Does your AAP center have recess everyday?

[Anonymous]

Does your AAP center give your kids recess everyday? Ours doesn't and it bothers me. Shouldn't there be some kind of law against this? I can't help but think that it's not healthy for the kids.

[Anonymous]

What grade?
How long is lunch?

[Anonymous]

I think ours does not on Mondays.

[Anonymous]

I thought it was state law that elementary school children have a certain number of minutes per week as recess. When I taught 6th grade at a middle school, we still had to take the 6th graders outside for a certain number of minutes on Fridays to qualify.

[Anonymous]

5th and 6th, to my knowledge. Maybe other grades too. No recess 5 days a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think ours does not on Mondays.

Which is a short day.

[Anonymous]

yes, recess at center. of course.

[Anonymous]

5th/6th graders do not always/often get recess 4 days a week due to an overcrowded center school with a "block" schedule. No recess Mondays across the board.
Then we wonder why pediatric obesity is such a big issue in this country???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:5th and 6th, to my knowledge. Maybe other grades too. No recess 5 days a week.

OP, is this your post?

I can't believe there's a school where there is zero recess, ever, for two entire elementary grades, week in and week out. Are you hearing this from your child? From the school itself? If the latter -- what reasoning is given? I would think this violates some policy somewhere if it's true, and frankly I question it. If you are getting this from your kid or from other parents (whose kids might not be reporting things accurately), ask the school. The kids may lose recess at times due to special events, assemblies, testing, discipline, weird snow week schedules, etc. but you make it sound like a fixed "no recess for fifth or sixth grades, period" policy and I find that unbelievable.

Our elementary AAP center (now in first year of MS) had recess every day except Mondays, and the Monday exception was due to the shorter day-- nothing to do with the fact it was an AAP center. Hope you don't think that the recess situation is somehow tied to "AAP kids don't need recess" because that is not how things work. They are still kids who need recess and all the teachers at our AAP center sure knew that. (And there's no recess in middle school so they need it while they can still get it.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:5th and 6th, to my knowledge. Maybe other grades too. No recess 5 days a week.

OP, is this your post?

I can't believe there's a school where there is zero recess, ever, for two entire elementary grades, week in and week out. Are you hearing this from your child? From the school itself? If the latter -- what reasoning is given? I would think this violates some policy somewhere if it's true, and frankly I question it. If you are getting this from your kid or from other parents (whose kids might not be reporting things accurately), ask the school. The kids may lose recess at times due to special events, assemblies, testing, discipline, weird snow week schedules, etc. but you make it sound like a fixed "no recess for fifth or sixth grades, period" policy and I find that unbelievable.

Our elementary AAP center (now in first year of MS) had recess every day except Mondays, and the Monday exception was due to the shorter day-- nothing to do with the fact it was an AAP center. Hope you don't think that the recess situation is somehow tied to "AAP kids don't need recess" because that is not how things work. They are still kids who need recess and all the teachers at our AAP center sure knew that. (And there's no recess in middle school so they need it while they can still get it.)

I think she means no recess ALL 5 days, not any of the 5 days?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Yes, I mean no recess all 5 days. I can understand Monday, but it's not right about the other 4 days. Non-AAP gets recess. I'm going to talk to the principal. Thanks for listening.

[Anonymous]

Wow, that's totally unacceptable! How come no one else has brought it up to the Principal?

[Anonymous]

You'd think they'd get more recess if the work is accelerated.

[Anonymous]

OP, this is 15:48 here. Please update us on what you hear from the principal. As a parent who had a kid in AAP in elementary, this seems very "off" to me if it's actually a policy that kids can't have recess. Is the issue that they are not going outdoors (but are still getting indoor recess time, which is probably at the discretion of the individual teacher and is allowed)? Is this applied to all AAP students at your school, or just one teacher's students? I agree -- it's wrong. I can't see how anyone could justify that AAP students somehow don't get recess, if that's what's happening. If there is a schedule issue that prevents it, that needs to get resolved.

One thought: Rather than going to the principal by yourself, get other parents to go with you. It's easy for administrators and teachers to blow off just one parent but much harder for them to blow off a group of parents presenting a united front. Before you see the principal, get a copy of any written policies from FCPS about recess requirements, if any. Administrators get very nervous, and more willing to talk to you, if you're sitting there with a paper showing that you have looked up the rules in advance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, this is 15:48 here. Please update us on what you hear from the principal. As a parent who had a kid in AAP in elementary, this seems very "off" to me if it's actually a policy that kids can't have recess. Is the issue that they are not going outdoors (but are still getting indoor recess time, which is probably at the discretion of the individual teacher and is allowed)? Is this applied to all AAP students at your school, or just one teacher's students? I agree -- it's wrong. I can't see how anyone could justify that AAP students somehow don't get recess, if that's what's happening. If there is a schedule issue that prevents it, that needs to get resolved.

One thought: Rather than going to the principal by yourself, get other parents to go with you. It's easy for administrators and teachers to blow off just one parent but much harder for them to blow off a group of parents presenting a united front. Before you see the principal, get a copy of any written policies from FCPS about recess requirements, if any. Administrators get very nervous, and more willing to talk to you, if you're sitting there with a paper showing that you have looked up the rules in advance.

It's the same concept as putting AAP classes in trailers while gen ed classes are in the school building, which happens at many centers. It's an effort to keep gen ed parents happy.