School Punishments

[Clydesdale]

Hi all

My year 1 DS drew on a wall during class supervised by a cover teacher on the monday before half term. his punishment was to clean the wall and miss both breaks and lunchplay for the rest of the week. during these breaks he was to stand facing the wall in the playground.

i went mad when i found out! 1 - i was not informed, 2- i felt this was incredibly extreme punishment, 3- how did he get to draw so much in the first place?

Am i so unreasonable to feel that missing breaks and lunch play for a whole week is totally over the top? I know from my other half who is in the forces that facing the wall is a form of sensory deprivation used by the forces prior to interrogation! To do this for a whole week infornt of the whole school seems bullying to me

I am in the process of writing to the school Head, govenor and LEA and would like to see others opinons on this!

Clean the wall-yes-and point out to him that nobody else should ever have to clear up his mess.

Miss full day playtime -perhaps-how ever long it takes to clean the wall.
Miss a full weeks play-no -too severe.

Wonder what the same school would do-punishment wise- re bullying of another pupil. Would the punishment be more or less severe for what in my mind is a worse crime.

Think this reflects our "punishment" culture as a whole ie-property is viewed as more valuable than people/animals, unfortunately.
Btw I am not condoning what he did, just curious as to what is viewed as the more serious of "crimes/naughty behaviour"

Soupdragon - perhaps it would be more accurate to say that there's a world of difference between graffiti of the sort that would invite criminal prosecution and what this child did - if only in the cost of the damage that he did, and the fact that it wasn't permanent.

If permanent damage had been done, the school would have been within its rights to take serious action.

In this case, it was entirely disproportionate, and, as I said earlier, leaves the school almost nowhere to go if the behaviour escalates.

Lucia39 Ok, Ok, maybe "ritual humiliation" was a bit strong, but I nonetheless think that it WAS humiliating, disproportianate and not a relevant punishment.

SO there

Thanks for the update Clydesdale - we have had some funny ideas from cover teachers at my DSs school.

It must be very hard to be a supply teacher, mind you

My mum's switching from normal teaching to supply in the autumn, and she reckons supply's easier, because you turn up in the morning, teach for a few hours and go home. There's no planning, marking, targets, meetings, or any of the things that make teaching such a bore.

This thread is five years old.

JodieO has it right. Why do people want to see a 5 year old punnished? This child made a mistake so needed someone to explain why he shouldn't have done it then needed to help clean the wall - end of.
How is standing against a wall going to help. Humiliation doesn't help it breeds resentment and sneakiness. I just don't see why he needs punishing, a bit of drawing on a wall at 5 doesn't make him a yob at 15.

He's not that far off being fifteen crusoe ... Look at the dates. Zombie thread.

facing the wall not a huge problem in my opinion. punishment lasted too long though. facing a wall for writing on a wall. why not? should stop him from doing it again.

A similar ( but worse) thing happened to me in the first year of secondary school. I was already quite bullied when my metalwork teacher overheard me asking another child why we had to do metalwork for four hours for six weeks as I wasn't going to choose it in the future.
Teacher told me off and made me sit on a chair with my back to the class for the whole of the remaining four lessons over the rest of the term, staring at the pipes and radiator.

I tell you, I still remember this thirty years later and there are a few days each month I feel totally MURDEROUS towards this teacher. Google search doesn't bring up anything for him so I hope he is fucking dead.

My anger is projected though really, as I am more angry at myself for not telling my parents and letting it happen.

I would expect teachers to be better educated and informed about how to punish and discourage behaviour in an age appropriate way.

as a teacher you have a lot of power over the pupils, do teachers get training on what is and isn't an appropriate punishment? what methods are likely to have a negative affect of confidence, attitude to learning long term etc?? - this is a genuine question.

I studies psychology (albeit briefly) and this sort of punishment humilation is definitely not on. lots of studies of people being treated like this and it really does affect them. it is humiliation and in some forms a torture techniques (obviously a very long way from this but along the same vein)

I would be asking the school to confirm which punishments they sanction and which they would draw the line at. or whether the teachers have complete free reign rather than there being a set policy.

I can't believe I just got so worked up over a zombie thread

That's too much, clean the wall and miss play but only on the day it happened! Are they trying to make him hate school?

I can't believe I just got so worked up over a zombie thread

at least you weren't the only one!

A bit OTT..

I would have made him spend one of his breaks cleaning the wall and let that be an end to it.

I would go with using break times to clean the wall and then that's that.

shit I have just seen how old this thread is.

Cleaning the wall and maybe missing playtime to do so would have been more than enough I think. I would be less concerned about the facing the wall thing than the length of the punishment.

Knowing it is a zombie thread im really interested in knowing about the child's schooling now!