Harsh Times at Yarmouth High. New Head introduces new rules including sick buckets in classrooms.

[HelenaDove]

Posted this on another thread but i think it deserves a thread of its own.

HelenaDove Mon 11-Sep-17 21:06:41
www.edp24.co.uk/news/education/phones-confiscated-for-weeks-and-sick-buckets-in-the-classroom-tough-new-rules-at-norfolk-school-1-5188326
Add message | Report | Message poster HelenaDove Mon 11-Sep-17 21:08:44
“You never lie and make excuses like, ‘I just wanted to put something in the bin’. We all know children say things like that to get out of work. You never pretend to be ill to get out of work because we expect you to work through it. If you feel sick we will give you a bucket. If you vomit - no problem! You’ve got your bucket. That’s probably all your body wanted - to vomit. If you are really ill we will make sure you get all the attention you need."

JESUS WEPT.

I'm emetophobic and I actually would walk into a class he's teaching, stick two fingers down my throat and throw up in the bucket to express my opinion on that.

I'd need a Valium after but it would be worth it.

Didn't that other headmaster eat a spider in assembly to prove a point?

Are you only allowed to be headmaster now if you are just a total arsehole.!

Unless there's a bug going round, how common is it for a pupil to vomit during the school day? How common is it for teenagers to invent spurious reasons to leave a classroom?

He sounds like my type of head teacher. One thing you can be sure of- behind every failing school you will find failing parents who don't think the rules apply to their child.

Not that I'm in favor of this style of teaching, but answering question - how common is it for a student to vomit? varies a lot. Def. more do it in schools with behaviour problems. In one school I worked in there were boys who would pester to go to the toilet, and if not allowed, would stick their fingers down their throat to be sick, then throw up all along the corridor. This happened almost daily at one point.
How often do pupils invent spurious reasons to leave their seats/the room? All the fucking time. Typically, I'd be dealing with 5 - 10 'requests' to get up/leave at any one moment. So, a bunch of hands up - 5 would be "can I just" "nope" then a golden "how do I?" before another bunch of kids trying to avoid work. The majority of the job was crowd control.

I've taught in several schools in the UK. Some are better than others, obviously, but in low performing areas, most of the kids do anything other than work for about 90% of the time.

Wow

Not much dignity in that. Studying near a vomiting peer wouldn't be much fun either. Then there's the issue of emetophobes.

Ive always hated the inflexibiofnthe 38 hour rule, but this is even worse.

Inflexibility of^

48 hr

I read that article and think there are some aspects that are very OTT (sick bucket for one!), don't think it's a school I'd particularly like to work in. However as a teacher I did quite like his 'smirking / smiling / rolling eyes when you're being told off is seen as defiance' policy! I'd imagine there are some quite ingrained behaviour issues that he's trying to address.

Page 5 paragraph 11 of my link. "If you need to vomit no problem, you have your bucket. Sometimes that's all your body needed - to vomit"

And as for my daughter who suffers with mennorhagea she'd be screwed too.

Hideous. Children are people too.

I 'd bet that if there is a the sick bucket it is in reaction to too many people pulling a fast one, and that genuine illness which can be backed up will be fine.

Sounds as if the school is a disaster on the behaviour front and they are pulling out all the stops.

He's said the bucket thing for the skivers, I think that's fairly obvious........im sure there are many in a school of such low acheivers, hos way is worth a shot. It's better than the alternative of scores of children going into adulthood with nothing and no hope for the future.

even a "school of such low achievers" will have some hard working, well behaved children - is it fair on them to be subject to draconian discipline ? I'm all for starting lessons/transition between lessons being made as quiet and orderly a process as possible btw - I don't count that as draconian but common sense - but the bucket/eye contact etc issues are more troubling.

The sick bucket thing sounds very extreme but I understand the point he is making.

Some children are constantly disruptive, out of their seats, calling out and preventing any teaching or learning from happening.

These children always have an excuse, and the 'putting something in the bin' and 'I feel sick' that the HT mentions are classic ones, along with 'sharpening my pencil' and a few others. This is why I sharpen pencils each morning in my classroom!

He is basically trying to stop all the disruption and allow learning to happen.

Incidentally teachers can usually tell by looking at a child if they are really ill or not. I suspect that no child will actually throw up into a bucket in the classroom.

Do pupils really say they need to be sick as an excuse to leave the classroom? Isn't it more usual to say you need the loo?

It could obviously backfire really quickly if a child is sick into a bucket - I imagine the Health and Safety Executive would want a word about that.

hackmum Yes, needing the loo is used too, but some children will escalate this to 'I feel sick' if they are told they can't leave the classroom.

I want to emphasise that only a very small number of children behave like this, but it only takes 1 or 2 to completely disrupt a class and spoil their learning.

I hate this idea that draconian discipline is needed. My DDs go to a comp which has a seriously mixed catchment with a lot of deprivation and crime in parts. They are hot on behaviour but use common sense. Exam results have been rising for the past 5 years and progress8 is good. This super strict crap is just not needed.

I do think for a rule to be brought in there has usually been abuse of the system. We had girls who had just started the period every lesson on the same day. Different teachers so could pull the same line continuously in the same day. In DS1 secondary it is quite common for some of the boys (do not know about the girls) to arrange Xbox marathons by reporting to the school and parents they had been sick.

My Dc go to a school in S London in an area regularly (but somewhat ignorantly) described as dangerous. It has a mixed and challenging demographic, many kids coming from areas that identified at the top of the deprivation index.

The school has good behaviour and excellent results. It has sensible rules that are clearly explained and firmly but fairly applied. The feeling I get from the school is that they like teenagers, work with them and for them. They do not treat them as if they are in a young offenders institute and being punished as a mattter of daily routine.

This 'Gromp' business makes me sick. Grammars do not lock kids down as if they were criminals.