To think the school have lost the plot

[Hardymonica]

I am so cross with the staff at my daughter’s primary school. Today they set up a fake incident where it appeared that someone had vandalised the girls toilets. The children were tasked with writing a report about it and it was then revealed at the end of the day that the teachers set it up.

My daughter is seven, she understands logically it was the teachers who did it but it has really unsettled her. For the whole day she was led to believe that school was unsafe and the impact of that has stayed with her. She is anxious about using the toilet at school on her own now and won’t be in a room on her own at home. She gets very distressed at bedtime, saying she’s frightened of being on her own in case intruders come.

I’ve had to send a message to the school to let them know and ask them to make sure she’s using the toilet. They are aware that she suffered anxiety last year but obviously weren’t thinking of the more sensitive children when they planned this bizarre thing. I’ve asked them to let us know in advance in future if they’re planning a pretend event. I’m sure they could have thought of a more positive incident to use to inspire them to write.

Aibu to think this was a bizarre idea for an activity and to feel angry they didn’t think about the potential effects on certain children?

Vandalising the toilets is just plain weird. But the alien invasion thing sounds awesome, my kids would have bloody loved that!
It’s obviously something that’s a really good idea in principle but is subject to stupid “tweaks” that just ruin it.

What a crazy thing to do. Kids of that age are inclined to believe anything.

When ds was in year 2, they were learning about explorers and the teacher told them that at the end of the week a real Sherpa was coming in to tell them about climbing Mount Everest. They were beyond excited about this; every morning ds asked me if it was Friday yet and told me he couldn’t wait to meet the Sherpa.

When Friday came and the much-hyped Sherpa walked in, it turned out to be the teacher in a costume. The kids were so disappointed that half of them cried.

Jesus, that’s just dumb

Absolutely bonkers but I wonder how she would feel if they held an "invacuation" (I think it's called?) My son's school have done them twice as far as I know in 2 years. They were told that the bell would sound and the headteacher was going to see if she could spot anyone. That when the bell rang they were all the hide and stay still and quiet. It was made to be a game of hide and seek but it could rattle someone with anxiety issues.

There's no pretence there though is there cjt110 ?

The purpose of these 'detective' exercises is to teach inference. That carries over into reading, understanding things that are implied rather than stated explicitly.

Some of these ideas are so crass and inappropriate, they’re almost funny - is David Brent running schools these days?

I’m not a teacher so I don’t know what the national curriculum forces you to cover, but what’s the point of the “making it realistic” angle? Couldn’t the class just write about an incident knowing it was pretend? But they still have to solve clues and interview witnesses and come to a conclusion etc?

Seems bit over the top for seven year olds. the hoops teachers have to jump through these days just to get some kids to write.

A local school did something similar with dinosaurs, causing chaos and breaking things.
Lots of. Children were very upset.

I personally thought the teachers were bloody idiots, of the stupid elf on the shelf mentality

What a ridiculous exercise for 7 year olds. There's enough unpleasantness around without inventing it for the classroom.

We had little red riding hood loose in the school for several weeks leaving messages for children to respond to.
Next we had a dinosaur leaving tracks around the school and popping in every so often to cause mayhem, left a tooth, some slime, a dinosaur egg, and pooh. The children loved writing about it, telling the dinosaur off, checking the egg in the nest, telling people about it.

Schools have to teach character skills to help children become rounded individuals for life. Examining and discussing right and wrong and the effect of actions might be appropriate to that class?

How odd, this would be more for Year 7 Thhan age 7 surely... 😄😄we had a positive one yesterday with the break the rules day, this was through the PTA with 50p for each rule chosen to break. The whole school did it I think and went down really well apparently.

Not a school hoax but when DD was in Yr 11 there was a hoax email sent that the school was closed due to the snow.......quickly chased up with an email from the Head that "No, the school is open"

She was gutted ! (And judgey that she had to go in )

Encouraging resilience in children is great but tricking them doesn't really achieve it imo.

I remember as a child our classroom was broken into and messed up. All the kids were a but unsettled and upset and it took a good week of talking a little about it each day for the kids to feel totally settled and safe again. The teacher listened and then talked about it very patiently and matter-of-factly which was just what the kids needed. They couldn't process it and put it behind them instantly. In the end the take home message was that these unpleasant things occasionally happen but we'll be OK if they do. Resilience.

