Discipline in reception class

[makemineaginandtonic]

My DD is 4 and started reception in September. She previously successfully attended play school and the nursery attached to the school and was always well behaved. However, now she won't sit on the carpet at quiet time. The teachers used a sad face on the board technique (I know this is contraversial) and it has now progressed to her having her own "smiley face" chart to be used throughout the day.
Neither seem to have had any effect.

I feel sorry for her that she has had to start school as one of the youngest in the class (july baby) and can't help thinking that surely it doesn't matter that, after 1 term at school, she is still finding it difficult to sit quietly for a long period of time. Now it seems the entire focus of going to school is the smiley face chart and "being good" rather than "naughty". THis seems entirely wrong for this stage of her education and I am worried it is going to put her off school forever and get her labelled as disruptive.

Has anyone else been through this or got any ideas of how to help her settle in?

Wanting children to sit quietly while the teacher drones on is just one of the many insane aspects of school life. An understanding teacher will give her something to fiddle with so that she can move while still in one place.

hi mine is 4 too a June baby

has yours gone full time already?
mine still on part time until January
in her class the children go in the warnings books for not sitting properly and a number of other infractions

the other day the teacher also told her she had made her cross for not writing her name in full capitals and told her to leave the table
dd not keen on capital A for some reason

can't really suggest much as am a bit adrift myself and I do help in the classroom once a week

will sit back and listen

I like the idea of giving her something to hold. Its a shame the teacher hasn't had the same idea, I think she feels that it isn't right to "reward" for misbehaviour.

and yes she is full time, our borough has just started having only one intake per year.

am personally not fond of reward systems anyway, from what I have seen in the classroom a teacher and a TA for 30 kids they really have to find a way to keep a tight reign but not sure it is the best way of going about it

do you have parents evening coming up? worth discussing?

I doubt it will put her off school forever, and any reception teacher worth their salt isn't going to label a 4 year old as anything for perpetuity.

I have a 4yo july birthday dd in reception atm and she is going through similar struggles with authority.

tbh they just have to learn sooner or later that there are times in the school day when they have to sit still and be quiet. I do guided reading in reception and ime the times they are expected to remain quietly sitting are REALLY short (think like 10 mins).

I think that 80% of Foundation Stage activities are child led anyway, so that's not much of the day that she has to do as she is told.

I'd go and have a chat with the teacher if you are worried.

I'd absolutely be going in for a chat if the word naughty (for not sitting down) has come from the teacher (I'd be pretty surprised tbh if it has).

I'm sure Reception teachers are more than used to dealing with this sort of behaviour. It's not as if she is setting fire to the curtains or leaving a turd on the teacher's car seat when she doesn't get her own way.

I think you just need to keep reinforcing in a casual nonchalant-like fashion that sitting on the carpet can be quite fun because there you get to hear stories and do singing and all that weirdy phonics actions stuff they seem to do in reception.

I doubt your daughter is expected to sit still for long periods of time - a few minutes is the usual expectation. Perhaps if you were the parent of one of the other children who is being disturbed by a child who is unable to remain still you would also be complaining.

ds2 had his own spot on the carpet - a red circular carpet tile and a little box of things to fiddle with - little toys related to the topic they were doing - seemed to do the trick

We use Webster Stratton at our school, which is basically ignore the bad behaviour and praise the good. From what I understand, if a child was unable to sit and join in effectivly duing circle time they would be taken to do something else.

We do have a very large foundation unit though and I can understand that it might not be possible if you were in a conventional style classroom.

We also use webster stratton dina school in our school it works well in our class.

I personally and always have done a lot of peer modeling where I often say things like " fantastic * you are sitting so nicely over there." This sees to help as the other children take notice and all sit nicely. On occations I have given some children blue tack if the figit a lot as this seems to calms them down and keeps their focus.

I dont agree with star charts partly because I get lazy with them and forget.

Knowing your children also helps as you can determin when they ahve had enough when they need to move before re focusing.

Ignoring seems to help a lot

Sorry about the spellings its been a long day