Why is yr2 teacher punishing whole class instead of groups/individuals responsible for disruption?

[peggotty]

Dd's new yr2 teacher's system seems to be that if the level of noise/talking (for example) is too loud, the class gets three chances to settle down but if this doesn't happen then the whole class gets 3 minutes off their break time. This is only the third day back at school and dd's class has already lost three minutes from breaktime . Is this not excessive and also unfair to the chlldren in the class who are quiet and behaving or am I missing something?

DS2's ex-teacher did that last year when he was in year 2. Gradually she lost all control of the class, so it did not work for her.
Her reasoning (if you are interested) was that she believed it would make the class gel together better which she further justified by saying that they would have 5 more years together.
All it did achieve was that the most disruptive children found that they had more influence over the rest of their classmates than they could have ever dreamed of!
From memory, the practice was quietly dropped by Christmas.

There is a huge difference between it being used to sort a class out or as a general punishment.
I found it very satisfying to look at my watch and have DCs nudge each other and say 'shh Miss is waiting' and then I could look up and say 'thank you-now we can start'. If you don't get that after a few times it is going to be unfair because those who are ready are suffering for a few.
I found it useful as a supply teacher-I even took my stop watch to get the seconds! I could start by just timing them and then saying-'that took 2 mins 21 sec' and giving my expectations and explaining that I was expecting a lesson of 60 mins and that was what I was going to teach-if I was late starting I would be late finishing-the next time.
It isn't something to use if they are all going to routinely miss playtime.
I could also use the stop watch to get them to tidy up quickly and then have time for a game-I had various number games they really liked.