to speak to the school about this?

[Queen0fFlamingEverything]

DD is in Yr 6 at a small village school. Every day, almost without fail, her class are at least 5 minutes late out of school. The other classes are generally out on time, and on the one day a fortnight that her class has a different teacher to the usual class teacher, her class are also on time.

They are meant to finish at 3.15 but the earliest her teacher has ever let them out is 3.19. Most days its more like 3.25 and several times it has been 3.30. DD says this is because the teacher insists on everyone standing silently before anyone leaves.

There's no shelter in the playground and its pretty unpleasant waiting with smaller children. I often just turn up at 20 past now, but for people with DC in other classes thats not an option.

More seriously though, DD wants to start walking home on her own. Its a 15 minute walk over fields with no major roads to cross, which I am otherwise happy with her doing - but I want to know when to expect her back and when to start worrying if she's late...

Besides, I've found nothing more effective at getting kids to behave appropriately than seeing all the kids around them slowly disappear after being praised for appropriate behaviour.

These kids will be sitting exams soon which involves being silent for a damn sight longer.

Exam conditions is such a different situation to standing behind your chair at the end of the day that suggesting one as practice for the other is nonsense.

I have had experience of a teacher who used to do this. I didn't say anything to the teacher, but I did think it was very rude of her to expect parents and younger siblings to wait in the snow for up to ten minutes. I deliver my kids to school on time and in return I expect them to be returned to me on time. As others have said, it also seems unfair for an entire class to be punished for the actions of a few kids.

I spend a lot of time on buses. Every day I witness all the new yr seven kids pile on the bus with no thought to others getting off, or the fact that the doors narrow and they need to be single file. They literally burst through the second the door opens and people have been knocked and pushed back. I would not view asking kids to stand still and be quiet and leave the class in an orderly fashion as an u reasonable request. I see reception children daily manage the task if standing quietly in line waiting for the teacher to take them in/hand them over. If four year olds can manage it......

I get that it could be annoying. I really do but I also think parents need I be careful about setting the time, that mummy and daddy will "talk to the teacher and sort it out" and override the teacher dealing with what is poor behaviour.

Setting the tone

If more parents supported the school then maybe there will be less discipline issues. Not being able to stand silently is a discipline issue.

But maybe parents, including the OP, do support the school. But they can only deal with their own child. If your child is standing silently but other children are not, what are you supposed to do about it? Collectively punishing a whole class is not good practice, IMO.
I would speak to the teacher, OP.

Every day I witness all the new yr seven kids pile on the bus with no thought to others getting off, or the fact that the doors narrow and they need to be single file. They literally burst through the second the door opens and people have been knocked and pushed back.

This has always happened! It is called adolescence People will tell them. Remember adults do this too..

I don't know where all these parents are who want to be in school trying to sort out things with the teacher everyday. We avoid it like the plague! When parents do go into school IME it is usually for something important.

Parents will not back up or support discipline they don't agree with because it is intrinsically unfair (whole class punishments). Schools need to listen to the parents if they want them to support the school

Oh for goodness sake. You know what, I feel really sorry for teachers these days. Parents jumping down their necks if they don't agree with the discipline used, encouraging children to defy teachers, everything's not 'fair'. Sometimes things aren't fair, that's life. Some people have posted that they are teachers and wouldn't have handled things that way. Well you know what, teachers sometimes do things in a different way, not right/wrong just different.

Keeping a class for 5/10 mins is hardly a big deal unless you have an appointment straight after school or another important reason. But parents having to stand around in the cold is not an important reason IMO.

Dancer Are you saying people should not be allowed to stand up against something they see as wrong? Parents should support schools no matter what?

That is like saying schools are infallible.....which they clearly are not.

