Scared by School

[margaret128]

My daughter is going GCSE Drama at school Yesterday they had a whole day of drama. Great! she loves the subject

However the whole class was blindfolded and hands tied and made to listen to the tape of a child crying from the Myra Hindley Ian Bradey case. Water was flicked at them and they were made by a member of staff to lie down as thought they were being buried. She was really upset by it clearly.

I realise this must be something to do with the curriculum and appears to be 20% of the GCSE Marks .

Is this normal what happens? Is the point to frighten them witless

When asked about her day she said she would have prefered normal lessons and proceeded to explain why she felt sick all day and couldn't eat her lunch. what concerned me more was the fact she didnt feel safe in the room to express her view and withdrew into herself.

The most scary think we have let her watch is casualty she doesnt watch tv after watersheed 9pm Sorry about the rant insensed parent mode

can anyone help or am I just being and over sensitive parent

YANBU. Sounds all kinds of wrong to me.

WTF! That is absolutely nuts. Report this to the LEA. It's the kind of thing a teacher might do when they are having a breakdown. Get another child's experience of this as well before you report.

I dont believe their hands were tied. I dont believe they accessed tapes from the Moors Murders case either. And they self tie their own blindfolds.

However exploring emotions would be part of Drama curriculum.

But at no stage would a child not be given a 'get out' signal. Tied hands? and if there was a fire?

I'd be complaining

I also don't think it was as how she said

Maybe she was bring a bit over dramatic?

What???

This is fucking disgraceful; the teacher will not have known the history of all of the children for a start. An 'opt out clause' is meaningless and completely insufficient. Few 15 yr olds have the confidence to opt out in such a situation.

You need to speak to the head as soon as possible. Email them today.

Mind you the A Level Art spec is plain nuts!

One of the topics a few years ago was quite a wide one 'Media representation'.

TBH, I think Id have had half the 6th form sectioned for their depictations of that. Of course its not just one painting, but whole sketch books and models made ... of the Moors Murders, The Bulger Case, Baby P, Soham. None of it could be put on display to parents. It looked like a total psycho had been teaching that year.

This years GSE Art, cant remember the topic but it seems to have a lot to do with 'world devestation' - all far too Damien Hurst for my liking, especially the black baby doll with plastic flies glued to it to depict 'Ethiopian famine' another one that can never go on display.

These ideas come from the childrens own heads, not implanted in there.

OP when you say "she didn't feel safe in the room to express her view and withdrew into herself" does this mean the students were not given the opportunity to discuss how the whole exercise made them feel? Because I may understand if they were able to give feedback about their feelings afterwards, whether it be terror, shock, sadness, sickness etc. As trois said, they could have explored and shared their emotions.

How did the teacher conclude this?

Still a bit heavy for 15 year olds, imo.

Um... As an ex art teacher, I'm afraid that some of the worse one are planted there by teachers IME

The art syllabi allow the work to be student-led. This sounds like a teacher-led activity.

The teacher is not a trained counsellor, and is in no way able to deal with feelings or memories this activity may have invoked. A discussion of feelings afterwards is wholly inadequate.

Very dangerous.

I thought 15 is a bit young although when I was at school most kids would have thought it was great. , sixth form I wouldn't have had a problem with tbh.

"The most scary think we have let her watch is casualty she doesnt watch tv after watersheed 9pm Sorry about the rant insensed parent mode"

really? its quite worry for a child of that age to be that sheltered tbh. maybe if she wasn't she wouldnt be so upset.

I dont doubt it was upsetting , but I read that last part and was quite shocked.

What tethers said!

I would speak to another child in the class first, and then the teacher to find out exactly what happened before going in all guns blazing.
What you have said sounds awful if and if it did indeed happen like that then you should say something.

Please realise though we are NOT saying your child is making stuff up, just that sometimes their memory can add/remove things that would make it understandable iyswim.

Whatever did happen her teacher needs to know she was upset by it for future lessons.

LoL at troisgarcons art experience. I think when they get to teenage you don't want them to think too much about the world around them, it must be a pretty scary place, especially as most of them have unbridled access to the internet's worst.

But I do think schools could do a lot to help children deal with the stuff they see around them, not through 1970s style self-expression, but through CBT techniques or visualisation etc.

Can you imagine when you were a ten year old, being taken to see movie with pornorgraphy, starvation, freaks, wars, horror violence and abusers? Access to the net is doing serious damage to kids psyches (IMO). Letting them dwell on it in a therapy type setting could well tip the sensitive ones over the edge.

I think you need to go into school and say "I wonder if you can clear something up. My daughter is under the impression that in drama, her hands were tied up while she was forced to listen to a tape of a victim of the Moors Murderers crying. I know you wouldn't have done something so totally inappropriate, so was wondering if you could explain what actually happened, just for my peace of mind." And maybe laugh and say - kids are so weird, aren't they? Fancy telling me something like that

Thanks for so many brilliant ideas

OP that sounds absolutely vile. I am so shocked. I don't agree at all that you are being oversensitive.

I think I would do what Hectate suggests.

It is inappropriate. The parents should have received a letter beforehand explaining what would happen and the purpose of the exercise. The children should have been informed and given the option to sit out. This is a very sensitive subject, and like others have said, the if this did indeed happen, the teacher does not know the child and their background. The fact that it could stir up many emotions

I would have a word with the teacher to find out what has happened.

Fuck that's horrible.

I was an abused child and at that age was really struggling to come to terms with it - dread to think how that lesson would've made me feel.

Good idea, to explore emotions etc, but if it was as your DD said then that's gone too far IMO

I agree with Hectate's approach - I'm a teacher of GCSE Drama and would NEVER conduct such a class. I do challenge my pupils and they have to explore emotions (it is Drama), but what you have said happened is more like A level stuff - far too sophisticated for GCSE aged pupils. Talk to the teacher - children can exaggerate/misinform unintentionally.

Hmm.

OP this is an odd 1st post. Why are you even asking about this on here? Suely anyone with a child would have gone in today to tackle this?