keeping children in at playtimes

[chickflick]

This has happened twice that i have seen myself where dd1 age 5 (yr 1) has been kept in the clssroom (until about 30 seconds before the bell goes for them to go back into class) with 3 or 4 other children to finish off work that they have not finished in class.Last week she and a group of others were kept back from lunch to finish their work.(not sure how long for).
What do you think of this?
Does this happen in your school?
After the second incident i went in like a bull in a china shop and made it very clear that i was not at all happy with the situation.
So now i am reluctant to make another fuss.......any thoughts please?

Exactly this happens at my dd's junior school. I completely disagree with it tbh.

I think I mentioned my concern at parents evening once. They just said it was what they did.

I must admit I haven't heard dd mention it this year. Maybe the teacher she has this year doesn't do it. I must ask her.

Not quite happy with it myself especially as both of mine (Yr3 & Yr6) do not get an afternoon break - only keystage 1 get afternoon breaks.

But I think the children have to learn that there is an allocated time for each lesson and work has to be finished so they either get on with it or miss their break - which I know my own have done on the odd occasion.

If they failed to finish the work because they were messing around, then punishing them by making them miss breaks might be acceptable. But if they just couldn't get the work finished, then the teacher has set them too much, or failed to explain it well enough, and they certainly shouldn't be punished for it.

They have this at ds'2 school (First school), but only if a child has been messing around when they should have been working - "If you play in work time, then you work in play time" ... ds2 likes to say it when ds1 won't do his homework! It doesn't happen if the child was working, but didn't finish - that seems completely out of order, especially for the ks1. Also, even if they are kept in as were messing around they only miss 5 minutes, not all of break time.

I don't like this. In my school some teachers do it if child hasn't done enough work or homework etc. It's difficult. It does work in the long term as most children hate missing play and will generally knuckle down if they know it will happen. The alternative would be sending the work home I suppose.

I sort of feel though that playtime is more than a treat. I would think they need a break at some point just the way adults must have breaks in their jobs.

Dd was kept in a couple of times because she was taking too long over the presentation of her work. You can't win.

I just told her to speed up and if it was scruffy then it was scruffy.

If they haven't done their work during lessons because they were talking or idle, I think it's not unreasonable. If the work was excessive then it's not a suitable punishment.

This is not easy...and in my eyes it depends on their age and a few other variables. Yr1 is too young to adopt this approach ...surely thay can dangle a carrot instead of waving a stick!

Children need exercise they sit on their bums for quite along time especially at an early stage....there little brains also need a rest too.

My little munchkin...had a giggling fit with one of her classmates a few weeks ago and they were stopped from having the choosing session...they ended up drawing a picture and writing a sentence about what their classmates were choosing...my Dd's comment was it was fun drawing the picture and writing the sentence...so we didn;t mind.

I agree with Amuminscotland.

At my son's school they miss break for bad behaviour. I have no problems with year 1 children being kept behind for bad behaviour. Otherwise teachers have no way of punishing really naughty kids.

My son and another child missed break for fighting. I think if they can't play nicely then they deserve to miss break.

As far as not completing work, I think you have to trust the professional judgement of a teacher. My son's school tends to give stickers for doing good work.

Children need breaks. One of the decisions behind moving dd (there were lots0 was because children were kept in if they got less than 18/20 in spelling or tables tests. AFter discussing with HT I told dd if she was kept in to go straight to office and tell sec to phone me. It is such a bad idea on so many levels. Fortunately took dd out to a school where she was much happier and flourished (left in Y5). Said crappy school is still bound with silly rules.

Reallytired, as a teacher myself I certainly wouldn't trust the judgemant of many teachers I've met. They are not god and are often not even very well trained.

In dc's school you miss playtime for bad behaviour, particularly for being rough with other children at break- which seems fair enough. At least, it's reassuring to the child who gets hit- as my ds did at the beginning of term.
Also, for messing around in class and not doing your work- debatable how much good this does, but I suppose there is some point.
Also, occasionally, for not doing homework, though this seems to be mainly for aggravated offenses, as ds hasn't been kept in- not so sure about this one, but then it seems to enforced with a certain amount of discretion.
Punishing children for not getting good results seems stupid, unfair and unproductive.

If you are opposed to keeping naughty children in at break what would you do with naughty children.

My son and his six year old friends decided to have a spitting competition. They wanted to see who could spit the furthest accross the playground. Unfortunately the deputy head caught them and all the boys missed the rest of break.

swedishmum what would you have done?

This happened to DS2 frequently about this time last year, when he was not yet 5.5 and in Y1. It was completely counterproductive, in that he missed his recharging period and became very negative about school. I remember posting on here about it.

I'm not sure, with such little children, how you can tell whether they are being 'lazy' or 'messing around' or just suffering from an age-related inability to work at a particular speed. DS2 got kept in because his teacher expected him to be able to finish the work; other children weren't expected to finish so were allowed out to play.

So I really disagree with it.

I don't disagree with missing playtime as punishment eg DS2, in the same term, was also kept in for biting.

If a child does not miss break, what do you think should be done with a child who bites? Do you think schools should bring back the cane?

Well, I said I didn't disagree with missing playtime as punishment for something like biting.

But I do disagree with it as 'punishment' for not completing work.