School payback punishment

[user1474462227]

My Dn who is 6 goes to junior school. Her school punishment for not listening etc is too clean lunch plates and do cleaning.This has to be done after lunch during their fun clubs. Is it me or this is terrible punishment !!! I've never heard of this. Do you think my Sister should complain to the school and governors etc?

[Post edited by MNHQ to remove name of school]

Is cleaning beneath your family or something? If they don't want to be punished they should listen!

That sounds draconian and dickensisn. Poor kid.

She's 6? Since I didn't wake up in Victorian England, I think it's totally unacceptable.

I would ask for the name to be removed OP. I personally don't think cleaning lunch plates is a suitable punishment for a 6 year old.

How does she go to a junior school if she's six years old?

I think it's a fab idea actually. Much better than most schools alternatives which is to just sit in silence outside the office.
It's called paying back to society. A bit like community service.

A little bit of washing up is going to do no harm.
In fact most kids I know love doing 'jobs'.
When do you think punishments ought to happen? The point of the punishment is that the child who has misbehaved misses out on something nice. It's supposed to be a deterent.

Can anyone actually explain why they think it is inappropriate?

I wouldn’t want my 6 year olds to be made to wash up for not listening. But I don’t think you should of named the school on here.

She's six.

It's hard enough for adults to sit in a room full of other people all making low level noise and disruptions and completely block that out enough to listen.

Harsh imo

Cleaning plates for not listening? Seriously?

My autistic son got into trouble for swearing recently and had less of a punishment.

Is it just scraping food off the plates? Or going round collecting plates to put in the trolley? There could be more to this, considering the OP is so short. All things that have been done as sanctions in the Secondaries I have worked in. This, and litter picking with those hand held 'claws' in the playground.

Oh and you must remove the name of the school by reporting to MNHQ, shocking to do that.

'Its like community service'

She's a 6 year old child not a bloody hardened criminal, ffs

No. I don't think it is appropriate. Especially not at 6 years of age.

So long as the children understand that this is what will happen if they break certain rules, I think it's fine. They know what the punishment will be, it's work that's easy and safe for them to accomplish, it's useful to others, has a defined end.

My DC went to a primary school where the children took turns to clear the plates away and wipe the tables down. However it wasn't a punishment.

How does you sister feel about it?

I wouldn’t want my 6 year olds to be made to wash up for not listening

I wouldn't be happy either and I generally support schools in those stances but there must be more to this?

P.s for some weird reason washing the pots was a reward when we were at school. Anyone who'd done exceptionally well got to go in with a buddy whilst one washed and the other dried.

I’d rather they all did chores at school like they do in Japan so they respect the building and environs. Using it as a punishment kind of demeans the work of cleaning which isn’t helpful and perpetuates the notion that some people are ‘above’ it.

And yes, it sounds a bit dramatic unless it’s part of a wider school system of sanctions.

I think it is up to your sister to establish what really happened

Because she is six years old, and her "crime" was not listening. To be honest, at six my children would probably have thought that was great fun and not understood the connection between the "crime" and punishment. You don't listen, you redo the work over. That makes more sense.

I'm baffled that you name the school. It's not even your daughter. Does the mother know you've done this post?

This is common place in Japan. Although there it is part of the lessons, not a punishment. Rather a good idea, I think.

And she's not being treated like a hardened criminal!!!!!
It's not 3 years hard labour.
It's a few plates!
It does children no harm to learn that actions have consequences. If your behaviours negatively impact on your (school) comminity then you need to make ammends. Is sitting around just watching a sand timer a more productive punishment??
I think it highly unlikey by the way that this sort of punishment is being used for simply 'not listening'.

We used to get out the on playground litter patrol at primary school if we were naughty.