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?

None of the punishments you mentioned involve the child being physically singled out in front of the class and made a spectacle of. She might as well stick them in the corner in a dunce hat.

Blimey.

Yes I'm aware my son was talking and I have told him he shouldn't have been. It was only last week the teacher told me that my son was a role model so I don't think he 'disrupts' the class on a regular basis.

I also haven't said that I would go steaming in to school and demand to talk to the head teacher, I was just interested to hear what others thoughts were on this kind of punishment as I've not come across it before!

We used to sit on the floor in assembly right through infants and juniors and thought nothing of it.

Well, it may be normal to sit on the floor where you come from, but we're in the UK now, and classrooms are equipped with chairs and desks.
That is normal here, and if a child is made to sit on the floor for 30 minutes in front of the rest of the class for daring to talk, then that is not appropriate and I wouldn't be happy for that to be happening.

It's not right, though is it?

Not only are floors cold and hard, th teachers behaviour is "shaming".

Any good teacher should be encouraging good behaviour in a positive manner, not like this.

Could it be during the teacher input? My class mainly sit at their table for input as we don't have a lot of carpet space but there is a small amount and children who are struggling to concentrate are asked to sit on the carpet so they are closer to me and the board and further away from their friends/the things they are messing with etc. I can't imagine a teacher having a child sat on the floor during work time because their work wouldn't be as neat as it could be.

I'd wait a couple of weeks and see if it's working. If it works then by the end of term hardly anyone will have to sit on the floor.

@Meeting These punishments are usually precluded by a telling off in front of the class - yes of course they are singled out! Standing outside the heads office for the duration of playtime means the entire school will probably walk past!
I think you really have no idea how schools work

Wow sitting on the floor. Terrible.

All of you saying speak to the school are precious snowflakes!

Try going to school in the 80s.

It depends on the context. It's easier to deliver lesson input to kids on the carpet than sitting at their desks, but older kids understandably prefer to sit on a chair usually. When I used to teach, I'd tell the kids that it's fine to sit at desks for the input as long as you're listening. If you're not, you'll need to sit on the carpet so you're not distracted and can actually take in what I'm saying.

So I did occasionally tell a child to sit on the carpet near me if they were chatting/mucking about. I can't see a problem with that. I'd let them go back to their desks once I finished talking though. Is that what happened or was it really 'sit on the carpet for 30 minutes'? Because the latter is a bit arbitrary, whereas I think the former is a perfectly natural consequence of not sitting and listening respectfully at your desk.

I don’t think it’s acceptable and I would be raising it. Any punishment that could cause physical discomfort and quite clearly is meant to be humiliating is not on.

do your best. And when you know better. Do better.

We know a bit more about educational psychology now - arbitrary and ineffective punishments - especially those which are outside of a wider school policy. Are probably best avoided.

I agree one doesn’t need to go steaming to the headteacher. But as a head of year / subject leader I would 100% want to know if a junior member of staff was doing something off book / weird + a bit useless..!

This. If you can't be quiet near your mates when you should be listening, then you'll have to move away from them. No spare tables or chairs = carpet. 5 mins or so generally before given the chance to prove they can do the right thing back at their normal place.

It's fairly basic classroom management, not some form of torture!

Two sides to every story. Always ask teacher first to clarify what they said/did. Then go from there.

For those saying report to Head, head will refer back to teacher in first instance.

I teach this age group and most can't tell the time on an analogue clock in the classroom so have no idea about time.

I cannot imagine any teacher making a child sit on the floor for 30mins as punishment. We need the kids to get their work done as we need to assess so it would be counterproductive. Quite possibly if talking whilst teacher was teaching the lesson that a child may be requested to move to the carpet at the front so they focus and not distracting themselves or others.

The teacher has presumably already been trained and is now the qualified professional. Heads won't 'train' staff differently on the whims of parents, especially those who think it's not the choice of the adult looking after and educating children to decide where and how they sit!

I sometimes remove a child from a table to sit on the floor if they are talking and preventing others from working/learning. It doesn't matter what they are talking about. They will have been warned and it is a natural consequence of disturbing others.

I'll ignore 'whispering' if I can see it''s necessary/work related - clarifying something or asking for a ruler to be passed to them but if it's enough to disturb me, it's enough to disturb others.

And it doesn't matter whether he usually does it or not. He doesn't get special treatment. It's only fair and effective if it's applied consistently.

But if you're concerned, speak to the teacher first. I say this because I've occasionally had parents go straight over my head to complain to the HT about their children's versions of accounts and have been left looking a bit daft and feeling embarrassed when they find out what actually happened. If you're still not happy, then go to the HT.

It also sounds like a lot of children don't follow any behaviour standards either! Even twenty years ago we had dopey parents who wouldn't allow their blessed sprogs to miss a break, do a lunchtime detention etc., it was their 'uman right apparently.

I agree there needs to be some form of punishment for misbehaving. My daughter has had the odd detention for handing in homework late etc and I'm fully supportive of that. I just thought being made to sit on the floor for such a long time with everyone else sat at the table was a little unusual. I also agree my sons version of events could be different from the teachers.

I think it does sound more like a "move you away from the person you are causing trouble with" situation than a punishment

Which is why you need to clarify with teacher first

Really doesn't sound like a big deal to me.

As for 'singling children out' - what would you expect? That the whole class gets punished every time one child misbehaves? Or that the child who misbehaves gets punished in secret, so the rest of the class never actually learn that misbehaving has consequences?

As someone who had to sit next to an incredibly annoying and badly behaved kid at primary school, I'd have had a much happier time if the teacher had made him sit on the floor instead of letting him sit there yapping in my face through every lesson.

Just sitting on the floor for a bit seems ok to me, but 30 minutes sounds excessive and unusual. The long length of time, 30 minutes, is likely to make it more of a deterrent but there might be a happy medium.

I'd ask to speak the teacher directly about it and find out more. If you're unsatisfied with their answer you can still go to the Head about it and say you think it's inappropriate.

@OnAFrolicOfMyOwn OP is describing 'naughty' children being singled out in a classroom and being made to sit on the floor as a punishment, whilst the other students remain in their chairs.

No it's not OK. Trust your instincts. I'd have a word. It's really quite disgusting.

As a former teacher, yes. I value clarification provided the other party is reasonable. I also prize thorough reading (for example, of previous posts by the same user) over reactionary virtue signalling.

We weren’t there so don’t have the full picture.
Maybe the child had been talking out of turn previously and had been warned already. Maybe the teacher was trying to do the input and, because the child was talking, told the child to come and sit at the front on the floor to take them away from disrupting the others around them.
Low level disruption can soon add up to a disturbed lesson and stopping others learning. A whole class of chattering children can make it impossible to teach in.
What seemed like an hour to a child might only have been a short period.
There are always 2 sides to every story.