There’s some good points raised about the parents who are sending kids to school unprepared due to toilet training, speech, boundaries etc.
About the kids not knowing how to play. Exam results, the whole government pressure on schools, parents pressures on kids etc.
I have to clarify that whilst some kids genuinely are coming from backgrounds were basics aren’t being taught, some of these issues can be undiagnosed SENS. It’s a struggle for all either way. And if you know parents aren’t teaching the necessities, you know they aren’t invested in things like play.
For the kids whose parents aren’t teaching them the basics, who may even be caring for their siblings, the need to play, just be a child, at school, is very necessary.
Our primary is a very mixed bag. At one end we have the “high achievers, with a class after school every day, Maths tuition on Saturday, sports on Sunday. Some of these kids look exhausted, some that i know personally have begged to stop, they want to go to the park with a mate but parents insist they must progress in their classes.
At the opposite end, the ones walking in with their younger siblings, streetwise, defensive, never with a parent, you see them doing the shopping after school wrangling bags and siblings. Never see them in school clubs or down the park. It’s heartbreaking. I know the schools have huge files on these kids and their home environments. Those kids ...who just need to be kids.
It’s a wide and varied spectrum.
We’ve always told our DD school is their safe place away from home. For some children I think school may be the only safe space they know.
Kids who feel safe, heard, rested, perform better. Breaktimes can make such a difference. I agree not for all, but looking at the survey and repeated results for MANY.
As an adult you know that you NEED a break at work, you look forward to it, having a chance to walk away at lunch means you can face the afternoon. And we’re adults, we already have the skills and our own power to stand up for ourselves, speak up BE HEARD, we’re ahead of the game compared to kids but my kord we NEED our breaks.
Kids are reporting back over repeated surveys that they NEED a break, they’ve actually said they don’t feel heard. We’re still not listening, and if we are we dismiss them in same breath.
We have it reported, reviewed, surveyed again years later and they keep telling us the same thing; we ask too much of them at school, they need a break.. and we are still ignoring them to say other things take priority. That is incredibly damaging to any child’s psyche, they have no individual power/voice and the adults they trust, the adults they tell, the adults who should advocate for them don’t take them seriously. They have more important things to deal with...imagine being the children kid who knows they aren’t important.
If a child can’t trust/respect an adult you WILL see bad behaviour. If you arbitrarily remove break time, you will see bad behaviour AND broken trust. And trust, once broken, is hard to regain. That’s a difficult environment to teach in. That’s not fair to teachers or students.
Hence I believe strongly that it should be discussed at a higher level.