Acceptable language in Y5

[ninah]

ds has started a new school and has settled in really well except for a couple of things .. he is worried about a classmate who he says is being bullied. When I've raised it (I work there too) staff say, oh well, he winds them up. It seems to be happening all the time.
ds has come home with some choice new vocab. Wanker, fair enough, but also spaz??? and asking what bum rape is?
It's bit awkward raising issues as parent/teacher but I am going to, for the 's' word alone. what I want to know is what kind of language is within accepted parameters of pre-adolescent playground chat?

I would be seriously unhappy if my kids heard that at school

Feenie...... If ten kids said they heard it I agree, but nobody want to be a dobber do they at that age? No teacher can stop what kids say to each other........

I am just glad ds tells me lots of stuff so i can put him right, although i thought i would not be doing this kind of chat for a couple of years.

My ds was very unhappy for a while with the constant talk of sex but we are getting there ...slowly........ massive learning curve for him [and me].

I did start a thread about how to handle it a while ago it has gone now but got lots of good and comforting responses.

Wow that's truly shocking.

My eldest only in Y3, but she does play with Y5s and Y6s a lot and I have never heard any words like that either in the playground, at home or from friends.

If it was me, I would urgently raise it. A child using the word "rape" is pretty disturbing, I would want to understand the context in which it was being used?!

dd is in Y4, in a fairly mixed class, and would know none of those.

She is aware of f, s and b words but knows not to use them. Her concept of all of them reminds me of when she was 4 or 5 and thought 'bum' and 'poo' were shocking and funny, and ooooooh rude, iyswim.

The words that really upset her are 'bitch' which she has heard now, as a 'very bad word about girls', and 'gay' used inappropriately as an insult. That really annoys her, quite rightly.

Good luck, OP, I hope the school responds well to your concerns!

pillow, at dds' school they might tackle something like bad language by giving a whole class 'talk', or an assembly, etc

That way you don't need 'proof', iyswim.

ninah have you reported the language?

I spoke to my DD's teacher this morning who agreed that the word 'paki' was not acceptable and that she would cover bad/unacceptable language into a lesson this week.

we have never tolerated bad language at home - sexual or divisive, but my Y6 DD is coming home asking what things mean - the latest was "tea-bagging" - not sure I want THAT conversation..... no thanks to Y6 boys!! "It's some sort of sex act darling" is as far as I went.....

Most of the language comes from Utube videos, playing online computer games.

When they use it, more of a problem with yr 7, sometimes they ask me what it means and I explain that it is unacceptable and why.
Boys who have older brothers are difficult because they here language through siblings.

Its not the language that shocks me as such, as the objectification of woman and general pornographic content. That is the real issue. Kids hear language, they experiment, the boundaries are put in place and they mostly respect them.

Dd in year 5 had a lesson devoted to swear words not that long ago. It was in response to words being bandied about at each other.

Her teacher got the children to write down every word they knew and the most derogatory insult they could think of, which all got put onto a white board.

I was a bit when I found out. Dds knowledge was quite mild - bloody and bugger, she knows a lot worse now including cunt :(

To be fair to her teacher I think the idea was to teach them the true meaning of the words and that some words are unacceptable.

bumbez.............. That is the prob with having a lesson on something that some of the children know nothing about. At the end of the lesson they know more than some parents might want them to know at that stage.

Did you not have any say in this lesson?

yes, I reported, and yes it is being taken seriously. Thanks for all the support and opinions!

bumbez i am that your teacher wrote up those words or thought it appropriate for everyone to know them! No WAY i would do that! And if i did i would def get letters of complaint and hauled in front of the govs a my school.
On the other hand in y6 sex ed we do get them to share all the words they know to describe male and female body parts before agreeing on the scientific ones being used in lessons, usually fairly tame family versions are given such as 'plums' for testicles!

Although shocked I'm actually ok with it, dd wouldn't use those words and it led to an interesting discussion about swearing and the purpose of it.

She's only a year away from secondary school and the language coming from there is awfull, we walk by it every day. I feel sad for the children that did know the words, a couple of the girls came up with fishy fanny as an insult.

Dh is a governor nobody has complained.

Hi ninah:

I think the problem here is you can't control what every child hears and is aware of - or indeed what they repeat at school. Some of this is bravado - showing off that you are aware of things other children aren't - acting older than your age. Typically this kind of thing seems to be the situation where DCs have older siblings in senior school (or indeed older).

There is a boy in DD1's class that clearly is from a quite unstable home environment and his behaviour and language can be seriously odd/ unpleasant at times. He's not a bad kid - he just doesn't have boundaries and acts out at school. I really think it is a plea for help & attention.

Parents have complained. (in this case not me) But the reality is that although things have been said in assembly and class about using appropriate language and serious offenders get to see the Deputy Head or Head - it goes on. There's really no controlling it - other than to insist that whilst in ear shot you don't want to hear it - which I know the staff do.

HTH

pastby.... I agree.

you cannot stop it...... full stop.

You just have to encouraged your kids to come home and ask about words they dont understand and anything that worries the regarding these conversations.

Luckily my son tells me everything and I mean everything, unluckily sometimes he ask the same thing 100 times.

I agree that you can't entirely control what is said/heard. I think that it is important to establish a school culture that is respectful, though, where there are boundaries. Ds's last school had v low tolerance for this kind of thing. I do not think it is OK that children refer to SEN dc as 'spaz' for example.
An anything goes culture isn't what I expect from a school.

Totally agree that you'll never stop it but adult reaction v important especially at this age when lots seem to be boundary testing. Any teasing of sen kids would be quickly sorted out by our staff and the vast majority of kids would find this repulsive, it's inclusive from day 1.

Same here.