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?

This really speaks to a teacher who either doesn’t know how to manage her class, or isn’t confident in doing so. I’d be interested to know if there is any evidence for this being an appropriate management technique, because while I don’t think it’s a physical punishment, it is humiliating though, and disproportionate to what the child reports he did.

I also find it interesting the number of people saying ask the teacher what actually happened - the implication being that we should believe the teachers version of events, because children always lie/misremember, but adults being held to account over their behaviour always tell the truth.

i personally would consider asking other parents if they’re hearing similar stories from their children about this punishment. I think context around where exactly children are made to sit is important, I’ve never seen a year five or six classroom with a carpet area to sit on. And then I would hold the school to account - does this fit into the behaviour policy, is it school policy or just this one teacher.

I'm sure we used to sit on the floor at primary school a lot anyway. Why is your son constantly talking over the teacher?

It's a humiliation style punishment and not acceptable. I'd speak to teacher and if you are not happy with response, the head.

Your kid was talking when he should not have been.

Sometimes kids get moved near the teacher to stop their behaviour and sit on the floor. Check with the teacher.

Its only sitting on the floor, everyone might as well complain about assemblies then. They sit on the floor for ages.

It is not surprising children are so badly behaved in UK schools, even sitting on the floor gets a complaint!!!!

In infant school we seemed to spend half the day sat on the floor. Always for storytime , practice times table and other singing etc. Then always sat on floor during assemblies even in secondary school. How is that physical punishment?

Reading the OPs comments, it seems to be that length of time was more the issue than anything else. I'm with several others that a kid's sense of time is not the best. I'd be wondering if that was just the time he estimated because I can't imagine the teacher would be defining the time in blocks like that. Not least, how would she be timing it all if she had more than one child sat on the carpet? What I can imagine, however, is that if she is a new teacher (not sure if she is or just new to the school), her inputs (the time when you'd want everyone to be quiet) might actually be that long (tbf, I know lots of established teachers take that long over an input though) and I wouldn't rule out him being asked to sit on the carpet for the duration. I'd say the fact there are lots of children talking could point to this. Ideally, as others have said, if it's a continuing problem you'd hope she'd figure that sitting them on the floor isn't working and look to change other things.

It sounds like natural consequences to me, which I am a big fan of and fully believe work better than having a child’s name on a sad face on the board. To me it seems like the rationale is that by sitting on the floor, they are no longer in a position to speak to the child they were speaking to. We had this when I was at school (I’m 30 now) where in both primary and secondary, if you got caught swinging on the back two legs of your chair more than once, you had to sit on the floor for 15 mins.

It’s definitely not a physical punishment as the kids will likely sit on the floor often for other aspects of the school day.

I wouldn’t make a fuss, especially if the this is the only issue you have with the teacher.

I'm more astounded that the 10 year old can't tell the time on an analogue clock !!!! I'd be ashamed if it was a child of mine.

I used to hop in the playground at school, but if I was made to do it as a punishment it would be inappropriate. Those type of disconnected punishments are futile, counter-productive and outdated.

This is not, however, what I think is meant by the phrase 'physical punishment' - which to me means hurting someone.

This really speaks to a teacher who either doesn’t know how to manage her class, or isn’t confident in doing so. I’d be interested to know if there is any evidence for this being an appropriate management technique, because while I don’t think it’s a physical punishment, it is humiliating though, and disproportionate to what the child reports he did.

Moving a child who is talking Is a standard, low level sanction.

If they talk during assembly, they are made to stand for a few minutes or moved to sit by the.teacher. In many schools, time missed at breaktime is spent standing against a wall in the playground. All of those are done in full view of the rest of the school/KS/phase. The whole point of it is that it is a deterrent to them and others.

The children know the rules, the expectations and the consequences of not following them and these are applied consistently. That is good behaviour management.

I'd be surprised if any child was made to sit on the carpet alone for 30 mins simply because the way lessons are structured means they don't spend 30 mins in one place doing anything uninterrupted.

I would take these things with a pinch of salt, it's probably not half an hour, kids aren't good usually at relaying these sorts of things that accurately. She's probably asking kids who are talking when they shouldn't to come to the front with their books to work on the floor for a bit so they can't disrupt the children around them, which is reasonable and lots of teachers do. The reality is, having 30 kids in a class is hard and if she's found a method that stops them from talking so the class isn't disruptive and they are able to get on with their work then that's probably a good thing. Try not to always think the worst of teachers and try to get them into trouble with the head, it's a hard job made almost impossible by the constant feet of being dubbed on by parents who often seem to get a kick out of doing it.

