Reasonable Sanctions in Y1

[melbi]

Hi all

I'm looking for some information on what is deemed as proportionate and reasonable punishment as stated in the 'Behaviour and Discipline in Schools Guide for Headteachers and School Staff.

"15. A punishment must be proportionate. In determining whether a punishment is
reasonable, section 91 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006 says the penalty must
be reasonable in all the circumstances and that account must be taken of the pupil’s age,
any special educational needs or disability they may have, and any religious
requirements affecting them."

Example: 5 year old pushes another child in the playground. Punishment is to remove a privilege, however, this privilege isn't taking place for another 5 weeks. Would this be proportionate and reasonable for a 5 year old?

Thanks
Melbi

I don't think this will have the desired effect as there is too long a time lapse. Five weeks??? That's ridiculous. any sanction or ' punishment' if you want to call it that should be almost immediate for it to mean anything. What 5 year old child is going to remember the reason behind losing a privilege 5 weeks earlier, even my 9 year old would struggle with that one.

Agree- think a sanction such a long time ahead is only likely to backfire in a 5 year old, especially if they happen to behave well in the week the sanction will actually take place. The 5 year old is likely to view the situation as not receiving a punishment when they were badly behaved but getting punished at a time they felt they were trying hard to be good.
Bad idea.

I think a 5yo in year 1 is capable of understanding action=pushing, consequences=no trip. Presumably there is much more to it than this. If a 5yo pushes, teacher would tell them not to and that would be it. What is the backstory ?

No back story! It was a first incident. Several other children have had the same sanction, all for different unacceptable behaviour. I agree a child of this age understands but as Abby and Higherhill say, the time of the sanction is too far away and surely in some children this would not encourage good behaviour in those 5 weeks. The punishment should be immediate as within a few days/a week but over a month away??

I think it does depend.

If this is a big event and the head has said "anyone who is brought to my attention for a misdemeanor before, will not go", I think it's not unreasonable.
For example, at the infant schools in the area they have a big joint musical event that they say 25 pupils from each school can go. (don't ask, think that's ridiculous, but not schools' decision). The choir from our local one go to it, but the choir numbers about 40 most years. So they have a stipulation that any child wanting to go must have attended a certain percentage of rehearsals that term(if they're ill off school that counts as there) and their behaviour in choir has to be good during that term. The remainder they draw out of a hat. They have no difficulty understanding that.

If he standardly picks event in the future to use as a punishment, that's a bit weird.

I think the 5 week delay is too long at that age.

Especially as (unless you're posting about an older incident so change of timing makes it less identifiable) it means the delay goes over the Christmas holidays and that puts just too much between incident and sanction.

In year 1 sanctions need to be fairly immediate. For pushing in the playground where I work they would be asked not to do it again, if it continued they would have to stand beside the teacher/TA on playground duty. In five weeks I would have forgotten the incident so a year one would likely have no recollection either!

I agree. 5 weeks away is ridiculous. Fuzzy's sanction sounds best.

The only time I can think of where such a gap would be reasonable would be year 11 prom (and that certainly wouldn't be removed for 1 incident of shoving!)

If a child cannot be trusted to behave safely on a trip then they can't go on the trip.

Rpeg "If a child cannot be trusted to behave safely on a trip then they can't go on the trip."
Well, not quite. If there are any children on the trip whose behaviour is unpredictable, then the school has to list on the Risk Assessment how they intend to manage them safely in order to minimise incidents.