To think this teacher is fucking loopy?

[OverReactionMuch]

DS2 (just 5) apparently broke a branch off one of the trees in the school playground. He was swinging on it (normal boy behaviour?).

Teacher, who is Head of KS1 then paraded him around all the KS1 classes with the offending branch lecturing the other DC on how naughty my DC was and what a terrible thing he did.

She also phoned me (I did not know she had taken him round the classes) to inform me of my DS's 'crime'. I said I would talk to him. She also took the 'dead' branch into the afterschool club and showed all the DC there and so the staff could show me the offending article when I picked him up.

DS has said that he did not mean for the branch to come off.

I am actually quite furious that she has demonised my DS to the other DCs. DS has found it very hard to settle into school and I actually had a meeting with this woman before he started at school as I was concerned about how he would settle (undiagnosed SN is my mother's gut instinct) and she has totally ignored every thing I said.

AIBU to loudly voice my displeasure on Monday?

As far as I'm aware countrykitten the OP's child hadnt been told not to - but thanks for telling me my opinion is pointless

It's obvious that it wasn't allowed, tbh.

We are lucky enough to live right beside woodland, in the centre of which is a playground and visitors centre which is very popular locally.

Next week it's half term and if we are lucky with the weather the wood will be filled with families enjoying the woods, and that includes having their young children climbing on and swinging from tree branches while they play.

In fact the visitors centre staff go all out to encourage it, they run special events to show children how to enjoy the woods, they build those bivouac things with them and make obstacle courses from fallen logs etc. Last summer they had a day specifically for building rope swings in a tree.

They do everything possible to get people to visit the woods and actually enjoy being there and climbing trees is part of that. They don't want any damage done to their trees but they've found a positive way of showing people how to have fun while still being safe.

It's not ideal that your son broke the branch, but it wasn't deliberate and swinging from a tree branch isn't bad behaviour.

The teacher could have spoken to your son to say that the trees are not strong enough to support several children swinging from them and that they don't want the children to be injured or the trees to be damaged.

They could even have discussed in assembly the need to stay safe and not damage the trees, without naming any names.

But taking him from class to class, with the branch, and focusing on how naughty he was to break the branch was wrong in my opinion. It's something you would do to humiliate someone and no good teacher would ever do that as they would know it's not the way to get results or teach anybody anything positive.

I'm not keen on the taking around classes either, it was unnecessary, imo. However...

It's not ideal that your son broke the branch, but it wasn't deliberate and swinging from a tree branch isn't bad behaviour.

FakePlasticLobsters, have you actually read the thread? It has been said repeatedly that swinging on trees is absolutely fine UNLESS it is on school property and the children have been told not to.

swinging from a tree branch isn't bad behaviour

Doesn't that rather depend on who the tree belongs to and whether or not you have permission to swing on it.

Driving a car isn't bad behaviour but that doesn't mean I can take my neighbours vehicle for a spin does it.

TheOriginalLadyFT yes he was asked not to do this several times apparently - it is earlier in the thread. Therefore he was misbehaving.

I said that comparing schools is pointless (not your opinion) which it obviously is - what one school allows another may well not. The school you describe sounds lovely but it is not the OP's son's school is it?

I am utterly amazed that so many people on here cannot see that this child has misbehaved!! Do you allow your children to break off bits of trees in town centres, neighbour's gardens etc? What you let your children do at home is up to you but schools do tend to have rules which are for the good of all who attend.

What if he had cracked his head open as he and the branch fell...yes, the OP would be on here complaining about the school....

Oh dear.

Slapping teachers? Giving them what for?

No wonder there are quite a few defiant and unruly youngsters who have ended up in my classes who are so entitled by the time they reach secondary that we can barely get them to listen, far less behave.

How about getting the other side of the story from the teacher OP then take it from there?

If she did "parade" him round the school, then that's not on, but maybe it was a visit to a couple of classrooms to convey a point about damage and danger?

Yes Feenie, I've read the thread and seen all the comments, including the ones that only say it's "not normal" and is "completely unacceptable" with no mention of the school rules or anything else. Just that swinging from trees is not a normal, acceptable thing for a child to do.

He damaged school property. Would you be as excusing if it had been something inside the school that he had been playing on? If you want to teach your kids its fine to climb trees etc, then also teach them to respect the trees by not breaking them, and to remember that trees on private property - like a school - come with rules.

