New Headteachers craziest rules

[glitterelf]

Last September we were appointed a new headteacher at my child's primary school. A few feathers have been ruffled and long standing school traditions abandoned. Today my child has come home and informed me of the latest crazy rule, all children are to wear their coats whilst eating their dinner as the head does not want children in the corridors after eating. AIBU in thinking this is batshit crazy and that children will undoubtedly be uncomfortable and too hot ? I'd love nothing more than to get the headteacher to sit and follow her own stupid rule.

We weren’t allowed any drinks with our meal. Nothing. Had to eat dried up school dinners with a dry mouth. Horrible. Made me choke. Then we could have a glass of water after. Thank you o generous ones.

Torture.

As long as your kids can sit on their coats if it’s warm and dont have to be sweating in them I don’t see a problem.

Blackeyedsusan You're right! Loads of schools seem to have them- seats are little circles joined onto tables... no room for coats...

At my daughters old school the students weren't allowed to wear coats on school grounds. Come break time the teachers we're sheltered from the elements in their coats and hats and using umbrellas while the kids were cold and wet in their blazers .

@BlackeyedSusan Good point and just realised at our school they have benches not chairs and if they thought about it not wearing them is potentially a hazard ? I don't actually understand the issue with them going into the corridors as this is what they've always done 🤷🏼‍♀️

My son's ex-school wouldn't allow running in the playground.
This stopped them playing loads of their favourite games.

How does keeping their coats on stop them going into the corridor? If they can eat with their coats on, they can walk the corridors with their coats on.

Bonkers

They’ll live.

Send them the laundry bill.
My DC's primary banned milk children from having water circa 2001.
My DC's school took to heart the gov't view that schools should teach table manners, read an article that said the knife and fork should cross the plate to join together when one was finished so taught the dc to put their irons at right angles.

No perception of basic table manners and school teachers think they deserve respect.

MIL was a primary deputy head. She taught her dc to lick the plate to avoid waste.

One does wonder what the chuff goes on at teacher training colleges to be fair.

Dear teachers, if your basic manners ming, do not think you have any say at all in the dining hall. Just foul. Far. Too. Often.

My DCs school also have benches, they just take their coats off and sit on their coats whilst they eat or put then on the bench next to them if they prefer

I understand completely why they don't want children roaming the halls and returning the classrooms unsupervised to get coats.

But it is annoying if there's no place to put them. Can you ask for pegs to be put somewhere near the hall that children can use before they go out?

No perception of basic table manners and school teachers think they deserve respect.
Teachers don't do dinner duty in my school. They need to eat their own lunch, have time to rest and time to be ready for the afternoon session.

Children should come to school with good table manners as taught by parents, at home.

Take it to the Governing body. Children's comfort cannot be over ruled by the head wanting convenience surely.

My DCs school wouldnt allow the reception (age 4) kids to use the toilets in their class room after lunch break. My DD had a few accidents and I thought she must be wrong when she said they weren't allowed to go (I thought she was too shy to ask) but I queried it with the TA and she said it was correct.

I wouldn’t be allowing my child to put her expensive outdoor coat under a table that her and other primary aged children are eating at. Imagine the state of it by Friday.
Sitting on it is slightly better but will still get food on and sat/squashed in.
Just agree and then carry on as you were.

Academy?

It is just getting started.

The Tory "behaviour car" is encouraging all of these batshit rules. If you read his official writings or hear him on radio 4, what he says is all very sensible. He clearly is on some kind of leash in official context. If you follow him on twitter, he says all children lie. He always supports teachers in all their rules and punishments and preaches exclusion. He outright denies that punishments are ever misused or that some school leadership teams may over-step on strictness. He is an internet bully of the first order, and he has a posse of back-up bullies. No one wants to be in his line of fire or you'll get taunted for days. He has a massive following and is encouraging this nonsense. He advocates research, but seems remarkably ill informed.

"behaviour czar"

sorry, autocorrect

Mine seem to wear them, I don’t think they have to keep them on but they have to take them to the hall and so lots do. It annoys me because it is a pain to have to be wiping it down and washing it repeatedly midweek because it is covered in yoghurt or gravy. I have multiple school jumpers for this very reason.

TBH I don't think this is a major enough issue to raise concerns about. It probably means that the children get more time playing outdoors instead of having to go to cloakroom to collect coats (perhaps with much messing about on the way etc).

leithwalk if schools think they should teach manners I expect them to teach the correct manners.

Mine were taught correctly at home. I didn't expect school teachers to undermine them because they did not know what table manners were.

Next time I go to Le Manoir or Murano I'll sit on my coat shall I. Ha ha.

Wow what an amusing thread. You do realise that teachers train in universities or in schools with university input. Not in colleges! Oh and the focus of said training is on learning and education not the dinner hall.

In any school I have worked in, if you decide your precious child just won't follow the rules because you don't agree with them, you will be warmly invited to find another school whose rules you are willing to support. Only you will never find an institution where you agree 100% with every decision made.

Not that I am agreeing or disagreeing on this particular rule as I don't know the truth of it or reasons behind it but I do think parents need to be aware that schools are run as systems to work for hundreds to even thousands of pupils and staff. You can't just demand a meeting with the head every time they do something you personally disagree with. As if the head has nothing to do all day other than meet parents about coats.

As if the head has nothing to do all day other than meet parents about coats

Pretty daft of the head then, to implement batshit rules which simply teach children bad table manners.

My school had very strict rules on when we had to wear blazers (and berets🙄).

But even we were allowed to remove both in the dining hall.