Red card means trouble for bad behaviour at school

Fear of a referee's red card is meant to keep our top rugby players in line, but would a phone call to their parents be an even stronger deterrent?

That's how they do it at a Timaru primary school, where the card system for foul play has been picked up from the sporting arena and reinvented slightly to keep the children out of trouble.

Staff at Oceanview Heights School can issue red or yellow cards to pupils who misbehave.

A red card means 20 minutes of "time out" on the "bench", and a yellow card means 10 minutes of isolation. After three red cards in a week, the parents get called.

"The children knew straight away what the process was. They have seen it through the sports," said principal Peter Roundhill.

"We have probably 90 or 95 per cent of the school who will never receive a card. It's just the hard core, as you call it. It's taking away the time they have usually enjoyed."

Mr Roundhill said the novel idea was in response to a disciplining system at the school that had not been effective.

Bad behaviour was put into categories of critical, serious and minor. Critical misbehaviour merited a red card, lesser offences a yellow card.

"We just thought a card system was something tangible the children had, that teachers knew why they were being benched, and we record and meet each week to see what is going on."

Teachers have a set of cards in their classrooms to dish out to the misbehaving students and the duty teacher monitoring the playground activities also carries a set.

"So a child is actually given a card, and a time is put on that for releasing out of the area.

"They turn up to the bench area with their card and sit still until release."

The card system had been in place for just a couple of weeks, but Mr Roundhill had no doubt it would prove effective.

"When children see the system is consistent and the teachers are consistent ... then the numbers [of cards issued] will start to decline."