To create a fuss about my son not having access to water today in school

[Icantfeelmyface]

Hello .
My 8 year old son is a bit of a fidgeter, and has difficulty with keeping still . He has a replacement teacher for the past 6 weeks and he has struggled with various issues relating to her " shouting at him all the time " and him feeling picked on everyday no matter what he does .. won't get into the detail but meeting was held and she reassured me that this wasn't the case and she works on praise as well .. .. he told me after the meeting the teacher said in front of the class " why you telling your mum that I'm picking on you "?... Decided to leave things and move on... However today he comes home from school and tells me he had no water the whole day as the teacher said he was fidgeting too much with his bottle and told him to put it away from the table . All the other kids had their bottles on their table . He has said he had a few sips at lunch time and then nothing until after school club at 4 pm 😳
Am I being unreasonable to email the head teacher ?

Removing a bottle from the table is not the same as ‘denying his human right to water’ the hyperbole on this thread is ridiculous! Plenty of schools don’t allow water bottles on desks, they’re a nightmare.

No surprise OP seems to have left long ago.

we weren't banned from water for hours in the past.

Nor was OP’s child. 🤷‍♀️

Yes, it's perfectly fine to drink at break and lunchtime. He'll be grand.

Exactly, they are just pointing out that the modern obsession with carryin water bottles around all the time is unnecessary.

Why quote the entire OP? It's basic that any response on a thread is addressed to the OP unless the poster states otherwise.

You're wrong though. Schools didn't generally give out drinks, Sports Day being a notable exception. The drinks provided by the school in my day were a third of a pint of milk at morning break - if you couldn't drink milk for whatever reason, tough; nothing else was offered - and a small beaker of water at lunchtime. Those of us who were thirsty would fill up in the toilets during playtime but if we were caught drinking from the taps, we were told off because it was unhygienic, and it probably really was. We didn't suffer and I'm a very "thirsty" person generally. I had a 4 mile walk home after school and if it was hot, my mother might splash out on an ice lolly, but that was it.
Are those of us who haven't had the same lived experience as you supposed to just shut up because you say so? Your reply shows that you don't actually know what happened years ago, so you really shouldn't argue with those who do. It makes you look a bit silly.

It's highly comparable. If an adult doing a physically very active job can manage without constantly sipping water and having a water bottle with them all the time, then a child sitting in a classroom can manage to wait a couple of hours without water until break time.

I know. I was responding to people claiming they only had access to water before school after school and lunchtime. Not true as schools had water fountains.

Not true as schools had water fountains

They did, before and after school and lunch times.

Quite.

I work in primary schools and in the vast majority they are not allowed to keep their bottles on their tables. Some are allowed more access than others but most will not be allowed to go for a drink when the teacher is teaching. They are encouraged to drink at break and lunch and when they come in from lunch.

Children were never allowed to wander out during lessons to access water fountains. The assumption was that they would only be used during breaks.

I remember all the water fountains at my schools were outside and being outside during a break was the only way to access them.

One good reason to not want pupils sipping from their water bottles during lessons is that it will inevitably lead to more children needing to go to the toilet. Which obviously becomes very disruptive.

I agree that water bottles in the classroom are unnecessary. And it’s certainly true that we didn’t have water to drink during class when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s.

So I have to vote YABU. The only thing that the OP might have reason to be concerned about is if the teacher really did ask her DS why he told on her to his mum. That would be very unprofessional. Although I have my doubts about it, as it sounds more like a bully in the playground than a teacher.

I think you need to look into bigger things here.

my niece and nephew have been given something by school called ‘a wiggle seat’, apparently it has helped them lots.

I think you perhaps need to be asking school whether he can be assessed for ADHD, and when I say ask I mean don’t except no for an answer!

Could your son take a fidget toy to school, something he can fidget with quietly so as not to disrupt the class!

I would be emailing the head about her comment about him telling mum she was picking on him in-front of the whole class,

We are 4 weeks from end of term, could he spend the rest of the time this sun is teaching in another class?

lastly aren’t other Mumsnetters so high and mighty!!

I would absolutely complain. I get he was fidgeting with it, fine, put it on the floor so it's out the way but still accessible.

Could he have a fidget bracelet or anything at school to discreetly help him?

I think it’s disgusting that, purely on the information provided in the OP, people on MN will call an 8 year old a ‘pain in the arse’. Horrible.

In the OP’s shoes I’d be less concerned about the water and more concerned about the teacher singling him out for his parents complaining. Some teachers are awful and will actually do this. I know because my son had a maths teacher in year 8 who said almost exactly the same thing in front of everyone, when all we had done was seek clarification from the maths department about whether he was supposed to be getting homework because he didn’t seem to be getting any. It created a really tricky situation where despite the many shortcomings of that teacher we had to watch ourselves for fear of him targeting our child.

I’m afraid some teachers are bad. Not many, but some.