To think this head teacher has lost the plot?

[pointythings]

link here

I read this today and was just . In what world does this make any sense? By all means let's have rules about walking in an orderly manner between classes and enforce them, but this smacks of the Ministry of Silly Walks to me. I don't understand how anyone could think this was a good idea.

There is a large secondary academy in Hartlepool that has introduced a rule where students have to be silent in corridors as they move from lesson to lesson and teachers are made to 'police' this.

The world has gone mad.

Lulu precisely. There appears to be a perception in some educational circles that all children are feral monsters who must have harsh discipline imposed on them from the beginning to prevent them from committing heinous acts of whatever. Never mind second chances, these kids don't even get a first chance. I find it extremely disturbing that the assumption is that children are inherently bad.

kesstrel: "So I will concede gracefully."

That surely has to be a first for Mumsnet.

pointythings: "There appears to be a perception in some educational circles that all children are feral monsters who must have harsh discipline imposed on them from the beginning to prevent them from committing heinous acts of whatever."

I completely agree with this. It's as if we're going back to the 1950s or earlier. When you're a primary school kid, life should still be about having fun and expressing your individuality to some degree, not endlessly following rules and discipline.

If they want pithy for the motto they could just have 'shine'. 'Go shine in the world' is clunky and inelegant and not remotely poetic.

I have a feeling that the motto has "go" in it to suggest that they are going forth from the school to shine in the world because they have had such a great preparation in the school for said shining, having learned a "university walk" and all.

SenecaFalls

Did Seneca fall because he was doing the University walk, perchance?

Have parents given feedback, Balaboosta?

If any of ypu have watched the 'Educational xxx x' programmes you will know the reason for this! To stop them whacking/annoying other kids

it is a stupid rule introduced for absurd reasons. It was imported from another school , Clement Dane's, where I suppose it was introduced in a more consultative manner. We have similar issues with a head maiing sudden changes of rules, which are alienating parents. I do think that the basic attitude is that children and parents alike a feral and need dfiscipline and bringing up.

Brioche, every other school manages to stop children whacking and annoying other children without introducing idiotic rules like this.

Brioche - if you have children, do you make them walk around with their hands behind their backs all the time to stop them annoying/whacking other children - if it's such a good idea...

From the parent I know, yes, parents have challenged the HT who has just said "well I know best", basically; she says it's working to improve the school but won't explain what's improving (and of course if anything else has changed in the school at the same time).

Of course, if this did improve behaviour and/or learning it could be due to e.g. distracting the children from bad behaviour. In which case the Lambeth Walk or the Cakewalk would be equally effective.

Let's put it this way, I tried to move mine out but there were no places available at other schools or even on their waiting lists. I admire the reaction from St George because they are not conditioned by accepting it for years as we are. While I think a child at 3 or 4 being told to do this, and seeing other children doing this, is likely to be accepting of it as normal and necessary - rightly or wrongly - I can't imagine how they believed that this policy would be acceptable to a fully functioning school with children aged 11, from nowhere. I am quite sure that feelings are mixed at our school but as far as I know it has never been a particular source of contention, unlike some other somewhat inflexible approaches. So to me, this seems like a storm in a teacup - relative to the bigger picture. I don't think that the comment from the governor in the original article was particularly wise and I hope that this is addressed.

every other school manages to stop children whacking and annoying other children
do they? hmm what are all the thread on mn about dc being shoved and hit at school about then?

OK, maybe no every school. But you must be well aware that here are hundreds of schools that can deal with this without stupid rules like this.

And if a child is inclined to whack or annoy another and the school doesn't have sufficient controls in place, then simply making him put his hands behind his back definitely isn't going to stop him.

Agh, maybe NOT, not maybe no.

Brioche, your link doesn't seem to lead anywhere.

I think, at the end of the day, there are things worth getting riled up about and things best ignored.

If a child was being bullied or harshly treated at school, or subjected to a pointless rule that was going to cause ongoing and major inconvenience then I think a parent should speak up.

But in other things, just let the head teacher make the rules and if your child complains just say 'that's the rule. You have to obey it'. It's good training for real life and means, when there's a genuine battle to be fought, you have a better chance of being listened to and taken seriously.

Also, do you really want your children growing up to challenge every single little thing in life that they don't like, instead of judging what it is important to question and what should just be let go?

Ha ha too many brackets it was meant to be a

I used to be a primary teacher and found it very easy to instill walking quietly and calmly around the school. Maybe this woman is a fool or was an ineffectual teacher, when she taught herself (most Heads are bad teachers kicked upstairs so that wouldn't surprise me). All I used to do was give my class a sense of pride - always told them they were the best and the best behaved in the school (whether they were or not) and that whenever we walked around we'd do it in such a way that everyone would know we were the best in the school. It always worked. They were always proud to be in our form.

And I worked in some dog rough schools.

Never met a Head who wasn't barking - and I met a lot of Heads as I had a lengthy stint as a supply employed by the LEA on a permanent contract. They do get obsessive about weird and irrelevant things.

I should add, by giving them a sense of pride and how great they are as a class - you are not coming from that negative place of 'kids are inherently evil' - which this is.

The toadying from a governor is not surprising, either. They're rarely trained educators.

If I was an 8 year old, I'd have found ways to subvert this Making a weird peacock tail fan out from my arse to make the kid behind me laugh... doing a stupid chicken walk... whatever. Where your hands are doesn't stop you talking or walking in an hilarious fashion, if you have half a brain.

Our school do seem to walk like this through corridors, certainly do into assembly anyway. It's quite a small junior school though so not that much moving between classrooms. If you had to walk from room to room frequently it would be less manageable. And I've never heard of a child being reprimanded for not walking that way, so maybe it's not too strictly enforced. I think it's more trying to make them more aware of themselves when moving around as a group iyswim. Maybe it's all in how it's implemented and how big a deal the school makes of it.

"Never met a Head who wasn't barking "

"Most Heads are bad teachers kicked upstairs so that wouldn't surprise me"

To be honest, your dismissive and insulting description of every Head you worked with or encountered really says more about you as a teacher than anything.