Am I being cotton wool mum or is this a little harsh?

[Bourbonchops]

My eldest has just started Year 3. Their first homework was given last week. Part of it is to practice spellings. They had the spelling test today.
This was a warm up but from next week onwards the children must get at least 9 out of 10 spellings correct. If they don't they're not allowed out at playtime and have to stay in class and practice the spellings. I don't really have to worry about my DC- she's quite good at spelling but she said one of the boys only got 2 out of 10 today.
Also if they forget their reading book they're kept indoors at playtime.
They just seem so.... young

I wouldn't worry about it unless it actually happens to your DD. She may have got the wrong idea, there may be other reasons that she is not aware of. There's no point asking the teacher about it if it doesn't affect your child. If other parents are unhappy they will speak to the teacher. Some parents may have asked for the teacher to give extra help with reading/spelling. I would leave it alone for now.

The relevance, Tgger?

who told you this was the sanction? was it DC?

as the parent of a year 3 child who can't even tell me what she had for lunch most days, I always question what I'm told as they get mixed up, miss bits out, add bits in etc etc

as a generally rule, if it sounds unreasonable it's probably not exactly true as kids get mixed up

could it be that the teacher was explaining sanctions and used some poor examples?
ours have to get 4 warnings to miss playtime -kids need to run about otherwise they just get more disruptive, fidgity etc and less able to learn

When I was in Infants school we used to have a times table test. The teacher would go round the class asking times table questions. If you got your question wrong you had to stand up, if you got the next one wrong you had to stand on your chair, if you got a third one wrong you had to stand on the table.

You would sit in fear waiting for your turn to come round, dreading it as the questions got closer and closer.

My times tables were OK, but this testing really hit my confidence and left me with a lifelong dislike of times tables. Can't think of anything positive that came from it - it was the same children week after week stood on the tables.

So, no, you are not being a cotton wool mum. This is a sure fire way of turning a significant number of children off spelling and reading.

YANBU. Playtime is important from not just for exercise but also has benefits for socialisation and learning.

New teacher?

I am going to go against the grain here.

I think that spelling is essential. In fact you only have to look at the pedants on mn to see how people react to adults that can't spell.

And the problem is that it's only a matter of another year or two before our DC have access to technology that essentially allows them to not spell (phones with auto-correct, computers with spell-checkers etc).

IMO it's different to when we were younger - if they don't spell before they have access to all this technology they will never learn.

my response is similar to piprabbit - in my school you had to learn your timetables a new one each week to be allowed out to play. I managed to do it be the relief of managing it meant that each time it was completely forgotten by the time I reached the playground and now have a total block on them even though I've tried to learn them now. You are not being overprotective it is ludicrous, mean and downright horrid what power to possess over kids fear does nothing but bring resentment. My own kids would be fine but would worry about their classmates so it would affect them even if not as much. Horrid school IMO and if they do this with the start of year 3 what is to come if parents don't speak up.

I'm guessing it's a stay in and write out the incorrect spellings a couple of times each, rather than a miss the whole of playtime punishment. Generally takes no more than 5 minutes. Fairly standard. No school would keep them in for the entire breaktime - it's counterproductive.

Hello, spoke to my dd again. She said the child has to stay back at break and write the incorrect words out 10 times.
So fair enough maybe it isn't the full break. Although the boy who got 8 incorrect. I'm thinking he must find it difficult so I would have thought writing 80 words out is going to take up the main bulk of his break.
Still don't think it's nice all the child's friends going out to play and for them to be stuck in at this age.

If a child got 8 out of 10 spellings wrong then simply re-writing the word out again isn't going to help him understand how to spell. Stupid way of dealing with it. But I would leave it up to the other parent. There may be things later on that you want to discuss re your child...

sounds a bit harsh what if they have alearning problem and they cant help it. and other kids might make fun.

It sounds daft. I would be concerned for sure.

And writing the words out ten times would take most of the break, for dd1.

In her Y3 class, they have 5, 10 or 15 spellings to learn (depending on ability) and no punishments at all. They do have incentives though. It seems to work beautifully, so far.

ARe you absolutely sure? I would check with the teacher if this is the case and if it is then I would make a massive, unseemly fuss

I would check that this is the case with the teacher.
If it is then I personally would state my opinion because the children who are being kept in may not want to tell their parents, and this may just continue. I also think it could ultimately affect your DC as these children may struggle with lessons after playtime, as they have not had a break. It is terrible for self esteem too IMO.
Although I understand that everyone must focus on their own I think it's a little sad that people feel it's not worth worrying about because it doesn't directly involve op's DC. Not everyone has on the ball parents, or perhaps as I said the children involved may feel worried about telling their parents.

I pity the teacher who has to deal with children who haven't been allowed out to release some energy and run around.

convicted murders doing a life sentence are allowed outside to exercise, how we treat our children.
I would speak to the head.

Bizarre. I'd be having a quick word with teacher/head. Maybe extra playtime for those doing well would be better, but still divisive.

This discriminates against children with dyslexia. DD can have the word written out in front of her and however hard she tries, she still jumbles the letters up copying the word out.

They have a similarly silly system at her school and I am quite disgruntled

OTT - And I'm a teacher! Sometimes I have children who get 0 out of 10 but on looking closely at their spellings, they have omitted a letter or have letters mixed up and they've CLEARLY tried to learn them. You do have children who (especially if it's words based on spelling patterns such as /tion/) that they haven't if they use graphemes (letters) that are phonetic but don't actually look anything like what it should do (as in /shun/ for /-tion/).

My Y1 children have their test on Friday. I'm observing for a few weeks to see who learns, who doesn't, who needs less, who needs different ones and who needs extra support in school time - but as the curriculum is overloaded, time has got to be given up from somewhere for extra help and support rather than 'leaving it'! But I tend to do this during whole class time and send children with a TA or I plan it into my lessons (usually the part that concentrates on the spelling aspect) to give help to those who need it.

My DD can't remember spellings. So we've arranged with school that she doesn't bring home spellings to learn.

Instead she's working through a spelling program at home every day. And during the class spelling test the TA takes her out for 1:1

I can't believe some of your DC spend hours learning a list of spelling words :(

What a waste of time that could be used to actually teach your child to spell.

If a child can't learn spellings, it is up to the SENCO, teacher and parent to work out the best way of handling this.

But on the other hand, most children can learn a list of spelling words. And it is up to their teacher and parent to work out the best way of making that happen.

I'd be in talking to the teacher if that happened. In fact I have gone in several times to talk to the teacher about dd1 and spelling tests - she just cannot spell, and she used to get upset about going to school on Fridays because of the dreaded test. She's capable of doing worse after "learning" the spellings than before. But she's actually quite literate in other ways, she does well in litearcy and very well in reading tests.

Most schools will be quite aware that some children have poor spelling and are not going to do well on tests even if they've diligently copied out the words 10 times a day for a week.