The idea that it would be helpful to make children think their safe area was violated, do a bunch of work/thinking/worrying about it and then say SURPRISE!! is bonkers.

Learning to live in a sometimes unpleasant reality builds resilience, constantly twisting reality creates confusion and insecurity.

Can't blame the teachers though - they are probably heavily encouraged/required to do these silly things.

I don’t understand the point of it..

It’s to get them to write from a different angle.

Not one day ...... more When we arrived at school X said and Y discovered*

It’s nothing to do with resilience! Plus why should one anxious child spoil an experience for others?

My daughters school did it with “dragon” eggs found on school premises and spent a few months having discussions on firstly where to incubate all the way through to which country they should be shipped to keep them safe

Plus why should one anxious child spoil an experience for others?

Or one child recovering from abuse, that sees school as their safe space.

Or one child with autism, Aspergers, etc.

Or one child that has been taught to respect and trust the teacher, so believes everything they say.

Or teachers, with a similar lack of empathy to yours, maybe need to stop putting stupid ‘exercises’ before the wellbeing of the children that trust them to be truthful. Fucking pathetic.

Plus why should one anxious child spoil an experience for others?

The teachers could easily find a way of giving the children an interesting experience while making sure they know it's just pretend.

DN's school did something like this years 10 years ago so has been around for a while.
DNs school though set up a tent with sleeping bag etc and got the dc to go out in groups looking for the "homeless man who had broken into the school" allot of children went home scared and DN had nighmares for a while about it.
needless to say a lot of parents were raging

This is the current trendy thing. Introducing a new writing topic with a 'hook' to interest and engage the children. Eg teachers make a fake dinosaur egg and plant it on the school site for the class to find, then they write a diary entry about the exciting thing they found etc. Could involve props, drama visitors, videos, photo shop of a character in their classroom, a letter from a pirate is found, etc.

Hooks have their uses for reluctant writers, those lacking in imagination etc but there's a time and a place. I think in this case the teachers had the best intentions but hadn't thought through the consequences well.

YANBU and I would be pretty pissed off, but after 6 kids, umpteen schools and 17 years of "the sytem" I'm absolutely sick to death of schools and their crackpot ideas.

I'm a primary teacher and I've done some fab hooks in the past. Also seen some questionable ones.

My daughter’s special school staged an overnight alien invasion.

There was carnage in school when the kids saw it.

They learnt their lesson and never tried anything so stupid again!

A friends child’s school
Did this with the reception class and unsurprisingly, the kids all freaked out, had nightmares etc...

They pulled the same stunt with the same
Kids recently they are now yr3. They were still unsettled.

It’s an ill conceived idea and you should
Write explaining your concerns

the hoops teachers have to jump through these days just to get some kids to write.

Hooks are overused. Like most initiatives in teaching though, teachers are just doing what their leadership team or advisor is telling them to do. I've been told in the past that EVERY unit of writing work must vegin with a hook. The units are usually 3-4 weeks long, sometimes shorter. Pranks and awe / wonder tricks lose their impact when they are used too frequently.

The sensible thing would be to give class teachers responsibility for choosing when to use hooks, the nature of them based on the individual classes they teach, and use other strategies as needed but this would require trust in their professional judgement. There's not much of that at the moment.

OrangeCinnamon, yes I’ve said that maybe a more positive or funny ‘incident’ would be more appropriate for this age group and that they should be told sooner that it’s fake

DD1's class did writing linked with The Enormous Crocodile - aided with a giant obviously inflatable crocodile plotting to "eat" them - hiding up trees in the playground, pretending to be a class tortoise, at the school reception desk on the phone and then wearing a really bad wig in the head teacher's office at her desk - they loved that one and it was obviously not real but still got their imaginations going. I suspect by the end of the week or so the crocodile had had a puncture from one of the kids to be honest.

They also had an alien landing in the classroom and reading notes - didn't really work as two of the girls told me "oh the hole in the roof is where the alien landed but it's only black paper because you can see the staples holding it up"