Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Are these normal playground rules?

47 replies

MadameCastafiore · 26/03/2009 16:27

Because I am fuming!

We live in a small village in NE Essex. DD goes to the local C of E Primary (only school in the village) and DS attends the pre-school there.

Anyway they are short od dinner ladies - and this is because there are strict rules that you must make the kids adhere to whilst they are outside playing. They are allowed to play with balls, hoops, and beanbags in a certain marked areas of the playground, play football in other marked areas and run around (god fprbid!) in other marked areas. If you stray from these areas whilst merrily throwing your ball or your beanbag then the dinner lady blows her whistle and everybody has to stop, look what they are doing where and the offending child go back to the appropriate area.

It is like a fecking concnetration camp honestly.

There are big wooden trains in the playground but the children are not allowed to play on them - why are they there?

And then tonight on the way out of school DD scoots on her scooter across the playground to the preschool for us to collect DS - who god forbid also has the audacity of posessing a scooter - when a woman walks up to DD and says (in the manner of the evil lady in The Wizard of Oz being happy because she was going to upset Dorothy and take away Toto!) 'I think you will find they will be banned as of Monday' - seriously this cow was actually gleeful about my kid having their scooter banned.

And she was a bloody teacher.

Are any of your school Hitlerish when it comes to rules and regulations at playtime?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

PuppyMonkey · 26/03/2009 16:29

Scooters got banned at dd1's school years ago.

The whistle blowing thing sounds hilarious. Give it a week or so and the dinner ladies will get fed up of the scheme and bin it.

SheSellsSeashellsByTheSeashore · 26/03/2009 16:30

I have never heard of such rules. We used to run around like wild animals at primary school. As does dd1. And rightly so imo.

LadyGlencoraPalliser · 26/03/2009 16:30

Is it a school or a zombie training camp?

Tamarto · 26/03/2009 16:31

At my DS's school they are not allowed to eat in the playground!

aGalChangedHerName · 26/03/2009 16:31

At our local primary the kids are not even allowed to play with balls/hoops or anything else.

There is a trim trail but they won't spend money on maintaining it so it's also out of bounds

abraid · 26/03/2009 16:32

The lunchtime rules sound OTT.

On the other hand, having seen a child hurt by a scooter in our playground, I think they shouldn't be allowed after school. Sorry. It's just too crowded with people coming and going when school ends. Ditto bikes.

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 26/03/2009 16:32

Our school doesn't allow scooters. The main part of the playground os OK for ball games, but about 1/4 of the playground is hte other side of a fence and no ballgames allowed. Which I think makes sense as some kids (especially younger ones) can get a bit intimidated by a group of big 10 and 11 year olds running about like mad after a football.

Original poster

MadameCastafiore · 26/03/2009 16:33

No it isn't a new thing has been going on for ages, honestly it is pathetic.

ANd the attitude of this wicked bloody woman.

I never go in and complain but I really have a good mind to go in tomorrow and say that I had no idea she was a teacher and was disgusted at her undisguised glee and upsetting my child.

OP posts:

southeastastra · 26/03/2009 16:33

go in and tell the school that they should all be introducing 'free play' at playtimes. there should be no rules and the should be allowed to play with whatever they like.

your local council may be helpful in re-educating the school.

Grammaticus · 26/03/2009 16:34

Oh yes. And always under the guise of Health and Safety...

Original poster

MadameCastafiore · 26/03/2009 16:34

WHen I was at school the boys had their footie pitch and you were allowed to do what ever you wanted on the rest of the playground and we all turned out pretty normal - think there could have been a few broken arms from kids running into each other but that is hardly enough to start the bloody whistke blowing!

OP posts:

SheSellsSeashellsByTheSeashore · 26/03/2009 16:35

Oh dd1's school does have seperate areas for infants and juniors. As did my old school.

TheCrackFox · 26/03/2009 16:39

I would walk past the school several times during break time blowing a whistle.

Sorry, I am not being very helpful.

seeker · 26/03/2009 17:26

Our schools have zones in the playground for different activities. It's brilliant. It means that the hula hoopers don't have to fight for space with the footballers or the "Mummies and Daddies" players. And there are no bikes or scooters allowed in the playground either during school or before or after. It means that people can bring their pushchairs and toddlers into the playground at lick up time without the risk of them being run down.

