Children not allowed water during lessons

[Movement05]

DS went into Year 2 on Thursday of last week. This evening, it came out that his class are not allowed access to their water bottles during lesson times or when the teacher is talking. The parent of another child has confirmed that this is the case.

DS doesn't seem to have suffered much because of this, but said that he was thirsty on one occasion, and he thinks other children have been thirsty from time to time too.

I get that children shouldn't get up when the teacher is talking, but don't understand why it would now be considered acceptable not to allow children access to water during a lesson. I believed the thinking was that school children were allowed to get a drink at any time. Obviously I wouldn't want lessons to be unduly disrupted by too many kids getting up for water during the lesson but surely there is a way for the teacher to manage this.

I get that children might 'try it on' with continuously getting up for water particularly during the first few days with a new teacher. But we're coming to the end of week 2 now, and that seems to be the class rule.

Can educators in primary schools enlighten me as to what current practice is? Has your school's policy with regard to access to water bottles changed during lock down? And do children have a fundamental right to water during lessons, or is it just considered good practice?

When did it become a thing to allow children to drink during lesson time? I think teachers have enough to do without having to mop up the odd spillage,

Children don't need to suck on bottles constantly - even tiny babies manage 2 or 3 hours between drinks!

Our DC school insist they bring a bottle of water everyday, I have no idea when they drink it and it’s just another thing to fill/wash/break/carry. When DS cub leader announced they must bring a water bottle every week (for an hour) I could have cried. Between the 4 of them they had three after school activities that same night and remembering the water bottle never sent me over the edge!

Nearly not never

Honestly kids that age will fiddle with the drink bottle causing a distraction and possible spillages, I’m not surprised their not allowed a drink during lessons. As pp have said lessons are no longer than an hour so there will be plenty of opportunities to get a drink through out the day.

When did everyone get so thirsty all the time? If babies can last four hours between feeds, why can't older children do the same?

We didn't even have water with lunch when I was at school. We just had to queue for the drinking fountain at playtime.

Thank you to all educators/parents of children currently in school who responded to my questions. I certainly get the negative aspects of allowing children to constantly get up for water during the lessons. I wasn't particularly looking to be agreed with, more to check to see what was going on in other schools at this time before deciding whether or not to contact the class teacher. Based on your comments, I have decided to wait and see how things go for a while yet.

Anyone who read my original post would have seen that I was asking what the current practice was in schools regarding the requirement to bring in a filled water bottle each day and then access to said bottle. AFAIK, this has been a 'thing' as one PP put it, for the last 20 years, and DS's school provides a 'corporate' water bottle which we are expected to purchase.

@CrunchyNutNC - I did not say that my child should constantly be sipping water, I was asking about access to water. And no, this is not a 'reverse'.
@MoreCookiesPlease - you appear to think anyone who even has a question about something you don't consider to be an issue deserves a put-down from you. If you truly think this is the case, then you are particularly sad. However, if you made the comment just to be provocative, then there is a name for people who do this anonymously on SM. But either way, sad.

Odd that you've picked on me when the majority seem to think YABU.