I suppose it depends on the set up the school. Does school actually finish at 3.15? My last lesson finishes at 4.45. I teach until that time. How long the children then take to get themselves out to the school gate is up to them, not me.

capsium

We never did. shows age
:o
Schools seem so much more limited now with regards to what they can do and yet are faced with increasingly worse behaviour. I really do feel sorry for the teachers and the crap they have to deal with on top of parents interfering with the little that's left that they can do to discipline the child.

I would just not want to add to that of that makes sense. I don't doubt that it's pissing off the kids who do stand still every day. But I'm sure it pisses off the teacher that there's not much else she can do.

We just had another thread where people deemed it was mean to have punishments hang over the kids head til the following day. Yet when a teacher does it after school patens re annoyed that it should be done in the schools time. It must be very difficult to actually deal with it so everyone's happy.

As I say, I have a sense of scale. I would only go into school if I thought something was important enough to merit this.

Once in a while, fair enough.

But this is every single day, almost without fail.

Giles You've never lived! We certainly were rowdy on a fair few occasions at that age, ahem 30 years ago now.

There are other things a teacher can do. I don't think after the end of the school day is the time to be establishing discipline.

I'd have a word with the teacher. Get her point of view too. I wouldn't suggest starting to walk home alone now in this weather and darkness anyway, so you have a few months to sort it out.

There are plenty of other things the teacher can do. But she is finding every day that whole class punishments are ineffective and she isn't then changing her approach. She isn't standing back and looking at what she wants to achieve, and then achieving it. She is failing to impose her authority every day in a battle over hometime and it will actually be damaging her relationship with the class, not improving it.

Someone having a word with her would not be completely inappropriate.

I would speak to the teacher and see what is going on. I wouldn't be surprised if part of the time is after the teacher has let them go they are faffing about getting bags/coats etc and dawdling in the cloakroom.

And yes def let her walk home. I would expect her home at 4pm at the latest, to account for dawdling and faffing!

My ds2 was in yr 6 last year and they were always last out, a few times I went in to speak to his teacher or see where he was and I was amazeby the faffing the yr 6 kids could do!

capsium no I'm not saying schools/teachers can do no wrong, but it's about degree. There are of course instances where parental intervention is required but there is a difference between this and criticising a relatively minor issue which this is.

For all we know, she could be a fantastic teacher in all other respects.

Personally I think the phrase 'pick your battles' should be applied to school issues.

Also, our knowledge of what is actually happening at the end of the day is only from one child's say-so. Children sometimes misinterpret what's going on.

'Pick your battles' applies to everything and everyone...Otherwise I would be kept very busy indeed!

Imagine if we all had to do this before leaving work,
hilarious!

I don't think it is worth speaking to the school about unless it is destroying your daughter's love of learning or otherwise hindering a happy life. Stop with the anxiety over an extra 15 minutes on the walk home. Just expect her to be out at 3:30 and if she's back earlier then all well and good. How many serious accidents do you think there are on the way home from school? If it's a safe route to walk and your daughter is ready to walk alone it will be safe whether she's let out on time or not.

As she starts to walk home, she will be even later in my experience...walking with friends, stopping to chat. This has certainly happened with my two eldest and it's a lovely and normal part of growing up.
We started both off on very cheap mobiles to get them in the habit of phoning home in the case of something unusual happening or a change of plans. You are going to need to be more flexible about your daughters walk home.
In both classes that my DDs have been in, by spring term of Y6 the majority of children are walking home, part of the way with friends. It is a positive step towards independence for secondary school. It's no use leaving all the safety training til just before Y7.

That's why I am keen for her to start walking home now Perspective

Its such a small village and small school (35 pupils!) that there are no other children she can walk with - they all live in different directions and most of them are driven in anyway. And there's no phone signal in the valley where the school is - we get signal at the top of the hill where the house is, but not at the bottom, so a phone wouldn't be much help.

Totally agree about picking my battles but I do think this is a bit unnecessary and also unfair on the children who aren't making noise.

Easy answer is that the children who are doing as asked are let go. The ones not doing as asked are kept till they do. They soon learn.

Thought all teachers did it that way tbh.