have regularly now concerning safeguarding. It is very indepth and there is new stuff added every year. I don't think this happened 20 years ago to the same extent it did now, I remember things changing a lot after the Victoria Climbie case.

I was diagnosed with anxiety and SEN as a child, and my violent outbursts, randomly crying, and all my other behavioural issues were put down to that and bad parenting. I was being raised by a bipolar parent with severe mental health issues.

I now have severe mental health issues myself as an adult, largely because of it and am diagnosed with anxiety and depression and am getting tested for post traumatic stress disorder.
I didn’t report much but anything I ever tried to explain was put down as lies or imagination or misinterpretation/misunderstanding.