A mother has received support from parents online after her eight-year-old was punished at school for using the expression "flipping heck".
The parent took to Mumsnet's 'Am I Being Unreasonable?' thread to ask if the phrase was rude after her son was disciplined for saying it after missing a goal during his P.E. lesson.
The child - who the parent called Ds so as not to identify him - was put on a 'red', the harshest of the school's traffic light system, according to Liverpool Echo.
She wrote: "Ds has always been really good, he's incredibly shy, hates drawing attention to himself and normally just bobs along on green every week.
"He looked mortified when he came out and the teacher told me he'd had to go straight onto 'red' for bad language during P.E.
"Ds tried to say 'I only said' but teacher interrupted and said 'Please don't say it again, you'll only get yourself into more trouble'. Anyway, he apologised, we walked home and that was that."
She continued: "I asked him what he'd said and why when we got home and he told me he missed a goal in P.E. and said "Oh, flipping heck".
"I asked him if he was sure that was what he'd said, that he hadn't said the F word but he was adamant he hadn't and was in tears of frustration at this point as he kept trying to tell the teacher what he'd said but she just kept telling him not to repeat it."
The mother sent a message to the teacher on a school app to say that her son was sorry for upsetting the teacher and adding that he insisted he had only said "flipping heck" and not a stronger expression.
She claims the teacher said they were aware of what was said and "it was more the tone that he'd said it in that she was disappointed about", adding that the parent "needed to ensure that he was aware that language of that type is not acceptable at school".
The mother then asked the website: "Is 'Flipping heck' rude? I say it all the time and I'm certain that is where he's picked it up from but I've never told him not to say it. I thought it was just a nonsense exclamation."
Lots of parents got in touch to say that the teacher had overreacted to the child's use of the phrase.
One mother said: "Absolutely over the top. Not a habit to get into granted but blimey hardly foul language."
A second parent wrote: "We say "flippin eck" in Sheffield a lot, so that teacher would have us all on 'red'."
However, a few others disagreed.
One parent replied: "Hi mean, it’s not bad language in itself, but it is absolutely a stand-in for 'f***ing hell' and is used as such, so that’s probably what she's getting at.
A third mother said: "Sorry, I disagree and think it is bad language that should not be used in school."
