Do we need School rules for Primary children?

School Rules – we all remember them and all schools have them…but just what is the purpose of them and how effective are they at Primary School level?

They are there to see as you walk into any Primary School in the country – in bright fun colours with perhaps cartoon figures alongside the writing. They are there alongside the “welcome” stuff that decorates school entrances and are designed to give a bright and colourful first impression to the visitor.

You will also find that copies of the school rules feature in every classroom in a prominent position easily seen by the children – so far so good.

here’s an example…

However if we look at the general pattern of school rules as shown across the school it becomes apparent that they are generally saying the same thing. They may be presented differently but generally very broad based, open ended and to be honest vague.

Now that’s not to say this is a criticism …no not at all. It is impossible to create a set of school rules that anything other than broad based, open ended and vague.

So what is their purpose…?

• To give a baseline set of rules for the school
• To create an atmosphere of caring and responsibility amongst the children
• To give a foundation from which class teachers can base their own set of “aspirations”….is that the right word? Ok well lets just replace it with “rules”
• It is to give visitors an immediate warm snapshot of how caring a school we are!

here’s another

So lets take this a step further and apply these rules to the classroom – hmmm – we can’t….why?

• Because they are too broad based
• They are subjective….what levels of responsibility or gentleness do we judge?

So do we now have to write our own Classroom Rules?

Here’s a class that have obviously spent some time discussing class rules and have come up with this list and “contract” for the pupils….nice idea for the beginning of the year and helps to bond the class more. It also gives you something to refer to at any point should it be necessary. The fact that the contract has been drawn up by the children’s ideas also is a great motivator – I like that !

You can see how the Class rules have now expanded on the broad based school rules and given some more meaning and a practical “our class” based relevance.

However – once again they can only be an overreach summary – so what happens from here?

The quick and easy answer is nothing – well not actually nothing …but read on and I will give some more meaning to what I have said.

We have spoken about the broad based “warm and fuzzy” School Rules and looked at how these can be given a little more relevance in class interpretation. But even these, by nature, have to be broad in order to cover day to day classroom organisation.

But we need to have another layer that operates on a day to day basis and situation by situation.

This set of rules are the ones set by you in your classroom organisation (hey there’s that word again!) This set of rules expand the class rules summary into a working environment and apply ALL the time in every situation. They do not have to be written but they do have to be used at all times and consistently. These rules are the foundation of what happens in your classroom management and are the ones that the children get to know and learn and they apply to everything.

If, for some academic exercise we looked at all the rules you apply daily in your class and then listed them  – we would find that we are able to group them into the “broad class” classroom rules you have set or even higher …into the School rules that appear in the school entrance.

So in answer to the question in the title “Do we need School rules for Primary children?” – we can unequivocally say yes we do – but as teachers we create the operational reflection of those school rules both in our classrooms and in the  personal example we set.

Charles