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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To email Head Teacher about children being kept inside all week?

163 replies

mrsvilliers2 · 16/12/2017 10:18

Can't decide if am BU or not. It's an infant school and ds told me that they have had to watch a film for break and lunch for the past week. The first two days I understand (lots of snow and ice) but the last two the playground was clear and not slippy. Dd was allowed out in nursery (same school but different play area). My problem is ds is a child that need to be run Hmm

OP posts:
isthistoonosy · 16/12/2017 10:23

Are sure they had to rather than had the option of a film?
I'd just 'check' with the ta / teacher does your ds have all the correct clothes needed for playing out and see what they say.

Original poster
mrsvilliers2 · 16/12/2017 11:36

I'm pretty sure, ds doesn't like films and would choose pretty much anything over watching one (!) plus on Thursday when he'd been driven both ways he was definitely behaving like a child who'd been indoors all day.

OP posts:
SuburbanRhonda · 16/12/2017 11:38

My problem is ds is a child that need to be run

Could he run after school perhaps?

TeenTimesTwo · 16/12/2017 11:40

I'm pretty sure the school won't have kept them in for their own amusement, as many children will be fidgety if they haven't run around at lunchtime.
Therefore YWBU to email.

Codlet · 16/12/2017 11:42

My DC have had indoor play 9 times (out of a possible 10) this week. It’s not ideal but I know the school tries to get them out whenever they can so the conditions must have been pretty bad. I’d leave it if I were you OP.

thepatchworkcat · 16/12/2017 11:42

As a teacher, wet play is a nightmare as you can’t get anything done in the classroom and then the kids are generally manic and awful if they’ve had no fresh air and exercise! So I would say that if this did happen then there must have been a good reason! I certainly wouldn’t keep the kids in by choice anyway.

ErnestTheBavarian · 16/12/2017 11:45

I cannot imagine any teacher in the world who would rather keep the kids in! But I guess I might ask why, but not in a complaining way. Seems bizarre

Lily2007 · 16/12/2017 11:46

I would leave it, there's only 3 more days of school. You will just annoy the Head teacher at a stressful time of year and can't see what you will gain. They've presumably been kept in for a reason and also kids can exaggerate, sometimes they've been in for 5 minutes and make it sound like the whole of lunch. I would leave complaints until you've got a bigger issue.

.

MadgeMidgerson · 16/12/2017 11:47

It amuses me to see how ‘dire’ the conditions must be before outside play is cancelled in England, ie not very

I grew up in an extremely cold country (-40 a regular temperature in winter) and children were never ever kept in. No one died either.

I wonder why children here are so fragile? I include my own, who also had no playtime outside at school all last week Hmm

ShowMePotatoSalad · 16/12/2017 11:49

Are you absolutely sure the playground was completely free of ice? Did you walk round the whole thing? Where I work the ice hasn't melted for days in certain areas where the sunlight doesn't really hit after early morning. The temperature never gets high enough to actually melt the ice in those spots.

There are weather warnings for ice in many parts of the UK.

Viviennemary · 16/12/2017 11:49

I think it's fair enough for the school to do this as they must think it's necessary. I don't think they keep children indoors if there's a choice. It's probably too icy and they are worried somebody might get hurt. Don't e-mail. I'd be complaining if my child was sent out in bad weather conditions.

littlemisscomper · 16/12/2017 11:50

I do think schools call wet play awfully readily! If all the kids had proper waterproof overalls and wellies they could be out in all but the very wildest weather.

SavoyCabbage · 16/12/2017 11:51

Well it’s because they don’t have the appropriate shoes and coats. Which they would if they lived somewhere where the weather conditions are extreme all of the time.

Splinterz · 16/12/2017 11:51

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ as we felt it might be disablist.

specialsubject · 16/12/2017 11:52

It isn't cold, foreigners may not realise that the issue here is sheet ice as we have repeated thaw then freeze. Don't really want a pile of kids in an already overwhelmed a and e.

MadgeMidgerson · 16/12/2017 11:53

It is weird to frown on children needing to be physically active - like, your 7 year old needs to run and play, must be something wrong with her if she doesn’t prefer to sit quietly and listen for hours on end Hmm

Lily2007 · 16/12/2017 11:54

DD just said they had a choice of going in or out last week, 27/30 chose to be in, 3/30 incl DD chose to be out.

DonnyAndVladSittingInATree · 16/12/2017 11:54

translation - disobedient hyperactive PFB

How many children have you met?

loobybear · 16/12/2017 11:55

I'm a teacher and a very big believer in sending the kids out in most weathers as I think it's important for resilience and usually the kids couldn't care less anyway, it's the adults who do. However this week our playground has been literally a layer of ice and there is no way we could have sent the children out in it without. The playground at the front where parents bring their children in to school however has been cleared well by the janitor to prevent parents or children falling over on their way in to school, but it wouldn't have been possible for him to clear the full playground and so the rest of the playground that parents don't see is still dangerously icy.
Could it be something like this at your child's school?

MadgeMidgerson · 16/12/2017 11:56

Is that bit about ice for me?

Bless you, in my extremely cold homeland we also had plenty of ice. It really went well with the winter. 😂

why would you not do something about the ice, like grit it to make it less slippery? This is what happens in places that regularly have ice and snow.

Maybe English ice is especially perilous?

FitBitFanClub · 16/12/2017 11:57

Trust me, there is no teacher on this planet who would prefer indoor play to booting them outside!
Our site has been lethal this week. 5 teachers have slipped and fallen in the car park on black ice, despite constant gritting by the caretaker and numerous cars have got stuck. Those parts of the playground on shade have still got patches of ice on, and it's well-nigh impossible to stop children heading straight for those parts.
If your child needs exercise, how about you, as his parent, take him out straight after school?

Hugepeppapigfan · 16/12/2017 11:59

Indoor play is the worst. No teacher would willingly do this all week!

FitBitFanClub · 16/12/2017 11:59

And then we ran out of grit and had to wait for a delivery. The delivery lorry then got stuck in the carpark too!

millmoo · 16/12/2017 12:01

Believe me the teacher didn’t want to keep them in 😜
Our playground had lots of black ice so we kept ours in most of last week

Bumdishcloths · 16/12/2017 12:01

The problem is this:

If the area is icy, and the school 'clears it', but then child falls over and breaks something, school is open to legal action as they took responsibility by clearing it.

If the area is icy, and the school doesn't clear it, they can't let child out as if child falls over and breaks something, school is open to legal action as they took responsibility (in loco parentis) by letting child out in it.

They're damned if they do and damned if they don't.