Teacher threw away my DDs bracelet and I'm cross about it - should I complain?

[conniedescending]

Title says it all really, she forgot to take her bracelet off yesterday and the teacher saw it and chucked it in the bin!!She only told me on the way to school this morning and teacher wasn't there to have a word with (was in a meeting apparently)

so should I ask her today or just seethe quietly?

I'd never bin a child/student's work either even if it was plagarised. If that was the case I would write on it that it was plagarised and put it in my drawer.

I am a teacher and obviously I realsie that we need school rules for a school to function properly inthe same way that society needs rules to function.

I have to say though that if any teacher threw my child's work in the bin I would be wanting words. Children find it hard to quote and paraphrase. I teach English and find it's only certain levels that are able to do this. far better to go over the work with them and show them what they've done wrong.

I hope to god that none of the teachers who throw pupils work in the bin ever teach a child of mine.

I do have to ask though- if you were handed a piece of plagarised work and you had a school inspector or your headmaster or someone in authority in your room at the time- would you put it in the bin??

I'm not saying binning was the best course of action by the teacher (though I do have some sympathy) What I'm saying is coming in all guns blazing, accusing the teacher of theft or bullying is teaching your child that if they break the rules Mummy will make a fuss and it will all go away.

I think there is a dif between handing in work with incorrect referenceing techniques, and handing in something copied and pasted from the net.
The former needs to be marked, corrected and addressed with the student to allow them to improve. The latter I would EXPECT my child to be thoroughly disciplined for. I would actually prefer it be sent to me as the parent explaining that my child had been caught cheating than for it to be binned. Bining doesn't seem strong enough to me. Plagarising is cheating and stealing!

Confiscation=punishment
Throwing away someone elses belongings=theft and bullying
How would the teacher feel if parent came in and did this to them they'd be outraged and calling in police.What the teacher has done is no diff to this and is v.serious

Binning was the WRONG course of action. It was inappropriate and it is perfectly reasonable that the parent complains about it (and is seen to do so by her child).

Yes the OP's DD broke the rules, but so did the teacher! Surely it would give a very confused moral message to the child if she was punished for her transgression, but no one dare query the teacher on her faulty method of discipline?

Agree Penthesilia. In fact strictness MUST be applied with fairnes, otherwise it has the opposite effect than is intended.
We had a very active student council which would have addressed silly rules like Herbie's no scarf situation. Made everyone feel that the rules were tough but not meaningless, arbitrary or imovable.

When Ds was in year1 a dinner lady binned a drowing he had made because "it did not look like anything." (Ds fancies himself as a non-figuratve artist) He is now in year 3 and still remembers the event vividely and with loads of emotion

Bollocks is it. It's teaching your child that rules are important and apply to everyone, that you should have respect for other people's belongings, and that being in a position of power doesn't mean that you can do anything you feel like.

And in what possible way is this going to "all go away"? The OP's DD's bracelet is now adorning a landfill site somewhere; whatever the OP does isn't going to change that.

If the bracelet had been confiscated until the end of term (i.e. if the teacher had behaved in a reasonable manner) and the OP had gone in to insist that it was immediately returned to her little cherub then your criticism would/might be vaild.

Pixifish, absolutely. I've handed a plagarised bit of work to the head in front of the student and they threw it in the bin. One of my colleagues was a part time inspector, I've watched him do exactly the same thing.

Would you give marks to plagarised work on an exam script? These are final assessments for internally assessed qualifications. Binning them gives a dramatic demonstration of the worth of the work. However, I rarely bin the complete work, I'll remove the plagarised parts, bin them and mark the rest. Sometimes that amounts to a sentence or two left. If you do it in time, the student can come up with some actual work of their own before the scripts have to go off to the exam board. Do it once and you rarely have to do it again.

I can't believe that anyone condones a teacher throwing away a pupils property. By all means confiscate it keep it for the term, make the mum come in and get it, throwing it away is

Whatever she does now will probably not do anymore for the said bracelet,true but it might avoid the situation reaccuring with other children.

And i do not see how a plagarised piece of work compares to a bracelet

slug - why do you keep banging on about plagiarised work (presumably that of secondary school pupils)? It's irrelevant to the OP's situation, and I don't think many posters on this thread would have an issue with it.

If you lack the mental acuity to perceive this then I pity your pupils. I really do.

Tamarto it doesn't but am afraid that some people are clouding the issue with the other issue of teen disipline

slug- Depending on how much had been plagarised. In the most severe case I would give it a mark of zero and it would go further, head o dept/year, perhaps the headmaster and possibly involve the parents. Tehre would definetl be a letter home. BUT IMO I am in job to help the children get the best possible mark and I would give them the opportunity to do the work again.

I have to say i am astounded at a headmaster putting a child's work in the bin- plagarised or not. Same for the school inspector- it astounds me that they would deal with it in this manner.

Anyway that is going off topic- wonder how the OP got on with the headmaster

Portandlemon - who are you talking to?

Tamarto - I don't think anyone here is condoning it, but I think there is a disagreement about how best to address the situation.

To both the above, I DO think this needs to be addressed further, but I do think it's important for the OP to not paint herself as OTT. So she should tell her daughter that what was done was worng and that she will tell the teacher as much. She should maybe write a calm, guilt laden letter to the teacher and maybe send a copy to the head, but I think she should avoid going in guns blazing regardless of what her "rights" may be. It's not a union dispute!

Agree Tamarto. I understand that teachers need to discipline. I understand that there are rules. But likening this situation to a secondary school student plagiarising is not on. They are totally different scenarios.

Ah yes, see that's where i've been going wrong, i don't treat a one year old the same as a seven year old and i don't treat seven year olds as if they are fifteen.

If your boss took something belonging to you and threw it in the bin you'd be fine with it?

As has been said teachers are just as capable of breaking the rules as children maybe connie should pop by the school and take any jewelry the teacher is wearing and bin it

Pixie - if it's plagarised thenitisNOT the child's work.

myspacesbariscrap!

Conniedescending - have you managed to have a word at the school yet?

Bubbaluv- where did I say it was?

Bubba - IMO to ignore it = condoning it, otherwise how else would anyone know that the teacher went too far and whats to stop her doing it again?

Bubbaluv- just read back and saw the commetn you were referring to- that I would never bina child's work even if it was plagarised. IME pupils rarely plagarise the whole essay so sections of it would be the child's work