to think that reception aged children should be able to earn back their Golden Time?

[Classof2032]

DD had no Golden Time at all today. She had to sit in the classroom with her head on the desk while all of the other children played :( Surely it's just cruel to punish children like that. Once she had had a talking to it was just proving a point.

Her misdemeanour was yesterday anyway. She said she tried really, really hard today but it was no good.

I am sure that all of the recent educational theories advise against GT and treating children like this.

Why did she lose all of it? I thought the idea was to lose some time?
And yes here they can earn it back.

She did hit a little boy but only because he was distracting her from her work. I have asked for her to work in the corridor because she finds the classroom environment stressful, but they said no.

Depends what she did I guess.

I don't necessarily agree that children should be taught that you can make amends for absolutely anything. Some things are undoable no matter how sorry you are.

I don't like the sound of re head on the desk though. Bit Victorian even for me.

For reception age I think the punishment should be on the day... Yesterday's like a month ago at that age.

Yy re head on desk - surely that's physically unconfortable?

But hitting may well be an "undoable" crime (unlike chatting etc)

I think you are minimising the fact she hit another child. Golden time can be earned back and it is highly unusual to lose all of it.
Perhaps some methods of dealing with distraction rather than expecting her to be supervised outside the classroom would be better.
Ask to talk to her teacher about what you both can be doing to prevent her hitting and improving her concentration.

And it's not reasonable for her to work in the corridor - who would watch her?

I really don't like the ideaof head on the desk either! I agree that they should be able to earn back time.

That said I can't see how she could work in the corridor unsupervised either OP?

She doesn't need anyone to watch her. They could put a little desk just at the door anyway, but apparently not.

I'm not minimising her hitting, but I do want to look at minimising the stressful environment which caused the hitting.

I suspect you can earn it back for some things not others.

Please don't minimise her hitting as being because the child distracted her.

She hit another child? Well loss of golden time is a reasonable consequence.

And you want her to work in a corridor so she doesn't get distracted?! Right.

Look, your daughter is like every other kid - I know you think golden sunbeams come from her arse, that's what mum's are meant to do. But she needs to ignore Noise and stop hitting. Back the school up

She was told to put her head on the desk?

Yes, she showed me how she had to fold her arms and lie her head on top of them. For an hour.

If she was not in the room, the teacher could lose sight of her as he/she went between groups. And obviously the solution has to be that she's supported to learn to concentrate in a group, not isolated (which I think would be worse punishment!)

She does need someone to watch her - a teacher cannot leave a 4 year old unattended. It's not allowed, regardless of whether you think its okay.

What is it about the environment that she finds stressful?

I don't like the idea of a reception child using all her golden time for one thing. Was there anything else?

Sanctions for young children should (generally) be as soon as possible.

I don't really agree with 'earning it back', but I teach teenagers who need to learn that their actions have consequences. If they misbehave, get a sanction and then can avoid the sanction through subsequent good behaviour they learn that they can misbehave half the time and have no repercussions. They also learn that good behaviour is about getting what you want rather than the standard way to conduct yourself.

No amount of good behaviour changes the fact that the boy got hit. And I would support the school in a sanction issued for hitting.

Has she hit another student before?

Wow - head on desk? Seriously? In my school we give them a worksheet to do whilst the children play.

I would talk to school about the head down thing. Were other children doing similar for part of the time?

Worksheet sounds more priductive!

She prefers silence for her work, so she gets extremely distracted when it's noisy. There have been a few issues with her sitting down on the floor, which we are working through.

Golden time normally 20-30 mins, not an hour.

I thought an hour sounded long!

She won't ever get silence for work, OP. Even the corridor would have people to and fro.