School where children must smile all the time, follow whistled commands and never glance out of the window

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/parents-slam-school-rules-always-24451911

Sounds horrific. I'd home educate a child rather than send them to a place like this. I can't help thinking one of the responses on Twitter I saw may be right - are they trying to drive out children with additional needs who might pull down the GCSE results? My daughter is an adult now but she would have been destroyed by an environment like this. She's very bright but on the autistic spectrum.

Parents have criticised strict new school rules which include "always smiling", never looking out the window and even asking permission to pick up a pen.

Natalie Teece, the newly-appointed headteacher at John Ferneley College in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, has drafted the guidelines ahead of the school reopening in September.

The new rules were delivered to parents in an e-booklet, along with three videos explaining the research and the reason behind them.

Ms Teece said that when 11 to 16-year-olds students return to class, they will be expected to "always smile" and learn to respond to a series of whistle commands given by staff.

They also must enter the classroom in single file, "never forget to say Sir or Miss", always sit up straight and must thank their teacher as they leave the classroom after a lesson.

Walking in a group of more than two people and looking out of windows in class are also banned.

Turning around "even if you hear a noise" is forbidden and pupils have to maintain eye contact with the teacher whenever they are talking, the rules say.

Kids have to wait to be told they may pick up a pen or ruler and if a teacher says hello to them they should make sure their reply is "upbeat".

.......

One rule about lining up said staff will be using whistles to direct kids, with five sounds meaning they must move to their line up area, and one indicating pupils should be silent.

Another about "tracking" the teacher said: "You don't pick up your pen or your ruler, or anything else, until your teacher gives you the signal.

"You never turn around - even if you hear a noise behind you. You don't look out of the window. You don't lose focus."

A rule on sitting up straight said: "You never slouch. Be sitting up straight you are demonstrating physical respect. [ ...] No exceptions. No excuses."

And another said: "You always smile. You are polite and welcoming. When you greet somebody you smile, when a teacher says hello to us in the corridor you reply with an upbeat 'Hello Miss!' or 'Morning Sir!' and you smile."

The guidelines inform students that they are "extremely fortunate to be in a school that is very popular" and must walk around the school only in single file or pairs.
*

@SimonJT, what's normal and sensible about expecting children to smile all the time, and saying they must all sit up straight with no exceptions?

[quote Terhou]@SimonJT, what's normal and sensible about expecting children to smile all the time, and saying they must all sit up straight with no exceptions?[/quote]
The fact that you genuinely believe children will be expected to smile for five hours a day and remain completely upright shows that you’d potentially believe anything.

I think a lot of people here are just overreacting for the sake of it.
What do you think rules in Eton or other elite schools are like?

@enchantedspleen

I'm hoping the kids rebel, Lord of the flies style. Lock the teachers up in the changing rooms, face paint with whiteboard markers, set up traps with school ties etc. "FIGHT THE POWER" in huge burning letters in the grass on the school field.

Funnily enough the Head of the Michaela school some people have mentioned approvingly on this thread wrote a Twitter thread today where she said rules are important to avoid a 'Lord of the Rings' situation. She meant Lord of the Flies of course, but perhaps accuracy and details aren't as important to her as her list of rules. That aside, she seems to have failed to grasped a few important points about Lord of the Flies.

1. The boys in that novel came from a school with strict discipline

2. it was that rigidity of rules that meant they were unable to cooperate on the island. Everything became a survival of the fittest. Whatever the consequences.

But no one knows FGS!

It's in two broadsheets as well as the original report (mirror?).

I can't read whole thing but both broadsheet headlines mention smile all the time.

This is a NEW document effective sept 2021, which is NOT the one on their site.

People are assuming what it says based on their general views etc.

None of us know what it says, do we?!

@CatsArePeople

I think a lot of people here are just overreacting for the sake of it. What do you think rules in Eton or other elite schools are like?

I went to a private school ok decades ago and there were no rules like this!

Selective so great grades jobs etc.

We used to crowd round the place etc.

A lot of the criticism towards teenagers (they don't smile, sneer at adults, are loud, don't follow the rules), applies to the vast majority of adults.

Imagine someone who came on here to complain that she's being required to smile constantly all day at work ad call her boss "Sir". The replies would advocate for pitchforks at dawn.

Coincidentally, Michaela School has a rate of pupils with EHCP of 0.5%, which is below the national average. It probably works better when most children are NT.

My RC primary school was v strict though.

I left at 8 so hadn't thought til now!

Regimented rows of desks.
Walking in silence in a line to here or there.
Not allowed to talk in the canteen during lunch.
All that stuff.

Is this about s return to 'old fashioned values' or something?

They do all that sort of thing in Japan and other countries and it doesn't imo give a good experience.

Everyone says that some of the Scandinavian countries have the best outcomes and they are more about freedom exploration nature etc aren't they?

Is this about s return to 'old fashioned values' or something?

Different cultural values would be my guest. I noticed that Michaela school is mostly non-white? Or am i wrong?
And Scandinavia vs Japan is an impossible comparison. Vastly different cultures and values.

It’s the footballers I feel sorry for. Referee just blows his whistle at them.
Would be so much better if he actually spoke to the players to get their attention.

