AIBU to have 'made' my 11 yo dd miss cooking at school ?

[SatsumaSatsuma]

She had cookery most of last term on a Monday and was generally quite disorganised about bringing info home re ingredients and we often had annoying last minute texting to friends to find our what she needed last thing on a Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday she yet again wasn't sure what to bring. The only girl who she could contact wasn't sure of the ingredients and said she was just going to make cup cakes ( for the 3 rd time). I told dd that I wasn't prepared to send in a 3 rd batch of cupcake ingredients as there was no learning in that!( She's in year 7 so first year senior school)

She seemed to think they'd be cooking pasta, so I suggested finding a sauce recipe, but dd insisted it would need to be ingredients for fresh pasta! I said this was most unlikely but she rejected my suggestion.

I said that she'd have to accept that if she couldn't be more organised, then she'd have to miss out as I wasn't prepared to send her in with random pasta and cake ingredients to cover all bases.

So... Today everyone made pasta sauce ( I was right) and dd's friend was allowed to make the cupcakes. My dd did a worksheet.

Am I mean?

[Chlorinella]

No .

[SecretNutellaFix]

No. She needs to accept responsibility for work set which includes being prepared for the lesson.

[ballstoit]

YANBU. Bet she'll have the recipe next week

[Littlefish]

I think you were right. She needs to understand that there are consequences to not writing down her homework. Does she have a homework diary? Where is she supposed to record it?

[CoffeeTea103]

No it's a good lesson for her to sit up and take note of the consequence for her not being more attentive in class.

[Justforlaughs]

I should have done this - instead of dashing to Tesco at 7 o'clock this morning

[WorraLiberty]

No you're not mean

I'm surprised she didn't get detention though

Why isn't the teacher telling the class to write the ingredients down?

[SatsumaSatsuma]

Thanks folks, I kinda thought that too but have ended up feeling mean. It's so annoying when the dc's homework ends up feeling like it's my problem! To be fair, she is fab at doing all other homework and handing it in on time without any prompting ( unlike her sis!). However, the cooking is a problem area for some reason. I think it gets written in a separate book that she never seems to have with her.

[ErrolTheDragon]

YANBU. She needs to bring the ingredients list home in plenty of time for you to shop.

I'd be inclined to get her to make a pasta sauce at home, if she doesn't know how yet.

[Smartiepants79]

And why on Gods earth are the just allowed to make cakes instead?

[ErrolTheDragon]

I think it gets written in a separate book that she never seems to have with her.

If that's the problem, tell her to copy it into her homework diary as well.

[justmyview]

Pity the other girl was allowed to make cupcakes.........that undermines the teacher

[OddBoots]

YANBU. She needs to learn.

I'm glad she didn't get a detention though as there are reasons beyond disorganisation for not bringing in ingredients some of which are not the child's fault.

[SatsumaSatsuma]

Worra, I'm very surprised at the approach to cookery tbh. Dd has cookery club and cookery lessons, both on a Monday and she has made cupcakes cakes 2 or even 3 times and crumble twice!! It's lazy planning, IMO. I find my self thinking....wouldn't be like that in a state school. < whole other thread emoticon>

[SatsumaSatsuma]

Smartie, I thought that too. It's pretty surprising, to say the least.

[Crowler]

This morning I made an announcement to my family that I would put a giant clock on the wall in the kids' room and be downstairs when they were ready to go - and should they be late, they'd have their teachers to deal with.

Logical consequences - it's the way forward.

[WorraLiberty]

Off topic but I'm now eating a satsuma OP

Your NN really made me want one

[SatsumaSatsuma]

Crowler, that reminds me of what I said to dd2 (9yo) the other day...' We're leaving for school in 2 mins... It'd be embarrassing to go in you pyjamas' I kinda meant it

[Crowler]

That's right. You have to embarrass them into compliance, really.

[SatsumaSatsuma]

Ha! They are juicy at this time of year:) I got some amazing mini ones from M&S the size of cherry toms

[SatsumaSatsuma]

Errol, good advice. I think she may've learnt her lesson now.

[ChippingInWadesIn]

YANBU. Hopefully it will make her get her act together.

I can't see why the teacher allows them to bake cakes instead of whatever she has planned - more fool her.

Is it a private school or an academy?

[NigellasDealer]

tell you what though satsuma, in the state school my daughter attends, when she was doing cookery sorry food tech, there was a healthy food reciipe book they were supposed to follow handed down from on high but every week the teacher would look at 'healthy tuna bake' and say nahhh next week we will make swiss roll/cupcakes/sponge cake. she was hilarious!

[SilverApples]

That's one of the reasons food tech isn't taken seriously by anyone.
Poor objectives, random sourcing of ingredients and nutritionally crap. Plus all the design and packaging nonsense.
It should be perfectly possible for the teachers to plan in advance, put up the recipes on the VLE and cover a decent range of basic techniques and meals.
Plus the school could buy basic ingredients and sell them to students.
But no, a muddled, inedible mess is what we get.

[SatsumaSatsuma]

It's a private school. It's quite small, they get good results and it suits dd very well. However, I'm under no illusions that it's 'better' than state. In fact, I think the lack of accountability makes it worse in many ways. They must be doing something right though, as the older girls are delightful and all achieve very well.

Chipping, I think that the teacher's planning and attitude in General is a bit lax, tbh.