LEAVES!

[LeavesUsToIt]

We received this message from DC’s primary school.

YANBU- Fun police alert!
YABU- Playing in leaves is an obvious gateway activity to eventual criminality

“LEAVES

Whilst it is great fun playing in the leaves before/after school, this morning we have had an escalation of "fun" and moved into wrestling moves and potential behaviour issues.

Please can we ask that parents support us in discouraging all children from playing in the leaves.“

In my experience, if they've sent a message then things have got pretty out of hand. I'd allow my child to play, but supervise and challenge anything too rowdy

Wow, that really is silly! And anyway the harm that comes from playing in leaves is hidden poo, obvs.

This isn't about leaves. It's about parents not supervising their childre and allowing things to go to far.

JFC what soul destroying ridiculousness. They are indeed the fun police.

The problem isn't the leaves, it's some kids going a bit too far and getting carried away. Which is totally normal. What they need to say is that parents need to step up and you know, actually parent in these situations!

We should be encouraging our kids to get outside and play in nature, engage with the outdoors, which we know helps kids development and mental health etc. Sure there is a risk of rough and tumble play going too far sometimes but what would the school prefer? Kids sitting indoors on screens safely isolated, sedentary and disconnected from nature?

Grumble grumble cotton wool H&S gorn mad wet lettuces grumble.

They wouldn't have sent the message if it hadn't got out of hand.

Then parents need to supervise their kids. The issue isn't the leaves!

is the school prone to a similar approach?

Not really. This one has caught me by surprise somewhat.

This isn't about leaves. It's about parents not supervising their children and allowing things to go to far.

Quite. I’d completely support a message about supervision/behaviour.

The kids were all told no playing in leaves over the loudspeaker too.

I don’t agree with a ban on playing in leaves.

I assume the school are working on a contingency plan in case there is snow, possibly involving the use of armoured tanks?

😆

Make sure your DC collect lots of conkers this weekend to hand out on the playground 😇 they're not leaves...

I think the message should have been along the lines of "we appreciate it's a special time of year and it is fun to play in the leaves. However some of the fun has strayed too far into rough "play" which has led to upset. Please can you keep an eye on your dc whilst they are having fun in or with the leaves".

I do think that many teachers spend so much time managing children that they forget how to communicate with adults in a respectful and sensible way.

"No playing in leaves" over the loudspeaker did make me laugh but it's sad really. Kids need play.

Good idea. Heading to Amazon for a bulk order of shoelaces now.

Dog shit has ruined leaf-kicking, unfortunately. I wouldn't let kids do it now for that reason.

Ugh! 🤦🏻‍♀️

A school head should be more than capable of speaking directly to the parents of the specific children who were causing issues and asking them to ensure the behaviour isn’t repeated. Job Done!

It’s beyond pathetic of them to send out a passive aggressive ‘ban on playing in leaves’ missive to everyone in the school just because they’re trying to hide their utter incompetence in dealing with difficult parents, assuming the parents involved are the type to kick off? If they’re not that type, then it’s even more outrageous.

Hmm. I’m irrationally irritated by this as it serves to remind me of the incompetent Head we’ve got in our secondary school. It was Science week this last week with all the kids taking part in fun quizzes and activities apart from DS’s class who have several troublemakers in there. Much easier to ban the entire class from doing fun stuff than risk having to manage poor behaviour. 🤬

My DS is a regular recipient of rough play.
I suspect that rather than kicking or throwing leaves some children will be stuffing them down other's necks and pushing others over.
Unfortunately primary pupils are still learning nuance which makes it hard to deal with don't be rough.
I agree that lead kicking is fun but it needs to stay fun.

If it was your DC that got 'wrestled' and got frightened, hurt or got covered in dirt would you be wanting the school to intervene or would you tell your crying and hurt DC it's just a bit of fun for the bigger kids?

Sounds like it's not just playing in leaves it's turned into poor behaviour & I'm guessing a child has been hurt or upset. Its sensible for the school to put our a message to protect the more vulnerable kids

Can you take yours to a park where they can play supervised with each other or friends away from younger/vulnerable DC.

I say this as parent of DC with SEN who was always the one who got hurt or frightened by rough play when he was small. It might be good fun for some kids but not for others.

My DC has been hurt at school through children playing inappropriately on playground equipment.

The response to that was, rightly, to speak with the children concerned about it.

I didn’t feel that they needed to ban the use of that equipment, or to send out a message to all parents about it.

My point is not that the school should do nothing, but the implication that playing in leaves leads to aggression and needs to be banned outright is very nanny state.

Schools send those out instead of telling one or several parents that their child is being a pain in the arse, something will have happened