Being made to sit on the floor

[MandaLo]

I'm genuinely interested to hear what others thoughts are on this.

DS10 is in a class with a teacher new to their school. She's very young but seems quite pleasant when I've spoken to her.

He told me last week that as a punishment for talking the teacher is making children sit on the classroom floor for 30 minutes each time. It hadn't happened to him though.

Today he came out of school to say that he'd asked the child next to him what book they'd chosen from the library and was made to sit on the floor for half an hour. He wasn't massively upset, just said that his bum went numb from it.

I've never come across this before. DS said some children are constantly on the floor. Does this sound ok?

I wouldn’t be able to get het up about this. It’s not physical punishment, it’s sitting on the floor.

I certainly don’t think humiliation is a suitable punishment.

No this is not ok. You wouldn’t get away with it Secondary so why should Primary be any different?

I’d be complaining. It’s cruel.

I home educate and the first thing people say is ‘how will she socialise?’ I always laugh because my daughter is actually allowed to talk to people whenever she wants and isn’t told to be quiet constantly. She socialises more than school kids because of this 🤣

Kids should be allowed to talk to peers and this is another reason why the school system does not work!

Wow some of the responses on here. No wonder teachers are scared to discipline children. There are so many threads on here about disruptive behaviour in classes and this is exactly why - teachers can't help children to understand how to behave in a classroom!
A sackable offence?! For making a child sit on the carpet?

Also, I have taught many 10 year olds and not many of them were good at time keeping - perhaps 30 mins has been exaggerated?
I have moved children from their tables to the carpet before if they're not listening during input and haven't been dismissed so far 🤷‍♀️

@Kazzybingbong so how do you expect a teacher to actually teach a lesson when 30+ children are "talking whenever they want"?
The reasons the school system doesn't work are underfunding, not teachers wanting children to be quiet so they can teach.

It's not a normal way to deal with things for that age group - the only time I've seen this is in classes of young children where they are all sitting on the floor anyway and one is asked to move away to a different space for being disruptive.

It sounds as though the teacher is inexperienced and not confident in controlling the class so going over the top - I would definitely have a word with someone.

There isn’t room in secondaries….

The thought of a 6ft y9 lolling on the carpet.

Have you asked the teacher for the context? I'm a teacher and don't agree with this as a routine punishment. But have asked children to 'come and sit by me' at my desk if they're being disruptive, and I've also removed chairs for about 5 minutes after a millionth warning for swinging around dangerously on one chair leg.

I've also seen a teacher asking repeat offenders to 'sit on the carpet' if they were being disruptive on PE or computing, so temporarily moved away from the main group and sitting elsewhere.

Ask the teacher? Kids don’t always speak the truth…

A 9 year old I know said he'd been waiting "hours" recently.. it was about 45 minutes. I Wouldn't assume 30 mins is definite here.

All of KS3 and 4 will occasionally have an assembly where they sit on the floor of the gym for 20 minutes. Any students who find it too difficult can sit on benches at the back. It obviously isn’t a sanction, we just can’t fit them all in elsewhere.

I never understand why parents don’t just ask the teacher directly rather than directing every query/issue to the Head. A huge part of why education isn’t working IMO is the insufficient/nonexistent home-school relationship between teachers and parents.

If for some reason it isn’t possible to email/otherwise contact the teacher directly to rise the query/ask for a quick word after school one day in the week then THAT would be my cause for concern. Where I live parents and teachers have a direct and frequently used line of communication, and people wouldn’t dream of going to the Head re. an issue without first having a good discussion and attempt to resolve with the class teacher.

As a child who was at infant school in the early 60s, sitting on the floor was how we took most of our lessons. Assembly was sitting on the floor cross legged.

Music was sitting on the floor, as was storytime. and craft lessons. We spent more time sitting on the floor than sitting upright in chairs.

It was shit though, I got awful backache.

My class isn’t a great shape so there’s a group who can’t see the board well. They are all well behaved students that come and sit on the carpet when I am teaching using the board. If other children talk or mess around when I’m explain a concept or class, I make them come and join the group on the carpet. They can return to seats once I’ve finished talking. I then have a quiet word with them asap about respect. I would certainly talk to the teacher so you can confirm it isn’t for half an hour or stopping them completing work but otherwise I see no issue.

That is strange...

I wonder if it would actually have any success rate? Seems an odd choice of punishment

This thread is like satire. I can’t quite believe what I’m reading.

I’m not sure how I survived my 70s childhood of sitting on the school hall floor for hours at a time watching Living and Growing and How We Used To Live. With my neck at an unnatural angle to the 7 foot tv.

Traumatising my shiny trousered arse.

I totally agree. How are they going to react when they discover secondary school?
At our school, we have a one warning then detention policy for talking over the teacher. If they do it a third time, they are removed and made to work in isolation. We have a couple of new Yr7s struggling with this, as they had not learnt this basic rule in primary.
Do we have silent classrooms for a whole hour? No. Do we expect them to isten to instructions at the beginning of a task? Yes. It is not a particularly demanding expectation.

Many children need to hear the teacher explain things to the whole class. If some are talking others can't hear/are distracted.

There isn't time to go round 30 individually to explain things at a time to suit them.

There are times when talking is ok and to be encouraged, there are times when there needs to be quiet - just as in the world outside the classroom.

Try chattering in the cinema, theatre, this Saturday during Strictly.....

I taught secondary and would move, after a warning or 2, those who were disrupting the learning of others. Those who couldn't sit still on their chairs and were at risk of cracking their heads open sometimes had their chair removed and told to stand - never thought of sitting them on the floor.

These weren't everyday events - but my pupils knew that this sort of thing was likely to happen if.....

So to the OP.... Had they all been asked to be quiet? He wasn't. Numb bum - no one ever died of that. Don't helicopter in. See how it goes.

When you are a new teacher to a school you have to make your mark, establish yourself or many pupils will run rings round you. This will mean that the whole class will suffer from substandard lessons and learning.

In a word No. That's barbaric. Check this out with school. She needs to fine other strategies !!

Primary teacher here 🙋 if children are persistently talking while I'm in the middle of an input then I ask them to come and sit on the carpet away from distractions otherwise I'd never get through the lesson. Just ask the teacher for her version of events 🤷🏼‍♂️

Barbaric 😂😂😂

Moving a child who is talking to a place they and the other child can concentrate better is barbaric?

What do you suggest the teacher should do?

As a former teacher, I don't think that's OK at all. It's a step up from sitting a kid in the corner in a Dunce Hat. It's shit.

I wouldn’t really say asking what book the child sat next to him had was disrupting the lesson! Putting a child on time out on a carpet for 30 mins missing valuable school work seems far worse in my opinion!