Her reaction was OTT, if what you are saying actually happened, though I must say seeing as you are readily excusing him from any responsibility, I'm thinking that you're over selling what happened too.

Just that swinging from trees is not a normal, acceptable thing for a child to do.

No one said that. Just that it wasn't acceptable if they had been asked not to! Suggest you read more carefully.

Bloody hell. Whole bunch of crazies on here, just as crazy as the teacher!

How can a 5 year old swinging on a tree branch be compared to chucking stuff around a school toilet and causing massive damage? Wlllfully damaging school property, a tree branch, really? It could have been that it was dead anyway or it came off because others had been swinging on it. The teacher did NOT say DS had been ever told not to do it before this.

Excusing bad behaviour? If it had been 'bad' behaviour, I would not excuse it and I already stated I was fine with her telling him off just not making him into a terrible tree mutilator in front of all the other DCs.

How does anyone on here know what my attitude is when I am letting off steam on an internet forum when I am actually quite mild mannered in RL? The SN reference was due to the teacher being aware that I was concerned that he difficulties and was having problems settling down. She did not need to humiliate a little boy like that. She went too far.

The teacher did NOT say DS had been ever told not to do it before this.

It's obvious that he had been - schools do not have secret rules, you know.

Bloody hell. Whole bunch of crazies on here, just as crazy as the teacher!

You sound lovely. Really mild-mannered, yes.

People have said it Feenie, and I don't need to read the thread more carefully, but perhaps you should. Other people besides me have also commented on the "not normal" comments and said they disagree and that it is perfectly normal.

For example, one of the very first comments on the thread: "No it's not "normal boy behaviour" - it's completely unacceptable."

Several people have picked up on that one and disagreed.

I'm not advocating breaking school rules, but I do think it's wrong to suggest that climbing trees is not a normal thing for children to do, even if in this case it may be against the school rules.

And I think it's wrong that a teacher would use humiliation as a learning tool. In my book, that's a bad teacher, regardless of what the school rules say or don't say about climbing trees on school grounds.

Ok,I admit it.

I am crazy.

I am a teacher.

In fact, that makes me A Crazy Teacher.

Do I win?

He is five, it may be a rule but children dont reme,Ber the rules all the time. If he has never swung on the tree branch before he won't have been told off and may not even be aware that its a rule. Eben if he was aware five year olds don't remember every rule all the time, sometimes they forget, or get carried away playing.

Yes he should have been told off but no he shouldn't have been shown round the school and paraded as an example.

Tree branch could have been swung on by others, or as already been dead/damaged.

It's sometimes normal behaviour for 5 year olds to call each other "poopy head".

But probably best to discourage it all the same.

Yes discourage and tell off but if he was taken around each class and reprimanded as the op describes that is not OK.

Oh, I agree. I posted earlier if she paraded him then that was not on.

Until this thread, I had not thought of trees as being owned by anybody [unless in planted woods].
But now I realise [and having googled] that trees are owned by whoever owns the property that they are on.
In this case, the school.
So the school does indeed own the school trees.

So the ops son did break school property.

I think all other points have been covered by others!

For example, one of the very first comments on the thread: "No it's not "normal boy behaviour" - it's completely unacceptable."

But same point has been clarified, over and over again, to make clear that it was meant if they had been told not to, which they obviously had. This point has been made repeatedly.

Other people besides me have also commented on the "not normal" comments and said they disagree and that it is perfectly normal.

Yeah - they didn't read properly either.

Feenie - it was not said, anywhere in that post, that they meant if the boy had been told not to.

How is not reading something that is not there in the post to read not reading it properly?

Also Feenie, when you first quoted me, I hadn't actually said that anyone on here had called it bad behaviour, I was more referring to the teachers reaction to his swinging on the tree and the way she dealt with it.

So quite why I'm getting bogged down in yet another MN picky-snit about who said what and who didn't read it properly, I don't know.

But regardless of whatever else has been said, not said or implied on this thread by anyone else, my take on it is this:

It is normal for many children to want to climb trees.

It is not acceptable for them to break school rules.

It is understandable but still not acceptable if they sometimes still do break rules like this one, especially if they have been allowed to climb trees elsewhere or joined other children playing games like this at school before they are spotted, reminded of the rules and told to stop.

It is a bad teacher who will humiliate a child in such a way.

It was clarified, several times, in several posts later.