OFSTED has banned 'time out' in nursery education

[merovingian]

My spouse is a nursery teacher and told me this week that OFSTED have banned the use of 'time out' in nursery education.

This means, for example, that if Child A bites Child B, rather than taking Child A aside and telling them that this is a bad thing to do and putting them on their own for 5 minutes to make the point, they have to take Child A to a different activity with different children and... that's it.

I was also told that the word 'naughty' is banned. I'm not sure if this is also an OFSTED rule or whether it's just this particular nursery, but nonetheless I was astonished. Why can't you say 'naughty'? Because it has bad connotations, I was told.

Neither my spouse nor any of the other teachers at the nursery can believe the rule about time out. They are astonished. It leaves them with practically no recourse whatsoever to demonstrate to a child that what they have done is a particularly bad thing that they should not do. All they can do now is raise their voice.

I'll say that again: the ONLY way a nursery teacher can express to a child that what they just did was very bad is to raise their voice. A 'good' child might not like that and might learn. A regularly misbehaving child, I am told from my spouse and other teachers, will take absolutely no notice whatsoever of a raised voice. In fact it can even encourage serial misbehaviour as the intended goal of getting attention is attained. Being left in a corner for 5 minutes does not give the child the attention they crave and, in the teachers experience, can correct misbehaviour if it is done appropriately.

In my opinion this continual erosion of disciplinary actions teachers have at their disposal will render them little more than daycare supervisors. Now, depending on the nursery your child is at, perhaps that isn't a big change. my spouse works at a very highly regarded nursery where the development of children's mental and social capacities is actively encouraged. These children spend the vast majority of their waking hours with these teachers, and in most cases I know for a fact that they spend considerably more time with the teachers than they do with their parents.

I believe such measures by OFSTED are in reaction to fear of litigation, and nothing else.

These teachers aren't beating the children in any way, aren't abusing them mentally with harsh discipline; they are educating children about right and wrong in a way that the child can understand and acknowledge (ideally). Simply giving the child something and/or someone else to play with when they do something that would previously have warranted time out is teaching that child, in my opinion, absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Anyone else have an opinion on this?

I am not a fan of Time Out in any form, although it does have its place in certain circumstances.

pozzled, in the example you gave, I would ignore the behaviour and redirect the child to another activity (whilst ensuring the victim is ok). I may have a conversation with them about hitting either then or later. It would depend on the child, their needs, and the function of the behaviour, TBH.

If a child was out of control I would remove them from other children and stay with them.

Wow, I am really surprised that you would ignore something like hitting. Do you find that this is effective for you, i.e. that a child who hits fairly often will gradually stop hitting if you consistently ignore it, or discuss it with them at other times?

I'm not criticising at all, I've always used time out with my DD and am interested to see what techniques others use. It would never occur to me not to react immediately to a child hurting another person.

I'm a Nursery teacher and we use time out but we don't call it that with the children. If something happens, hitting etc then we would sit the hitter down on a chair to have a think about their actions. We would then talk to them about what happened and why that wasn't the right thing to do and what they could have done instead, e.g. if they were cross ask an adult for help. A Nursery child would never be sent out of the Nursery, time out is always within the nursery where they are safe.

I've just done a quick google search on the OFSTED ban and have found nothing. Maybe it was within a context? Were the school in question using it too much and before other preventative measures? For us time out is always the very last resort.

My ds has also been subjected to time out for biting at his Nursery, thankfully he has grown out of this now. I have no objection as a parent to it being used. As a teacher as well I will always let a parent know if there child has had to have time out and we give all parents copies of our behaviour policies so we are very transparent.

Many children hit other children in order to gain adult attention (even negative attention)- therefore, in those cases, ignoring the behaviour stops fuelling/reinforcing it. I would never say that one technique works across the board, as every child is different and every child behaves in a certain way for different reasons.

Planned ignoring is a reaction, even though it may not look like it to an outsider. It really depends on the individual child. A strategy which will work for one child will not work for another.

Time Out is often used in isolation- that is to say, without any positive reinforcement of desired behaviour/ teaching of replacement behaviours etc. In this way, it becomes largely ineffective, as it teaches a child that they will be punished for hitting but does not give them any strategies for gaining adult attention appropriately/dealing with frustration etc. In the same way, planned ignoring can be part of a range of reactions to a child's behaviour which form a strategy or continuum.

I'm an EYrs teacher and I use time out, don't call it that I just say "Go and sit by the cupboard for 5 minutes then I will come and see if you are ready to play nicely". I don't like an actual 'time-out' place in my class, I find it negative.

Why is using the word 'naughty ' unprofessional?? It perfectly describes the behaviour.
My cousin does not allow the word 'no' to be used with her 2 year old. thinks it promotes negative feelings Madness.
Thank god my children no longer have to attend a nursery and be subjected to Ofsted nonsense on non discipline

The work 'naughty' on its own describes the child, not the behaviour. It is a very loaded term which is almost always counter productive IME. Labelling the behaviour and not the child tells the child that they have the capacity to change their behaviour.

The above does not apply to the word 'no'.

As a parent of a child who has been through a period of challenging behaviour at nursery and home I would be dismayed to hear this. Consistent Time out at home and nursery has really helped him and I would wonder what else could have as effectively helped him.

Planned ignoring simply escalated Ds's behaviour and he simply acted up more

Tethersend I can't agree that ignoring hitting is a reasonable approach in a Nursery with 25 children. If my ds hit me I may ignore it as I am the adult and yes sometimes ignoring is an excellent strategy for unacceptable behaviour. However when another child is involved how long would you continue to ignore the hitting for? How many times do staff allow the other child to get hit?

