to think children should not be left totally unsupervised in school.

[MerryMarigold]

Today was wet play. Very dreary day. Ds2 and dd said that during wet play they are unsupervised. They are in Y4. I am quite surprised by this. Is that normal? This was lunchtime. Ds2 said no one was in the room for at least 10 minutes.

Two staff present rule is to prevent you from allegations, that is all.

If you will leave 30 kids unsupervised at lunchbreak after they've been sitting at desks all day you need to expect some messing around

Of course they do

And then the kids expect a punishment if caught

That's how it works

Hmmm...I'd call that setting them up for failure, which is probably not the best trait for teachers to have.

I think there was a lot of noise in the class high-end teacher poking head in and choosing the midst obvious culprits who definitely don't need 24-7 supervision but if you are expecting then to sit at a desk in their lunch break then yes, they probably do need supervision.

Please tell us you you don’t work with an English Language class?? 😕

Teachers are not paid at lunchtimes. Most teachers do spend time in their classes during wet play to help out but they also need time to have their lunch and to go to the loo etc! Midday supervisors have the main job of keeping an eye on children in classrooms during wet play. There are unlikely to be enough of them to have one stationed in each room so they patrol and pop their head in to check all is well. Children are supposed to chat, play sensible table top games etc. Your ds and his friend did not follow the rules and that is why they are in trouble. Silly stuff like 'falling on top of one another' can lead to injury. You need to be having a stern word with him rather than moaning that they were unsupervised. There is not enough money in schools to pay for the number of midday supervisors needed to provide the supervision you want.

Dalek, I know but that to zero supervision surprises me.

It's called teaching them to accept responsibility for their own actions/decisions.

Afterall they're 9, not 5.

I don't. I work in finance.

Yes they are high energy 9yos. A telling off is one thing. The punishment they had was wAaaay over the top. Oh well

But they didn't have zero supervision. It's not like all of the staff pissed off to the pub for lunch. There were staff in the corridor going from classroom to classroom. If there had been a problem then one of the kids would have gone for help or just shouted. Do you never allow your DS to play alone in a room with his friends?

What was the punishment exactly?

It's called having zero empathy our the school accepting responsibility for minimal supervision.

Oh FGS the boys got physical with either other, which is dangerous not just for them, but for nearby kids.

They got caught, they got punished.

Hopefully they won't do it again.

It's called having zero empathy our the school accepting responsibility for minimal supervision.

So glad you work in finance... No English needed then... Phew!

Oh give over picking on the OP's typing!

It has nothing to do with the subject being discussed.

So your AIBU is not about supervision, but (yawningly predictably) about not wanting your child to take responsibility for his actions. If your son is never any trouble, then the teacher hardly chose the most likely culprit.

I'd say Worra sums it up:

"Of course they do

And then the kids expect a punishment if caught"

Though obviously it depends on what the punishment was. If it was the kind we saw on Endeavour last night, then clearly not. If it was a detention I probably couldn't get worked up about that.

It's not my typing, it's my phone, using Swype. It sometimes gets the word wrong and I don't notice whilst cooking dinner!

I'm not saying they were perfect. I'm saying that with very minimal supervision PLUS energetic kids PLUS lunchbreak indoors there needs to be a bit more understanding.

Hoarding hobbit. It is about the supervision a. I was very surprised. I assume in wet play they'd have a film in the hall or something. (School dinners are elsewhere). B. I think there needs to be some leeway if the children are not supervised. This kind of thing happens in break time all the time with zero consequence.

What was the punishment? You cant just let kids get away with misbehaving an getting physical because they are 'high energy'

*Oh give over picking on the OP's typing!

It has nothing to do with the subject being discussed.*

Well... OP was happy to let us know she works in an educational setting... She didn’t mention she wasn’t actually involved in ‘education’...

I'd call that setting them up for failure, which is probably not the best trait for teachers to have.
Or it's understanding that by that age children know how to behave during a wet break (as demonstrated by the other 28 children who were perfectly capable of behaving appropriately)
Nobody set them up to fail!
They pushed their luck and got caught.
Welcome to children.

It's like at secondary. We have duty teams. We can't possibly see all 2000 kids at every second. Do some kids mess on and play fight and wind each other up? Yes. Do they get pulled up if caught? Yes. Do they accept that it was their actions? Yes. Would we be if someone told us that staff not watching Timmy every minute of lunch meant we were setting an 11 year old up to fail? Of course. It's a stupud suggestion.

Do you ever leave your son to his own devices and just pop your head round the door now and then to check all is well?

Could they have easily found an adult if something happened?

Even when not wet play, there probably aren't masses of adults supervising the playground, DC could easily go in a corner and not really be watched.

To repeat my question 18:08:

Do you never allow your DS to play alone in a room with his friends?