School displaying DD's attainment levels on the wall

[Erinsboroughrocks]

DD is in y6 and working towards her SATs. The teacher has a chart on the wall with each child's name listed. Next to each name is a colour for each subject. Green is working above, orange is working at and red is working below. All the children know what the colours mean. DD doesn't like having this up and I feel a bit uneasy about it. WIBU to ask them to take it down (or instead put up a board of colour coded teacher observations in the staffroom 😉)?

Call me a fool if you like but this kind of attitude is part of the reason the UK is lagging well behind other countries. But that’s ok, as long as the kids are happy. The fact they’re coming out of school completely unprepared to weather life’s hard knocks, well that’s just dandy.

forty, love, whatever is going wrong with the state school system in Britain wont be fixed by putting attainment charts on display will it?

Fine if your child is 'bright' and you can feel great about it, what about those with LDs whose already brittle confidence would be destroyed?

Or don't those children count?

Forty, I too went to a school where all results were posted on the notice board , in order. It didn't bother me because I was fortunate enough to be at the top, but with hindsight I can see it was incredibly demotivating for those at the bottom. That's particularly the case because, again on the basis of what I know now, I can see that a number of those certainly had learning difficulties which the school never addressed. They might "aim to improve in order to get out of the bottom scores" as hard as they could, the fact was that realistically they were never going to come above 5th from bottom at best and they reached a point when they didn't bother to try.

It's far too easy to come out with facile terms like "snowflake", it saves having to think about what you're saying. I suggest you give it a try.

I suggest that in 2018 anyone who uses the term 'snowflake' should be taken out, put up against the wall, and shot.

YANBU at school my maths teacher used to hand out exam papers in order of the lowest to the highest score. He would make a big deal out of it and it was sole destroying as my paper was always handed out first.

Fabulous idea, Dull.

I suggest that in 2018 anyone who uses the term 'snowflake' should be taken out, put up against the wall, and shot.

This! Can we persuade MN to make it a banning offence?

There's a difference between knowing how well you're doing, and having that compared to everyone else for all to see (and yes, I remember GCSE results being posted for all to see)

Put it this way. DS is pretty average academically. Last year, for one term, he had a teacher who compared him to other kids, did that thing where they exchange tests to mark each other (tricky when your handwriting is as bad as his was - he's now diagnosed, she said nothing was wrong with him, he was just immature and not trying hard enough), continuously picked on him for not understanding stuff (new school, new country, new teaching schemes - and he was bloody 6, so yes, sometimes he didn't understand). By the end of that term of torture, he was barely speaking in class, and hated school.

One term of a more positive teacher, and he was back to his old self. One term of being praised for his effort and attainment rather than that compared to the others, and you couldn't hold him back - he's getting As now, proudly read out his whole Christmas report, can't wait to get to school, is fully involved in his class.

I on the other hand was a high achiever at school, I always knew which maths book my rivals were on. A wall chart would have just given me more to pressure myself with - it wouldn't have been good for me either!

You could say he's a special snowflake, but then, aren't all kids different? Why on earth are we comparing them like they're all supposed to be identikit kids reaching the same standards at the same times? If there's comparison, it should be for their personal benefit, not used as a bat to beat them with.

Ah @Fortybingowings the good old days eh? When dyslexic kids were labelled as "stupid", SENs didn't exist, naughy kids were thrashed, and exam results were put on the wall for public consumption

Just wait till your DC has been in the system for 7 years and see if you think public humiliation is a good educational tool

When I was at university, our finals results (for my subject only) were read out ito everyone in a hall. So if you had done badly you couldn't escape ... (Other subjects were 'just' posted up outside for all to read). Bad enough at 21, awful at 11.

The whole "we're raising snowflakes" is bullshit peddled by dullards too foolish to come up with genuine reasons as to why something should or shouldn't happen. Children's grades displayed on classroom walls doesn't happen any more because it simply isn't needed. We no longer need to make children feel shit about themselves in order to produce hard-working, intelligent, respectable, well-rounded members of society. We know that showing consideration, kindness and respect for children from the moment they begin school elicits far better results.

It's a shame you can't go back to school for a month or two, Forty and see for yourself how incredible, resilient and hard-working the children in my class are. At 4 and 5 they've better manners and behaviour than many adults I know.

Blimey it’s bad enough that kids feel like failures in life at primary for being on the middle or bottom table - now schools think it’s ok to put charts up. I have also heard of secondary academy schools that do this.

Why not go the full hog of humiliation and just post their full school reports online?

Well done OP.
I hate so many practices like this in schools.
Just as a word of caution though - will your dd be in ability sets next year at secondary? It can be really soul destroying for kids in lower sets and you might want to start preparing her for that before she goes.
I'm a secondary teacher and spend a lots of time consoling both dc and their parents when they're put in lower ability sets in year 7.

(Btw I'm a huge advocate of mixed ability grouping for this exact reason)

That should definitely be private

'Snowflake'. Such a sheep term. So bored of it now.

Forty so very misinformed, why not read up on which school systems are doing best international and why? nothing to do with public humiliation of children, believe me

Resilience is not built by public humiliation either, it is built by actually improving kids' self-esteem, teaching them to learn form their mistakes and that there is always another chance

It’s not a system that works for anyone - obviously not for those who work really hard but just aren’t academic, but also my DD is a high achiever and struggles with feeling she has something to live up to. She refuses to tell people who aren’t her close friends test scores, or lies and says she did badly/worse than she did. She was teased for being clever and hardworking at her primary school and would absolutely hate people to have known she was a full-scores-in-SATs kind of child. She’s very sensitive to this and doesn’t want to be known as top of the class, just as those who are at the lower end of the class don’t want to be known for being just that. I think it also breeds an unhealthy amount of competition for kids so young. It shouldn’t matter how the other kids are doing - they should know their own targets only.

I’m glad it’s been taken down and I hope any other schools that do this do the same. I can’t believe it was allowed.

Forty my son has always struggled academically hes shy enough as it is and already very aware hes nearly bottom of the class s9 there's no need for further humiliation by letting the rest of the class knowing his results.

DullandOld - that’s absolutely awful. Your poor son

Well done op for getting this sorted

yes it was dreadful and the teacher would join in with excluding him and bullying him yet when I complained I was made to feel like one of THOSE parents with a snowflake child.

Academically he never recovered despite being extremely 'bright'.

Now he works on a farm ...which is good for his age tbh but I still feel angry about his year 5 teacher.