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.
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And like o pointed out earlier about my friend with scoliosis.

S teacher said they would make reasonable adjustments.

She didn't get diagnosed till 14 though?

That's hardly uncommon with, well stacks of stuff.

In general I dislike the sort of. Victorian/ armed forces ideas.

Wear a uniform.
Stand the same way.
Behave in the same way.
Difference will not be tolerated.

It's brilliant to see rows of children in identical clothes, confirming, no one standing out, no individuality. No excuses. Not individuals. One unit in a group of units. Who must not step out of line, no matter what.

I understand that many don't see it like that.

I understand the beneficial impact of order and certainty for children who are lost/ used to chaos etc.

It needs to be tempered though. With care and humanity and understanding that children are people. And at various points have stuff going on that makes them behave in certain ways. That some are going through appalling things.

Always smile? It is in quotes in many articles. That's just awful tbh.

Parents who dislike completely normal and sensible rules like the ones in the policy, tend to be the parents who are in complete denial about their little darlings behaviour

I am very aware of my little darlings. That is why I HE one and sent another to a very relaxed school where you called the teachers by their first names and had excellent SEN provision. Proper SEN lessons with small groups who would discuss their difficulties and come up with solutions. (Unfortunately Ds wasn’t able to get in to the school)

They have both turned out brilliantly. What other teens would take on paying the mortgage and helping out financially when the shit hit the fan at home and we all lost our jobs and had ploughed through our savings.

Only skim read but I'd love to know why pp are saying that actually some of these schools are successful!..

Why does walking around single file have bearing...

How come these particular rules, work, is this the sort of thing they do in the army?.

What I would say is, if your going to force dc into this sort of regime you absolutely must must must.. Make sure the teaching is up to scratch.
It would be mental cutlery to ban dc looking out the window with the most boring teacher on earth droning on.
Similarly they must make sure those who get bored easily also get taught in a way they understand if they are visual learners etc.

I wouldn't have kept my kids in such a school, and they've all been successful.

Lemonmelonsun

Only skim read but I'd love to know why pp are saying that actually some of these schools are successful

It’s because anyone who has any form of SEN is discouraged from attending or pushed to move on.
They wouldn’t get a diagnosis for any child who might need one so they can push them out without any backlash.
So it looks like their system is working.

'
What I would say is, if your going to force dc into this sort of regime you absolutely must must must.. Make sure the teaching is up to scratch.'

AND the pastoral care needs to be top notch and proactive.

Always smiling FGS.

IF that and the other things are not what they meant then they should have written what they meant.

Apart from the always smile which I have posted previously about.

I'm a very very rules driven person. Always have been.

If a I am given a rule to comply with then I take it literally. My kids are the same especially the younger one.

So. Do not look toward/ out of the window during class. My brain immediately says, no matter what? I need clarification. They can't mean that.

Ditto do not look round even if you hear a noise. Any noise?

Those saying some kids respond well to clear rules. Yes I get that.

But some kids are very literal and these things go round in their heads. As it is in mine now. It bothers me. Because they can't mean what they have written. But that's what they've written. If they meant something else they would have written that.

'Parents who dislike completely normal and sensible rules like the ones in the policy, tend to be the parents who are in complete denial about their little darlings behaviour'

The rules, some of them, as quoted in the papers. Are neither normal nor sensible.. If as quoted, which they seem to be. Then they are the rules.

I think this wouldn't survive a challenge in court by a parent of any child with additional needs. Must surely breach equalities legislation.

Absolutely batshit.

I have teacher friends who worked there and left very quickly, can’t see that working !

@Willyoujustbequiet

I think this wouldn't survive a challenge in court by a parent of any child with additional needs. Must surely breach equalities legislation.

Absolutely batshit.

You would think.

What’s more likely to happen is that parents of ND children who are just about managing in mainstream will move their children after constant punishments for things they can’t help doing. Rules like this need to be all or nothing - if kids see the kid with undiagnosed ADHD constantly breaking the rules then they will too. Rules like this don’t allow for reasonable adjustments.

'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'

This doesn’t even make sense; if you’re already always smiling, how can you smile some more when you great someone or reply to a teacher? Or do you have to have a general smile and a super-smile?

Good morning class. Mary why weren’t you in class yesterday?

😁sorry miss, my mum was in a traffic accident and had to have her leg amputated. My grandfather dropped dead with the shock, and my father is in jail for chasing after the man who ran mum over with a type iron and backing him over the head.😁

I still can’t get over the sight of 30 teens with plastered on manic grins following your every move.

Utterly creepy

May be they should wear these

www.amazon.co.uk/Protection-Breathable-Comfortable-Protective-Dustproof/dp/B08XXYKQHD/ref=asc_df_B08XXYKQHD/?hvlocphy=1007004&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=514318091656&hvpone&hvlocint&hvpos&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-1238265826301&hvrand=2719517379472477611

Parents who dislike completely normal and sensible rules like the ones in the policy, tend to be the parents who are in complete denial about their little darlings behaviour

Wild generalisation that certainly doesn't work in my case. I object, and my children have grown up and left school. They were in perfectly successful schools which managed to educate children despite not having ridiculous rules like this, and their schools had no complaints about their behaviour. I object primarily because of the inherent discrimination against disability involved, and because imposing stupid rules achieves nothing in terms of teaching children to respect authority.