Help me write a complaint letter - DS 'losing' housepoints for having verrucas...

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DS (8) has just told me that when they go swimming with the school the person who gets changed quickest gets 2 housepoints, and the slowest LOSES a housepoint.

He's just told me that he is ALWAYS the slowest because he can't get his fiddly verruca socks on. (He has a verruca on each foot, and after a 'spot check' his swimming teacher said anyone with verrucas must wear dreadful rubber socks).

I am so angry and sad for him. I can understand motivating & rewarding the quick changers, but further humiliating a child who is already self-conscious about having to wear ugly rubber socks is terrible.

Am thinking I will write a note to his teacher, but feel too angry to guarantee getting the balance right at the mo...!

Grrr what a horrible man. DO complain, it's so unfair to punish a child for something they can't help - and for a situation the blasted teacher has created.

Is there any alternative to verruca socks, btw? Are there any plasters that are up to the job?

Oh I so feel for you and your DS - I have had something similar where DS was excluded from a treat for his spelling and tables test results.

Really that isn't fair, I would bring it up. He has an extra thing to deal with and it is unfair to punish him for that.

In the letter you should ask for DS to be given a head start or timed upto the point of the socks iyswim. Is he usually a slow dresser anyway, could he be using them as an excuse? I was always last, could never work out why! Still can't. I am just slow.

if you use one of those freeze sprays it makes the verucca waterproof and you don't need the socks...
I think I'd probably speak to teacher, a letter might come across as a bit ranty iykwim

Very unfair, seeing as they insist on them. He probably caught them at school as well.

(my DD got a demerit for working slowly in history and not remembering to finish it in break - she has dyspraxia which affects her processing, work speed and sequencing. So I get a bit touchy about punishments of this kind)

What are you using to remove the verucca's? I used scholl freeze stuff on a huge one DS had, had to be really persistant but it dropped off after 4 or socations.

socations? Applications

yes definitely speak to the teacher first if you can. I tried to speak to mine and it got me nowhere. Now i am in the letter writing phase. But talk to him first

I think that it is horrible to deduct points for being last to get dressed, regardless of the verrucca situation. OK, points or a sticker for first dressed but not for last dressed.

Great motivator, your DS's teacher

Female teacher - she's an ice maiden, and very difficult to get hold of. It is parents' evening next week, so she probably will just say 'see me then'.

GLad to see that it's not just me that thinks this is wrong though.

I don't think that it is fair to deduct house points for anything.

Has it actually happened yet? I mean, has DS already had a housepoint deducted?

Speak to the teacher about what the actual rules are. TBH, it sounds too ridiculous to be true. Not sure what the children are learning from this because there will always be a housepoint deducted no matter how hard they try.

I have been told that children no longer need to wear these socks as any bacteria is killed when they go through the footbath so the verrucca is not contagious. Is this not correct? (ds doesn't have one, I'm just curious)

Footbaths? I reckong they're more likely to catch more from those than they'll lose! And that's always supposing there's any water in them. The senior school pool where ours swim hasn't had the footbath full for years.
But the housepoint thing sounds a bit harsh, I agree.

Chlorine kills the virus off aswell doesn't it?

No, verucca as are not bacteria but viral. But our swimming pool said that they no longer required any special protection (this was when the swimming teacher noticed one on ds's foot). I think this is because they aren't actually that contagious (requires skin to skin contact) rarely cause any problems, and in any case it can't really be policed. A simple waterproof plaster should do the job for the length of a swimming lesson, with flip flops worn around the pool side.

I thought they were a type of wart? Making it viral?

I think it is fair to award house points to the quickest dresser if that's what you want. A child with a medical problem may then have to accept that they won't win this particular competition. Like my wheelchair bound dd isn't going to win any school races. Fair enough. But to deduct points for something a child can't help is absolutely not on!!!