Kid's Assembly

[HowMuchSchoolAdmin]

So...DC7 has an assembly this week. He told me he's excited, but also nervous about making a mistake. I said that's normal, but he knows his lines, to try his best and if he makes a mistake just repeat correctly or continue on and it'll be ok etc etc.

It turns out the reason he's scared of making a mistake is teacher has said if everyone does well and nobody makes a mistake, everyone will get a house point. If one person makes a mistake, they will be letting the class down and no one will get a house point. Is it me or does this seem a bit off? They're seven/eight!!

Am tired and having the eternal hangover-like, unshiftable headache for days now, that's going around after the latest school bug, so may not be feeling most reasonable!

If that’s definitely what she said and the wording she used then yes I’d say it’s unreasonable, but it may be your 7-year-old has misunderstood, misinterpreted or exaggerated what she said. He thinks any mistakes and the students will lose house points but it could be she actually said if anybody messes around or does something silly or doesn’t try etc they’ll lose points and he’s taken this to mean if anyone does anything wrong at all, rather than deliberately wrong, such as make a mistake house points will be lost. Young kids don’t always interpret things as they were said so hard to make a judgement in the word of a 7yo.

That seems harsh. I’d check with the teacher and make sure that is definitely what has been said. If it is, I’d tell the teacher that it’s causing your son to be nervous and that he’ll try his best which will good enough.

There will most likely be mistakes by more than one child, it’s all part of the fun at that age.

I thought that he might have misinterpreted it and it's more about behaviour etc, but he said she definitely said mistake. Kids can get it wrong though obviously, but this teacher has form. She is very stick over carrot and rewards results, not effort. It feels pointless saying anything as the assembly is tomorrow and they have a long term supply teacher on Wednesdays.

Definitely check with the teacher but if this is true, it's awful and an ass backwards way of teaching children imo! Literally everyone on the planet makes mistakes sometimes, it's how you deal with them that matters.

If it were me I'd be telling my son that you have a different rule in your house: if he tries his best then he can have a treat. Not saying to do this for everything btw, but just in this case since he's already nervous.

If his teacher told him off for making a genuine mistake I would be in to speak to the teacher tbh, and I am very conscious of being 'that' parent, but it's not on imo.