Brandishing the whole year group

[Daisydrum]

I’m interested in hearing from teachers and parents. Is it fair to label an entire year group as ‘bad’ because of a few individuals and some complex needs? Will the good ones in the year start to believe they are bad?

You may want to get a title change, OP. “Brandishing” is when you pick something up and hold it like a weapon.

@herculepoirot2

Brandishing is to wave around or point out something with flourish.

Branding is to mark something.

OP is right. But could you be a bit more specific about what's happening?

Often it’s a group dynamic so the good ones usually aren’t great either.

Branding is to mark something.

The title says “brandishing”, though.

point out something with flourish.

I’ve never heard the word used like this. Might be wrong, obviously.

Are you Scottish OP?

I believe we will require more information.

Hi, I guess I was using brandishing in a way of waving around remarks that a certain year is a bad year. So using words rather than objects. If that makes sense.

Not very helpful to be so pedantic, I am sure we all know exactly what the OP means.

OP this was done to our year when I was at school (back in the dark ages!) The "good" stay as they are and are unaffected; the middle group tend to drift towards the bad. They don't usually become as 'bad' but their mindset is towards them. I was one of the middle group, probably about 10 of us, and this is what happened. Because of our drifting we were soon labelled the same way, and yes, it stays with you.

The 'good' group maintained their air of slight superiority!

Some year groups are great others are not. I don’t think you should say that to the students but it is true. It doesn’t mean that there’s not lovely kids in those less pleasant year groups. Tbh, how good a year group is has more to do with group dynamics than the number of naughty kids.

Not very helpful to be so pedantic, I am sure we all know exactly what the OP means.

I was trying to help!

OP, obviously, no, branding a whole class or year group as “bad” isn’t great. However, it can also be a shorthand word, and simply mean “worse than previous year groups, collectively speaking”.

I am English.

There are some very naughty children and there are several with very complex needs. BUT there are also many excellent, incredibly lovely and sweet children in the year, its very mixed bag.

I am concerned that the perception is that the whole year group is branded as ‘bad’ because of the actions of a few.
Then this negative perception will start to filter through as in ‘they are from x year of course they are bad’. And so the good ones start to think I must be bad! Everyone says so!

The whole year group has been punished on a couple of occasions.

Who is actually saying this? How do you know?

Thank you cantfinename and sabine

My child has said this

You think your child is being unfair by labelling her own year group?

Sorry my child has said this as that’s what they’ve been told at school.

By whom?

A teacher may say to a friend or colleague "my class this year are bad" she would never say it to the class. So I would expect children to realise there are some difficult children but I doubt they would ever consider themselves difficult by association.

There are, strangely, good and bad year groups. ‘Cantfindaname’ nailed the reason behind this, a conclusion which took me years to come to. There are always a few good ones (ie work hard, enjoy learning) at the top and a few disruptive one at the bottom. The middle will blend into whichever of these two groups dominates. It, thus, can be a couple of pupils one way or the other that tip a whole group over.

However, this talk should be reserved for the staff room and no year group should ever be publicly labelled.

I was in a 'bad' year group. In year 11 we lost our prom and common room (this is outing isn't it!), however both were hotbeds of bullying and intimidation so actually, losing these 'priviledges' were a bonus for me!

I don’t think it is fair to label a whole class as bad and the children do find it upsetting.
My DD(8)’s class was told by the teacher they were the worse class she’s ever had and she can’t wait to get rid of them.
That’s unprofessional and extremely unkind to the quieter more sensitive children who came home in tears.

Ps I understand why it came about. She was a trainee teacher who was supposed to have a trained teacher supporting her who was never there and she just couldn’t manage the class. She’s human and she snapped but it should never have been allowed to her to that stage. It’s easy for me as an adult to see what went wrong but the kids don’t see subtext.

I think you are over thinking this. There are generally relative good and bad years but each child is also seen as an individual too.

It is unfair to label the whole class/year because of a trend. Ime the good ones continue to be fine as long as they have adequate support elsewhere, ie at home. The middle of the road ones go with the prevailing mood of the day. Eg if everything starts off calm and orderly, it continues like that and the disruptive ones have little effect. But if the day starts with a pupil messing around and getting away with it, that also sets the scene for the day.

I also think the teachers get a hard time for labelling the group. At our school it is definitely the parents outside the year group who have labelled the year 'bad' because of their child's experience of the group. Eg younger pupils happily playing football. The 'bad' year group come out, some pupils from this year take away the and dominate how the game is played. The older siblings of the same group encouraging they younger siblings to misbehave as the little ones are less likely to get in trouble than then big ones 'who should know better' and so on it goes.

I have a child in the 'bad' year and am always being told about how kind and helpful they are from teachers and parents alike. So I don't think the 'good' kids do always get tarred with the same brush.

It doesn't even need to be said. I was in a small school and I knew that teachers didn't like my year. I'm not sure it was ever said directly but I was very certain of it - I'd never even thought of how I knew until now.