to think this is not an acceptable thing to make 6/7 year olds do?

[Levvylife]

Quick canvassing of opinion: teachers making kids do star jumps and say "I'm a wally" when they have made a mistake, is not really on is it? Even if it's supposed to be "light-hearted" but is consistently used as a technique?

Not acceptable.
Complain. Or ask the teacher what (s)he hopes to achieve from this 'technique', which sounds irrational, confusing and inconsistent. (And bullying, obviously.) If (s)he can't properly explain how this 'method' works, then you know what to tell the teacher to do.

I'm sure some kids would find it funny but surely a good teacher would know that for some kids, it would be like the end of the world...

It would have finished DD1 off completely (particularly bearing in mind she was already crying most days at school because she was so worried)

Please do encourage him to write. A penpal is an excellent idea. You could also encourage cative writing. Take his list of spelling words (if he has one) or select a variety of age appropriate words, write them on a reference sheet then ask him to write a story using all of those words. You could even get him to illustrate his stories and then get them printed as a book for him.

I would be really shocked and angry, not just at the humiliating technique, but also at the complete negativity of her first response. Def see her, but I would also let Head know in case she fobs you off. Awful, just awful.

That is utterly fucking awful. Teacher sounds like a loon. Hope ds is ok.

My god, I would have been straight round to the school office. Absolutely unacceptable. I can still remember the twat of a teacher I had who was like that and still remember how I wondered why my mum didn't do anything, fantastic mum tho she was/is. I'm 44 !

How do you make a mistake doing star jumps?

Id go absolutely ape shit if my sons teacher did this to my son. But she wouldnt because she isnt a twat.

Christ, that's awful. I have a 7 year old and she's been bringing stories into school. The teacher told me how proud he is of her and gave me wee tips to help her along - diaries, fancy notebooks, scrapbooks etc. He hasn't corrected any of the wrong spellings/tenses - it's work she does in her own time.

Her teachers through the earlier years of primary school especially want the kids to try and expand their vocabulary so that they don't play it safe inorder to get it right.

Sorry, should also have mentioned that he's still only 6 FFS.

I think that is appalling. I would be going straight to the head and demanding a meeting with the teacher to highlight how this will impact on your DS's confidence. My 8 year old DD came home from school upset one day because a teaching assistance pointed out to her (in front of her class) that she reads much more slowly than everyone else in her group and forced her to change the book she was reading - even though she was enjoying it. I hit the roof, as it really affected her confidence, and I called her teacher to say that I think there are more effective ways and means of approaching this with an 8 year old that teachers and their assistants should really know about. The teacher was horrified and didn't know it had happened, apologised and said she would speak to the assistant concerned (she also said there was absolutely nothing wrong with the pace my DD was reading at). Hope your DS isn't affected too much by the actions of an arsehole teacher. I'm on your behalf!!

I'm also going to tell him that he has my absolute permission to refuse to do the fucking star jumps ever again.

keep us posted, this is awful.

no its really really bad BUT i can sort of see why it might be helpful, children sometimes get really really frustrated and cross when they get things wrong and something like this might be a way of a) normalising it and b)making the child take responsibility for her mistake and c) releasing the frustration that they get when they see that they have got something wrong.
but it should be the child that corrects the work and not the teacher

Kid should get a star for doing this all on his own.

Definetly take this further.

Levvy - I would have been banging on the Head's door as soon as I found out!!

How did you find out?

Twattering twat should NOT be teaching.

Its awful. I have children who struggle with writing and it would have really really undermined them if that had happened to them. DS2 (yr 1) got a house point for managing to write a couple of not very legible sentences about his half term during the holidays. The school knew how much effort it takes to get him to write anything.

I would second a whiteboard for writing practice. DS2 is much better at practicing his spellings now he can write them on a whiteboard and correct mistakes easily. I used to get DS1 to write the shopping list and then read it out to me in the shop just for the writing practice.

That's starjumps aside - that's just for knocking DS down the way she did, stupid, stupid incompetent cow

She should be, as I am, completely impressed that he's writing stories in his own time and took them in to show her. I would be livid that she has knocked his confidence - yet again especially after telling him to 'just get it down on paper'.

I am a perfectionist and I wish someone had just told me to 'get it down on paper' and 'fix it' later. My creativity/storywriting ability was definitely crushed by needing it to be perfect.

Chipping - I was stood right there and I was just absolutely gobsmacked, it always takes me a bit of time to realise that actually it's not me, someone else is actually being a tosser. Jesus, the more I think back to what she said, the more annoyed I'm getting, she actually said she'd had issues with him being lazy. (Or maybe to bloody scared to make a mistake?!) Why bring that up?

Thanks for all the replies - I'm going to keep encouraging him and hope to god she's not put him off for life.

Levvy - I would have pitched a fit there and then - but appreciate that not all of us are the same probably just as well.

She also said he was lazy???????????????????????????????????

If I were you I'd ring the school now and tell the Head you will be down to see them this afternoon at x o'clock. This is not on and cannot continue. You can't just hope she's not going to put him off.

Good grief, YANBU

Good lord, no. That's horrible.

I blame my fear of speaking up in class/public speaking to stuff like this (well, not anywhere near as bad as this tbh). Children should NEVER be made to feel like idiots when they make genuine mistakes.

no, I would be really cross if my DS were made to do this. DS1 had an awful reception teacher who used to tell them off for the slightest thing. It really dented his confidence and now he is terrified of getting things wrong.

Yanbu that is dreadful and can affect ther confidence for life. Toto te teacher and yes te head too