Is this a normal for yr1?

[MiscellaneousAssortment]

I am genuinely querying this to get some more knowledge opinions, I'm not sure what to think and remain undecided after a couple of weeks so thought I'd get some Mumsnet ideas on it!

Ds started Yr1 this term, which has been a massive jump from Yr R.

The wider context is that this jump hasn't been made easy by a teacher who doesn't seem to support the children in learning new rules and processes, just expects them to know and punishes when they don't, and never actually explains so the child remains in the dark. The teacher is very young in herself and taught Yr2 last year, so I think a lot of the issues are about her pitching her interactions for 7 yr olds vs 5 yr olds. I remain supportive of her whilst keeping fingers crossed she and the children align better as the term goes on. I guess there is a stark difference in experience as the reception teacher was very very good at teaching, class control and parent management! Kind of amazing I realise now as she was in her very first year of teaching, though a mature student, and came in part way through the year, so you'd expect it would be her who'd be struggling, but she just sailed through brilliantly!

However, it's just one incident I'm mulling over in particular... It seems one of the children was desperate to go outside and was trying to get out FYI I think he has some level of SN, so wasn't just being naughty, and also the reception class had a free flow to the outsides at certain times of the day, and this new classroom has a similiar set up in terms of access to outside space.

However the way the teacher handled it was to shout very loud and then made a big deal of locking the door and taking away the key.

There's only one door to the classroom in use by the way, I had a sneaky look round last week and think I spotted a fire door, but DS didn't know it was there as its around a corner and facing back on itself so not visible from the children's seats, though I could see it when standing close to the blackboard.

Anyway, Ds was rather shaken up by this, and actually quite scared. It's something he's mentioned a few times, and he kept saying 'but mummy, she locked us all in, there was no way out and I didn't know if she was going to unlock it again'

So my question is, is this a standard teaching technique? I can't work out if it's an inspired no nonsense solution or a sign of losing control and a fire risk! I don't want to judge the teacher unfairly or it be coloured by the other reservations I have.

Anyone with more school experience hazard an opinion?

I worked in schools as a TA, mostly primary, for twenty-five years, and never knew any member of staff lock a door in the way you describe. And teachers SHOULDN'T shout loudly, though I'm afraid that some do. In practice, it is invariably the calm, quiet teacher who has the best control and gets the best results.

Is there a TA or other support helper in the class?

I would suggest the teacher isn't really 'on top' of things, and needs support from a mentor. If she is NQT there should be support and monitoring of her performance, I would have thought (unless cut-backs have changed things since my days.)

How do you come to be in the classroom; are you a parent-helper?

Oh, I now realise I was hoping it wasn't an unusual thing to be doing as then I have to think about addressing it in some way!

I was in the classroom after teaching hours, helping DS to find his reading record book, which had gone missing again. And the teacher won't help him find it, or have any thoughts on why it might be happening/ how we can stop it from happening, but then she penalises DS for 'not having done any home reading' when the records book does turn up and there's no writing in it (err, because it was lost at school!).

Sorry I think I am at the point where I'm not ok with this stuff happening! Have been trying to be very patient and supportive as I know what a rough ride teachers get.