There is also a free play area - where you can play anyth5ng except football. I think it's sensible - can't see a problem!

bronze · 26/03/2009 17:31

Thank goodness ds1s school still has some sense. Whats with banning bikes and scooters before and after school completely? My boys use theirs to get there because instead of being lazy arses we walk (or scoot) I do not allow them to scoot in the playground though. I do allow them to push them across the playground to get to the bike shed the other side.

heronsfly · 26/03/2009 17:34

No whistles at our school,but rules about playing in correct areas sounds similar,but, we have got old tennis courts where boistrous play is encouraged.
Bikes and scooters banned from playground after a nasty accident a few years ago.

StewieGriffinsMom · 26/03/2009 17:34

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

christywhisty · 26/03/2009 17:59

Infants have 2 areas, one where they can play football and can do whatever they want in the other area.
Juniors have an area for football but each class has to take turns to use it.They also have a quiet garden area for sitting.
In the summer they are allowed to use the school field if it hasn't been raining and muddy.

piscesmoon · 26/03/2009 18:12

I think that most schools have areas like christywhisty has put forward. They have to be fair to all DCs. It is easier if there is a lot of room, but otherwise they have to compromise which means taking turns to play football or go on climbing equipment. It is fair to all , otherwise the oldest and/or most physical would take over all the space everyday.

cory · 26/03/2009 18:23

Similar system to Seeker at our junior's and I too think it's good, as long as the footballing areas are big enough. It means there is somewhere in the school yard where you can have a quiet heart-to-heart with a friend without having a football kicked into your face. On the other hand, it means you shouldn't make a fuss if you do stand in the middle of the ball area and a ball does hit you.

So I got short shrift from the school when I went in to complain that my wheelchair bound dd had had a ball kicked at her- she shouldn't have been in the ball area then, should she? I had to admit, they had a point. There had to be somewhere where you could have a good game uninterrupted.

Dh had more rules at his junior playground (London 1960s): separate areas for boys and girls and you weren't allowed to cross the line even to retrieve a ball: you had to ask a girl to throw it over. But they were taught together in the same classroom. Strange times...

ThingOne · 26/03/2009 19:14

Ours is quite a big primary school and they have different zones for different sorts of activities, including a quiet zone. I think it's very sensible.

The whistle blowing in itself doesn't seem too draconian. It depends more, I suspect on the person blowing the whistle.

Sounds bizarre they aren't allowed to play on the train. Ours aren't allowed on the climbing frames before or after school but that sounds sensible to me as there is no supervision then.

Scooters aren't banned at our school. Lots of the pre school children have a long walk to school and back and scooters seem a far better option to me than them being in a buggy.

seeker · 26/03/2009 21:50

Of course you can scoot or bike to and from school - you just can't do it in the playground. There's a bike rack to put them in during the day. Seems perfectly reasonable to me!

MollieO · 26/03/2009 23:10

Ds's school has separate playgrounds for the older and younger children. They aren't actually separate - they are part of the same playground but there is an invisible line that they musn't cross. Ds is always asking teachers if he can go to the big boys playground and is told no on a daily basis. If only he were so compliant at home!

fircone · 27/03/2009 09:46

Scooting across the playground?

Of course that shouldn't be allowed. The number of times some kid has run into the back of my shins or ploughed into another child... grrrr. It's bad enough to and from school, but at least the children are not in a car. Scooting should absolutely not be permitted on school premises when it's crowded with people.

I know this is not a AIBU thread, but going into the school to complain that scooting within school grounds is to be banned IS unreasonable.

cory · 27/03/2009 09:55

Even in the laid-back seventies we weren't allowed to ride bikes or scooters in the playground. Despite all the tree-climbing and the absolutely lethal ice-slide and the blind eye turned to children sneaking through the hole in the gate to play on the river banks. They still wouldn't risk us running into people on a bike. Didn't mean pupils didn't cycle to school- we all did. But not in the playground. Makes sense to me.

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread