What is golden time actually for?

[theITgirl]

Pondering this today. The ideas I have come up with so far.

1. The children are so knackered by Friday afternoon that there is no point trying to teach them (not a dig, DS is actually very tired)
2. So they have a punishment (ie you have lost 5 mins of your golden time), but actually this is probably a useful byproduct of the real reason.
3. Teacher gets to observe social interaction - actually this is maybe the official reason.

Any teachers out there who can tell me the real reason.

1 is part of the reason.

But I used it mainly to hear individual readers and for my TA to help finish art/dt project with the children.

Ours was supposidly for reason 2.

However, since the new head started Goldentime seems to have gone to pot and there is no incentive there for the children anymore.

I just asked my DC, they said
DS: "Don't know don't care", and "It's time for us to trash the school."

DD: "We get to go on the jungle gym. So the children can have some fun and we don't have to learn all day."

teacher has had enough by then?

I fecking would have!

It's poets day, but they can't, so golden time is next best thing!

And I don't blame them. I'd go frigging loopy with 30 small children all week!

Thanks, interesting that it does appear to be the obvious reasons (1 & 2)

Partly 1 and partly the reverse of 2 - so that the children have a reward to work towards (rather than the punishment aspect).

It gives the teachers time to clear up at the end of the week so they can get off home at 3.30 p.m prompt.

But then I am a cynical git

ABetaDad - have you been in a classroom after golden time? Believe me there is more tidying up to be done after \Golden Time than if the teacher's had the children sat down doing table worj,

Its something nice for the children to look forward to , and to work towards.

Its what happened in my kids school and it was annoying - the teaching week dropped to 4.5 days sometimes.

So?
Do you work as well on a Friday afternoon as you do on a Monday morning?

Well maybe your 5 or 6 year old doesn't either?

oo and God forbid a teacher GOES HOME by 5 on a Friday! Or has a life outside teaching YOUR KIDS.

Doersn't Golden Time happen is all state primaries, at least at infant stage?

Sometimes called Continuous Provision maybe?

At the school I work at it involved the year group haveing free access to either of the 3 Y1 classrooms. There are a range of activities laid out on tables, in play corners on the floor - adnd in summer some outside time too I believe.

Activities include reading books, colouring and drawing, building blocks, jigsaws, computer time, board games, home corner, role play section, puppets, etc.

All the rooms are supervised by teachers and TAs who are engaged with the children in activities. Some of the teachers are involved in PPA time at this time too, so they will be absent but their place covered by another memeber of staff to ensure all ratios, etc are met.

'the teaching week dropped to 4.5 days sometimes'

How dreadful!!!
It doesn't have to be the teacher talking or the DCs writing to be educational. Learning to choose, get on with others and share are all very valuable experiences.

Well DS has golden time on Monday...so those who are missing 5 mins godlen time becuase of their behaviour last week probably can't even remember what they did wrong.

I don't think there is enough time to get any real Preparation done, and that's timetabled in for another part of the week anyway.

golden time is learning time.
rewards are a good incentive for good behaviour.

LS - Monday afternoon def seems a very strange time for Golden Time. I thought it was always a Friday afternoon.

My dd loves her golden time and works very hard all week to build up some kind of golden points to have first choice of activity. She often does extra work at home or in school to earn these points. So far from wasting learning time it is enhancing it.

piscesmoon - it was a Pre-prep where terms were shorter than a state Primary and what used to happen was the treacher would leave the classroom at lunchtime and the TA would then take the class with the first part of the afternoon for play and then the second half was taken up with the children themselves doing the tidying up.

Once the tidying had finished the children were then told to sit quietly and not allowed to do anything other than read a book out of their book bag. My DS2 told me the TA often left the classroom at this point or just sat marking books.

It always seemed to me to be not a very 'Golden Time' at all and mainly designed for the conveneience of the staff.

As I say it was very annoying and quite shocking.

I used to have a version of golden time with a very low ability year 7 class who had huge social problems. I was there head of year and also teach them for a number of subjects. I wold bring in board games for their last lesson of a week as a reward for good behaviour and work. This helped them with their social skills and without this help they would not be able to access the curriculum in any kind of meaningful way.

Golden Time is a system that can be seen to be fair by the children.
Everyone complains about stickers as a reward because what happens is that Johnny disrupts the whole class when he is supposed to be sitting and listening so the teacher catches him being good and gives him a sticker. Johnny thinks he quite likes stickers and so, if it suits him, he sits like a model pupil, catches the teachers eye and gets another sticker. Tommy is always keen to start, he doesn't like his time being wasted, and is quiet and ready-he never gets a sticker!
Golden Time is a reward for the majority of the children who have had to put up with the disruption (they don't like it)and it is saying, we appreciate that you are always ready to learn and are not wasting everyones time and so you can have a little time to yourselves for a free choice. Johnny learns that there are consequences for bad behaviour,if he has made everyone wait at the start of the lesson or disrupted it it is only fair that he should give some of that time back. They generally only miss the start of it, the message needs to be that it is fun and much better to have it.
It is better to have it on Friday but sometimes it is impossible, or if the teacher wants to take them outside to have the playground equipment to themselves (always fun not to have the rest of the school)they need to avoid times when others classes are having it.
Even if it happens on a Monday, a very young little Johnny should be able to get the message loud and clear 'if you waste our time we will waste yours'. It is a fair system IMO.
It is lovely to have a system that rewards the children who don't normally get noticed. I don't think that it is punishing those who miss some of it-it is merely telling them that there are consequences for bad behaviour. It is better than taking a playtime off little Johnny, when everyone would probably benefit from him having a good run around.

ABetaDad - it does seem that what happened at your school was not good practise at all, and not what golden time was intended for. I would not have been happy with that happening on a regular occurence, no.

DD;s preprep doesn't have an official Golden Time as such, although from what I can gather Friday afternoon is very relaxed and informal - Playball session, followed by free choice activities from range offered. The free session is from after break to home time - so about an hour max. Sometimes they have some DVD time for part of this time - in DD's Y2 class they like all the old education videos like Sky Hunter and Sky Warp(remember magic e??) but sommetimes it might be 20 minutes of a Disney movie.

The girls are expected to help tidy up at the end - but this amounts to about 5 minutes. I actually think children helping to tidy is a very good thing - have seen this in nurserys too - as it encourages children to take responsibility. It certainly rubs off on DD as she now keeps her bedroom really quite today (for a 6y). Maybe it is a gir thing but they are always asking to help the teacher anyway - sharpening pencils, tidying bookcase, cleaing art room, etc.

The teachers are always around the classrooms at this time though and engaging with the children.

It is actually nice for the teachers-they can just relax and have a chat with the DCs, it all helps a class to 'gel' and get on well together.

Hulababy - this is a all girl's school isn't it? I have visions of the girls clearing up and the boys just sitting there with their feet up

Golden Time is also useful at KS1 for observing children's interaction with others and who they gravitate to. At our school teachers don't do playground or dinner duty so otherwise never see the children enjoying free play.