They do all that sort of thing in Japan and other countries and it doesn't imo give a good experience.*

I had a housemate from Japan about 15 years ago and we had a few conversations about school because we were all a mix of nationalities. She said that the image of strict schools with perfect students was a big stereotype. They did have schools like that but they were state funded schools for highly intelligent children who were specially selected after their equivalent of primary. A lot of very ambitious parents primed their students to get a place there and raised their children in a very strict way anyway. Thing like after school tutors from age 5, extra language and music lessons. The average Japanese school had the same problems as the rest of the world with truancy, disruptive children, general teenage attitude etc.

That's really interesting thank you.

I'll look into that! Love extra info.

Anyone found the actual stuff yet? Still interested in what the smiling bit actually says!

Class, we have just heard that the Queen has died.
Class:

@NiceGerbil

But no one knows FGS!

It's in two broadsheets as well as the original report (mirror?).

I can't read whole thing but both broadsheet headlines mention smile all the time.

This is a NEW document effective sept 2021, which is NOT the one on their site.

People are assuming what it says based on their general views etc.

None of us know what it says, do we?!

No, but I'd assume it's not dissimilar from their current policy. It'd be completely impractical to have an entire policy change to the 'draconian' policy that the media are implying. I'd love to know where they've got their information from.

If it's not too dissimilar to the current policy then why has it made the news? I mean yes journalism is shit now. It's in two broadsheets now as well.

No one knows. I understand the reason for assuming it can't be as reported. But that is just an assumption.

I really want to see what's actually in it before deciding if it's as presented or not.

Without wanting to sound too tinfoil hattish she may have wanted it to reach the media? Perhaps not to the tabloid level it has, but she may look at someone like Katharine Birbalsingh, headteacher at the Michaela school, who's carving out a media career for herself (I'm assuming she has career ambitions beyond teaching) and fancied a piece of that pie.

Ah...

@CatsArePeople

I think a lot of people here are just overreacting for the sake of it. What do you think rules in Eton or other elite schools are like?

No idea about Eton, but at the two London day schools we did have experience of some ten years ago, nothing like this, because they didn't need to have highly prescriptive rules like this to create an orderly environment where the pupils focused on their work and behaved respectfully to staff. One was an independent boys' school and one was a girls' comprehensive school (very good exam results and pastoral care, not academically selective, very mixed intake, heavily oversubscribed).

I remember sitting in the entrance hall while my son was having his scholarship interview watching the boys and staff go past during a lesson change. The boys seemed cheerful, some were a bit scruffy (shirt hanging out), there was lots of chatting and laughing going on, teachers all seemed very chilled. The main impression I had was they just seemed like normal teenagers. If there'd been teachers barking out orders and the boys had been walking in silence I'd have found that worrying. But then we had the luxury of choice.

@a8mint

These are just normal expectations in any decent school. Focus on the teacher, walk one at a time through the doorway. Dont get out of your seat without permission Nowhere does it say children are expected to smile all the time. It does say smile and say good morning miss rather than grunt, if a teacher greets you. Surely thats just good manners, don't weallteach our children to respond politely?

The new rules (which have been screenshot and posted online) say:

'You always smile. You are polite and welcoming. When you greet somebody you smile, when a teacher says hello to us in the corridor you reply with an upbeat 'Hello Miss!' or 'Morning Sir!' and you smile.'

Lovely for the kid coming back to school after a bereavement.

🤣🤣🤣 im actually pmsl at this. Head teacher has clearly lost it. Am sure staff are nodding away in fake agreement at meetings whilst chanting tw#t in their heads. Hes lost the race at the first hurdle by expecting 300+ teenagers to smile 🤣. Wish i could be a staff member when the proverbial hits the fan. Hope the staff tell him what they think in a series of clicks and whistles hahahaha

Terhou

Have you seen the screenshot? If so could you post it please because the quote you’ve used is from a newspaper article, not the actual document.

^You always smile. You are polite and welcoming. When you greet somebody you smile, when a teacher says hello to us in the corridor you reply with an upbeat 'Hello Miss!' or 'Morning Sir!' and you smile.'
Lovely for the kid coming back to school after a bereavement^

Yes I’m sure there is absolutely zero flexibility for a child who has just experienced a bereavement

We have a rule that kids engage in lessons, they don’t sit passively with their head on the desk the whole lesson (perfectly reasonable).
If a kid is having a really rough time, not even as bad as a bereavement, we relax our rules a little for that child.

If you don’t like a school with strict rules don’t send your kid there. Locally our extremely strict school is oversubscribed because the more relax schools get poor results. Behaviour is dire and many pupils feel intimidated for a lot of the school day.

If you don’t like a school with strict rules don’t send your kid there.

As has been pointed out, the problem is that parents presumably chose the school on the basis of a more sensible set of rules. Just finding another school at the drop of a hat isn't a practical proposition.

And, for children with EHCPs it's even more difficult, as they would have to go through the entire process of getting the EHCP amended.

I don’t think Eton is this strict. They have a bar where the older boys can get a beer (or did when friend went there)

@CatsArePeople

I think a lot of people here are just overreacting for the sake of it. What do you think rules in Eton or other elite schools are like?

Nothing like this at all. Usually Elite schools have much more flexibility. In excluding the more quirky children who smile less, and gaze out of windows more you get rid of some of the most brilliant high acheivers (as well as someSEN children).