@sophiasnail well said.
@autienotnaughty it's not about humiliation. It's about separating children who are interrupting. Children sit on the floor all the time at primary school.

@Gmary20 a sensible piece of advice

I think you need to get the teacher's take on this as context is important.

a) kids rarely have a reliable sense of time. Half an hour could be 5 minutes.

b) if children are talking/not focusing at their desks, sometimes they will be brought forward to sit on the "carpet area" which is right in front of the board to remove distractions so they can listen and understand the lesson input. They would then go back to their seats.

I think if you are concerned, a conversation with the teacher would be your best bet.

God, I'd have often been on the floor for talking out of turn when I was nine or ten. Telling me off once was enough for me to not do it for a little while though. Further punishment would have just made me upset and anxious. I was trying hard to be well-behaved but just going through a particularly loquacious phase and just kept forgetting myself and rabbiting on. It was more through enthusiasm for learning than being disruptive! Luckily I think the teacher realised that.

But her son said many children are being told to sit on the floor and some seem to be on the floor a lot of the day, this wasn't one single instance?

It could be that they are isolated if talking and that the only place to isolate is on the floor away from the other kids (not necessarily the floor as a punishment) if that makes sense, but the floor is how your child has seen it

Disappointing to see so many people here approving of a punishment that others and humiliates children like this. Would it be acceptable to punish an adult like this for breaking a rule? No. Rules should have consequences that make sense and are respectful of the person in question, no matter the age. Putting a child from a seat onto the floor at the feet of their peers is humiliating. I'd be speaking to the school.

If it was about separating then it would simplified by rearranging where children are sat. It's about making an example of children publicly, and aside from that whilst sitting on the floor is fine at that age for assembly or a presentation it is not suitable for doing written work.

My teachers used to ask people to openly say in front of everyone what they were talking about. It worked because its embarrassing if your talking about irrelevant stuff, which kids mainly are!

Sitting yr10s on the floor is crass.

Talk to the year head or head teacher.

What sanctions do teachers have available to them that are acceptable to every parent? This one sounds harmless enough - it's a form of "time out", surely? And as others have already said, children often sit on the floor for all kinds of reasons (story time/circle time etc). Have to laugh at the "safety hazard" comment - has the poster ever actually been in a primary school classroom? tripping over someone who is sitting on the floor would be the least of your safety issues!!

And? Lots of children want to behave but forget themselves and yes, for many of those children a quick verbal reminder is all that's needed; for some others, it isn't and they need to be moved away from whoever they're talking to instead.

I'd like to ask those people who say they shouldn't be moved away from their seats and who believe children shouldn't be told to sit on the carpet for a bit if they're causing disruption despite being given repeated chances to regulate their own behaviour and have failed to do so what they would do or say in the teacher's shoes? If you have, by the sound of the OP's description of her son's class, several children who think their conversations are more important than what you're teaching, what do you do? How do you manage that behaviour? Warnings are no good if there are no consequences for failing to heed them.

It is incredibly annoying when you're constantly having to stop your lesson and say, "XXXX, you're talking over me. Stop talking and listen," and an easy solution to that is to move them after one more verbal reminder to shut up and an explanation of what will happen if they don't. A lot of classrooms are really small and only have enough space for 30 children to sit and work; moving the talkers to another seat isn't always possible so the carpet area is the next best thing.

It actually sounds like this teacher is following the school's behaviour policy and is being consistent because the OP's son knew what would happen to children who were talking. He still then chose to talk!

Rearranging the classroom isn't as easy as it sounds when you have to take into account children who don't get on at all with certain others and can't sit anywhere near them, children who are friends with others and would do nothing but chat if they sat close to one another, children who have to sit by the door for anxiety reasons, children who have to sit closer to the board for vision reasons, children who are left handed so have to sit at a certain suffer of the desk to avoid knocking arms, children who need special desks and/or chairs for SEND reasons, children who have to have their own desk next to their 1:1 support assistant etc etc etc. It's like a real life game of Jenga. Would you do this over and over for the sake of a couple of children who could simply be moved to the carpet for the teacher input because they continued talking when told not to?

sit at a certain suffer side of the desk etc