Are these normal playground rules?

[MadameCastafiore]

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?

It sounds like the school is trying to have a playground with zones. We have something similar but not as rigid, I think the idea is that some dcs don't want to run about at playtime or play a ball game but maybe just walk around with their friends chatting. This gives them 'safe' areas to do this where they aren't going to be bashed into. I think as a concept it works quite fairly, those that want to play get their area, those that don't get there's, but it depends how it's put into practice. Is it a new thing at your school? If so this might explain the extreme whistle blowing, once the dc and dinner ladies get used to the rules hopefully they will lay off the whistles!

one of the local schools has just banned football in the playground after a little girl was hit in the face. I haven't seen the size of playground so no idea if this is reasonable or not, but suspect the new head wants to make her mark (taking over a VERY successful school).

I don't think ds's school is quite so draconian - juniors/infants/reception and nursery each have their own playgrounds which makes sense. Headteacher is a bit stern about football as kids are coming out which I think is a little harsh. But then again, when it snowed she chucked them all out into the field and let them roll around and throw snowballs.

I was a dinner lady and i think there should be a area to play football only as one dinner lady was knocked out by a ball and had to go to A&E.

If you do not have rules and marked areas in playground you are going to end up with alot of accidents.

YES we had whistle and they worked wonders.

Our playground used to be swamped by the football players. The majority of them became very arrogent and abusive to the non-footballers especially the boys who didn't play. It was only when fights broke out between the Yr6's and the yr2's over who had the right to play that something was done about it. Football can only be played in a certain area on certain days. My children say that break-times and lunch-times are much calmer and happier. The hardcore football nuts still moan a bit that it's their right to play when and where they want. They refuse to see the others have a right to a bit of playground as well.

I have to admit, once I had had the rules explained to me, I was very pleased to know that there was one area where dd could be pushed around in her chair without ending up in the middle of the World Cup. And much nicer than if they'd banned football outright- though I suppose that would depend on the size of the playground.

I would be mad at the glee/attitude of the woman, rather than the scooter-banning. dd's school allows scooters for going home on, and kids tear across the playground on them when its packed - cause loads of accidents, wish they'd make them go the other way or something!

The whistle-blowing sounds mad, and very control-based - though also agree that its nice for smaller kids to have an area to play in that isn't full of balls whizzing past their heads - can be very scary for a 4 year old.

I have the feeling that the parents who want their DCs to have complete freedom in the playground, with no rules for fairness or safety and no zones,would be the first to sue the school if their DC had an accident!

maybe her glee was to do with her own dc having been injured in the playground

you never know

maybe she had been fighting for months to get other people to teach their children consideration

They don't have toys out full stop in dd's playground. No hoops, no balls, no scooters (but they do have books). With the tiny size of the school playgrounds, I wouldn't want footballs flying willy nilly-you would be sad when dd/ds came home with a big egg bruise because they got one in the face.

I think technically our school bans scooters on the playground, but no one makes a big effort to enforce the ban out of school/busy hours. So I would take it as a bit 'jobsworth' if someone strolled across the near empty playground to tell me/DC off about riding a scooter then.

Presumably OP's DC would be allowed to walk the scooters thru the playground, it was 'riding' the scooters that got them told off?

I have to admit to not having read all the responses to this, but scooters can be a serious health and safety hazard, and I know of at least four schools in my area where they are strictly banned. In saying that, the response about the scooter could have been passed on more politely to yourself than what you have described.
As for the blowing of the whistle, it is a bit harsh, but on the other hand, rules are rules, and they are not meant to be there to be broken, so perhaps they tried other ways that did not work?

We've created this 'nanny state' mentality in schools, by complaining every bloody time our precious little angels so much as graze their knees (slight exaggeration, I know ...) and now we they are suffering the consequences. I worked for some years in a small primary school and mums would complain bitterly how little Alfie hurt himself on the climbing frame, football pitch or other area of play. When I was at school, if we fell over, we were told to look where we were going next time.

Scooters are a nightmare in playgrounds !!

schools who have tried out the free play thing in school playgrounds have found they don't have to spend so much time speaking to parents who come into complain that their child has been hit or whatever, children are quite capable of sorting out their own battles. it's a life skill. academic standards have been proved to improve too.

yes, but surely you can have free play without allowing people to ride bikes and scooters across the playground?

and if football is played across the whole playground, that makes it very difficult for those pupils who would like to have a quiet conversation somewhere

OTT.

Ds are allowed scooters but they have to remain in the bike rack outside the school all day. They, quite rightly, aren't allowed to scoot on school premises.

I think they have free play although I'm not sure. It makes sense to have football areas or rather free-from-football areas or it would be chaos.

so they sort it out themselves cory, children are perfectly capable of it. we just don't give them credit.

I did go to the sort of school where children were expected to sort everything out for themselves, southeastastra. And there was an awful lot of bullying going on. The teachers no doubt thought the children were sorting themselves out- what happened was that the stronger ones sorted the weaker out. I was bullied throughout my time at junior school. Nice to know that I should have been able to sort myself out. I never was.

Dd otoh has sailed through her time at school despite suffering from mobility problems and incontinence and various other problems, because her mates have been taught to show consideration for others and had the needs of vulnerable people explained to them.

Maybe my school fellows should have known anyway. But they didn't.

If you are having mobility problems or learning difficulties or are extremely shy, it can be very difficult to explain that you would like some corner of the playground to be in where you don't have balls kicked at you. (and dd would never have been able to catch up with a group of football players to make her voice heard anyway)

bullying shouldn't be tolerated, i'm only trying to say horseplay type of activity shouldn't be discouraged.

Icandothat...TOTALLY agree!!