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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be bloody annoyed DS missed PE again

48 replies

Pantone363 · 10/06/2015 16:38

His teacher operates a '3 strikes and you're in' policy. Basically if anyone misbehaves its a strike, 3 strikes and the whole class goes in and misses PE.

DS says they didn't even hit one ball in rounders before they were all sent in because of two boys messing about. This is the second week in a row this has happened. What the fuck does she think is going to happen? Does she think that 7 year olds are going to miraculously peer pressure their mates into behaving? Its a lovely sunny hot day and they could've been outside playing rounders, instead they were sent in to get changed and read to themselves for the rest of the lesson.

AIBU to go in tomorrow and ask what fresh hell this is?

OP posts:

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 10/06/2015 19:57

Does it work in maths too?

And Art? I hated Art!

Phonics?

PE is on the national curriculum. You have to do it whether you love it or hate it. Whether you behave well or badly. Whether it is sunny or rainy.

SallyMcgally · 10/06/2015 20:22

It does work in some of those other lessons! When I was at school quite often we'd play up, teacher would refuse to teach us till we behaved and we had to do private reading. I'd have loved this in PE! I have been known to let DS1 stay in bed and read To Kill a Mockingbird and go in at lunchtime rather than have a morning of Woodwork, PE and ICT though.

DrCoconut · 10/06/2015 21:14

Sounds like he had a lucky escape to me :) I loved getting out of PE and would much have preferred reading.

FiveExclamations · 10/06/2015 21:26

Daft way to deal with it.

Best solution would be to send them off with a TA (if there was one) to run a lap of the field, that way they actually have to do more physically than if they played rounders.

I agree with whoever said go in and ask what's happening, there may be more to it that you are being told and/or your child is getting the wrong end of the stick.

GoblinLittleOwl · 10/06/2015 21:46

And you are really sure that your child isn't involved in the bad behaviour?

So wonderful to read all this advice from parents who, according to many of the posts on here apparently struggle to cope with two children, telling the teachers what to do.

And, actually, peer pressure does work.

afterthought2 · 10/06/2015 22:26

If it was a treat rather than assembly I think no complaint is necessary. Teacher was trying to do something nice, some misbehaved so she took it away. I would have done the same.

It shouldn't happen if it was the curriculum PE lesson (unless it was for safety reasons) but it doesn't sound like this was.

BabyMurloc · 10/06/2015 22:33

If it's a normal PE lesson then it CANNOT be cancelled like that as it's part of the NC. If it's a "treat" class then surely just the misbehaving kids should be excluded? I'm not convinced it's a good punishment anyway mind as there are lots of PE hating kids who will mess about just so they can get excluded...

CalleighDoodle · 10/06/2015 22:39

Doesnt sound like it was a pe lesson at all.

nocoolnamesleft · 10/06/2015 22:54

I remember the idiot PE teacher who told our class "The next person who does that is going to go inside and do extra maths". Well, I could do maths...

Original poster

Pantone363 · 11/06/2015 00:09

Well after asking DS if he was absolutely SURE of events he is adamant that it happened as he said it did (albeit he changed his time scale a bit that they did do some PE )

I'm going to ask tomorrow and will update

OP posts:

Original poster

Pantone363 · 11/06/2015 00:12

nocool, I remember our PE teacher telling us she had done an emergency tracheotomy on a student who was chewing gum during a lesson and choked, therefore we shouldn't chew gum during her lessons. I'm going to guess that didn't actually happen . PE teachers are a strange breed

OP posts:

however · 11/06/2015 00:18

The teacher doesn't like PE. She thinks she's onto a winner.

mugglingalong · 11/06/2015 00:48

Peer pressure might work (sometimes), but it doesn't necessarily help the well being of the well behaving children. If you think that peer pressure works then maybe you should have been here at 10 o'clock at night when my 8 year old couldn't sleep because she was still upset that for the fourth time that week she has been kept in at break time because her table is misbehaving and then you can come back at 6am the next morning when she wakes up and is once again going over the events which led up to her table once again being kept in at break time. When she is explaining once again to me that she doesn't know how she is going to get them to behave so that she can go out to break time. It's not her job to get them to behave, she is 8 and her job is to go to school and do her best - which she does. And no, she wasn't involved in the disruptive behaviour but the policy was 'that the table couldn't go out at breaktime until they were all sitting nicely'.

The teacher has now changed and she has been moved to a different table, but I still think that blanket punishments can have implications far beyond those that the teachers anticipate. We wouldn't stand for it at work - Sorry folks, Katie had an extra five minute cigarette break, so you've all got to stay behind for five minutes at the end of the working day. Kevin didn't fill in his expenses form so no-one will be paid their expenses this month.

I hope that you get some explanation.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 11/06/2015 01:00

P.E is a government requirement. You don't use a lesson or rather lack of to punish children.

Not surprised you're furious.
I wonder what ofsted would say about such matters

soapboxqueen · 11/06/2015 01:03

If your dd is being kept in at break time because her table couldn't behave, that's not using peer pressure, that's just a group punishment. In which case you need to speak to the teacher.

Peer pressure isn't about children policing other children or doing the teacher's job. It's about using something that's already there to smooth the road.

It's about the perception of not being seen in a poor light by your colleagues or fellow pupils.

If I say 'oh dear if we can't get through this task because of all this chatting, we won't have time for a game at the end of the lesson' the vast majority will stop chatting through a combination of wanting to play and not wanting to be the person who stops everyone else from playing. Peer pressure.

HagOtheNorth · 11/06/2015 06:47

'It might have been an extra lesson tbh, DS did say they should have been having peer group assembly instead but that was cancelled for some reason.'

That's what you need to find out first, was it their regular PE lesson or an extra treat that got cancelled.

littlejohnnydory · 11/06/2015 07:51

Completely unacceptable. PE is a lesson and part of the Curriculum. She wouldn't do it with maths, would she?

I don't think it's acceptable to punish a whole class for one child's misdemeanour, even if this was an appropriate punishment.

Klayden · 11/06/2015 08:34

It doesn't matter how much of the lesson they actually missed, the teacher should not be using this sort of punishment. We need children to exercise as much as they can! Yanbu to go in and ask what happened.

muminhants1 · 11/06/2015 08:45

*Completely unacceptable. PE is a lesson and part of the Curriculum. She wouldn't do it with maths, would she?

I don't think it's acceptable to punish a whole class for one child's misdemeanour, even if this was an appropriate punishment.*

This. Definitely go in and speak to the head and ask what this teacher is playing at. My son's secondary school behaviour policy specifically says that whole class punishments are inappropriate.

Original poster

Pantone363 · 12/06/2015 08:17

I spoke to the teacher, yes she did send them all in after they got 3 strikes, BUT it was only 10 minutes before the end of the lesson (clearly DS was exaggerating!) And in her words the whole class had been as high as kites all day and had had repeated warnings.

OP posts:

SoupDragon · 12/06/2015 08:20

Good job you didn't storm into the head's office then :)

soapboxqueen · 12/06/2015 09:50

Glad you got to the bottom of it

HagOtheNorth · 12/06/2015 20:03

Thank God for a sensible parent who checks the facts before rushing in ranting and banging on about Their Rights and OFSTED.
Well done, OP. Everyone knows the score, including the teacher.

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