To think this is too harsh a punishment for 5/6 year olds?

[TrappedinSuburbia]

Please tell me if you think I am being unreasonable, because if not, I am going to raise the matter with the school.

Ds was telling me about school and how one boy who was naughty missed out on his 'golden time' and had to sit at his desk (fair enough so far).

But not only do they have to sit at the desk, they have to sit with their head on the desk so they cannot see whats happening around them!!

I asked ds to demonstrate at dining table, so I asked him are you not allowed to look up? He says No, you can't look up until the teacher tells you, you can look up.

Opinions please...!

I do not think it's a big deal, in the sense that it's probably not going to do any harm to sit still for 2 mins.

at the same time, I am pretty sure that there are better ways of punishing kids for inappropriate behaviour - are you happy with the teacher in general? If you are, then I would probably let this go. However if this is just one thing out of other issues with the teacher I would probably start investigating the situation.

ChippinIn - I also think parents should work with teachers and I take your point that there may not be another way to stop them interacting with the other children, whereas in the house its the bottom of the stairs in here for time out.

No other issues with teacher.

what behaviour warrants this ? do they have warnings ? losing a minute of lunchtime play ?
what does a child need to do in order to get this 'punishment' ?

I don't see why it's a humiliating position. I presume we are talking arms crossed and head resting on them. That's how we used to have 'rest' time at school.

The 'Golden Time' is normally when the children get to choose an activity they wish to take part in, which can be in another classroom, so the whole school is mixed up. Children lose minutes of golden time if they behave inappropriately during the week, normally I think, in 5 min periods. Sitting with their head on the table does seem extreme, maybe they were watching a dvd in that classroom, so the teacher did not want them to see it? Would have been better to sit them outside the room though. Part of the 'punishment' is meant to be that the children see the fun the other children are having while they are sitting doing nothing and so strive to behave appropriately in the future so they do not miss out.

Altinkum - I don't agree with your line of thinking at all.

It is not being 'singled out and humiliated' FGS - it is being told off for something they have done wrong. If they don't want to be told off then they should behave - it's simple.

Maybe 'out of the classroom' isn't deemed a safe enough space?

Am I the only one who thinks this is OK? Great way to get a child to calm down

Lal - have you read the thread?

If it's for one or two minutes then fine, but for the whole of golden time it is horribly victorian.

However, if it is something the teacher has found that works for a particular child then fair enough. IF the punishment stops him being naughty. But if he is doing this every golden time then clearly the punishment is not workig

Is this common for all the children or just this specific child? If it's just this child it could be a sensory thing designed to calm him down.

my dc's school has golden time and thanks chippingin never thought of it as golden showers and now i do

head on desk sounds untrue,if anything the teachers would want the child to see what he is missing out on byt not having golden time

my dc has missed out on golden time as didnt want to help tidy up, so he sat on a chair watching

next time he helped tidy up and got a sticker saying he was helpful and had his golden time

lazylulu sometimes sitting 'difficult' children outside the classroom is just inviting them to misbehave more. At my school they have to sit silently cross legged on the floor in the head's office for the minutes they have missed from golden time. The head gives them no attention whatsoever.

Common for all children I think as ds has had this happen to him as well.

I would freak out if this punishment was handed out to either of my children, sounds like something they would do in prison!

Huge amount of over-reaction here. If it's for 5 minutes or less what's the big deal?

Humiliation? To sit quietly with their head on a desk? For a NT child to cry for 4 hours about being told off would worry me a hell of a lot more.

Wouldn't it be better to get them to sit and read or something? Though maybe reading as punishment isn't the best association to make...but at least they're doing something useful that way.

If they've been distracting other children I think it's a suitable way of making sure they don't distract them.