Also ime time out isn't used in isolation, it's used as a last resort, as part of a behaviour policy and the reasons the child has been put into time out is always explained and replacement behaviours are taught.

Acsec I completely agree with not having a set time out area. That would be horrible.

"Tethersend I can't agree that ignoring hitting is a reasonable approach in a Nursery with 25 children."

Well, I'm afraid that it is. I have done it! It worked where Time Out did not.

Each child is different. The point is to extinguish the hitting- if the child is reinforced by adult attention received when he hits another child, the best strategy is to ignore the hitting and teach him how to gain adult attention appropriately. This is a recognised and often used strategy- I'm no maverick

"Also ime time out isn't used in isolation, it's used as a last resort, as part of a behaviour policy and the reasons the child has been put into time out is always explained and replacement behaviours are taught."

I have seen it used very often where it is the only strategy- the child(ren) received no praise for their positive behaviours nor teaching of any alternative behaviours. Glad to hear you have had more positive experiences.

"Planned ignoring simply escalated Ds's behaviour and he simply acted up more"

Then planned ignoring was not the right strategy for your child. Like any strategy, it works for some and not for others. Each strategy should be developed for the individual child.

Learningtofly - in a day nursery context, "time out" usually ends up in practice as moving the child to a quiet part of the room and sitting them down with the sharp word "no" for a minute, dealing with the situation, then talking to the child. Day nurseries rarely have the spare staff to supervise one timed out child, so the time out used in your case is probably not very like the one in the OP.

Christ, just read the OP properly.

Assuming it's real:

"the ONLY way a nursery teacher can express to a child that what they just did was very bad is to raise their voice"

What rubbish. If this is the only alternative strategy to Time Out which the nursery can come up with, then I am not surprised there is heavy OFSTED involvement. And I hate OFSTED.

Tethersend thanks for responding, I can see how ignoring could be effective if the child is trying to gain adult attention. And I can see why you don't like time out if it is the only strategy, of course it isn't going to teach children appropriate ways of interacting.

Personally, I still think time out is fine if used with a range of other methods to manage behaviour, and taking into account individual personalities/reasons for the behaviour. But I understand your point of view a lot better now.

pozzled

Tethersend I am genuinely interested about the ignoring and how you used it in a Nursery context. I just can't see that it would work in my setting, the other child would probably cry or be very angry at being hit and in many cases would hit back thus escalating the situation. Can you explain what happened in your experience?

Totally agree that your example of the misuse of time out and the lack of positive reinforcements for good behaviour is very wrong. So in those situations I agree time out is not good Also shouting as the only other behvaiour management strategy is poor to say the least.

"I just can't see that it would work in my setting, the other child would probably cry or be very angry at being hit "

Yes, this did happen too! However, with the children I worked with, it was a case of 'playing the long game' IYSWIM. Lots of circle time and talk about how you can help people to behave well and be kind to one another, lots of reassurance to the injured party- sometimes reinforcing and rewarding their lack of retaliation allowed the focus to come away from retribution and on to long-term extinguishing of the behaviour, even though the short term strategy didn't appear to deliver 'instant justice' in the eyes of the other children. The hitter was always redirected to an activity away from the victim, and one child began to apologise of his own volition as a bid to gain adult (and peer) approval when he realised he was not getting it from hitting.

So yes, in the short term it was a bit confusing for the other children who were used to watching 'swift justice' being delivered, but the strategy meant that the hitting behaviour disappeared, and they weren't being hit any more, which was an infinitely preferable outcome than ineffective consequences being delivered in order to appear fair to the other children.

Ofsted don't tend to ban things like this anyway - more likely a particular inspector has criticized the way time-out is used/the behaviour policy in this particular nursery.

If the staff feel that their only option is shouting at children though something has obviously gone wrong in the way the management are communicating their policies to the staff.

Many nurseries/early years workers don't use the word naughty because it is vague, and don't call children naughty because it is poor practice to name-call or label children.

Do you know what Tethersend I just might try it How did you explain it to the parents though. I have images of parents in uproar that their dc has been hit and the offender hasn't been "told off" as such.

Parents were told that the matter had been/was being dealt with, and left at that.

If you do try it, try and take some data first (frequency of hitting, time of day etc- also useful for spotting a pattern. As you know, some children hit out when tired/hungry/stressed and this can help to anticipate or even avoid those situations completely) and then during and after the implementation of the strategy so you can establish whether or not it has been effective

Thanks I will give it a go. I'm going to need everything up my sleeve for Sept, 39 new three year olds starting (over two sessions) and a larger than usual number who I'm already concerned about

Bloody hell- good luck!

PM me if you want any data collection sheets or anything. It sounds like you have a whole range of effective strategies anyway- and by Christ, you'll need them

Childcare in a nutshell- You need to make the child think that good behaviour leads to good consequences and bad behaviour leads to bad consequences.

Time out is used in a way, but it's not some kind of formal system and it's not called time out.
Children should never be called naughty. Behaviour might be, but never children. Naughty children are supposed to do naughty things, and you don't want that.

Thanks Tethersend I'm at that point of the holidays where Sept seems too close. Our brilliant Nursery Nurse is having an op in late Sept too which will be like losing my right arm. I'll probably put myself on the time out chair for a bit of peace

It's all well and good playing the long game with 3 and 4 year olds, but I work with 2 year olds who sometimes need time away from the fray to get their newly discovered rage under control. Not alone, I would never do that to a toddler in my care, just away from the main group for a minute with a calm adult. I was taking the OP to mean a day nursery not a preschool nursery.