Refusing to sign school set targets

[hillian]

DS (year 5) has parent's night soon. Past experience tells me that this is time when I am presented with a short list of targets and I'm asked to sign off on the targets.

The problem is that for maths his targets have often been things he could do already (usually for some time). I've always signed in the past, usually after trying to point out that the targets have already been met. Typically the teacher agrees with me, but asks me to sign anyway saying that she will change them (but she never does). Then DS sits learning nothing for the rest of the year.

So, would I be unreasonable to refuse to sign this time? Obviously its a new teacher again so I feel a little bad hauling my emotional baggage from my experience of previous years without giving her the benefit of the doubt that she could actually be the one who wants to challenge DS (I have good reason to doubt this though!).

[wearingatinhat]

No, I would not sign; in signing you are really saying that you are happy with them - and you are not.

We never got the option of signing ours, otherwise we never would have done either. Ours were a total waste of time too. Even DS used to get really upset - in the end, we had to 'hide' targets and school reports. We simply could not bear to see DS so upset.

Naturally, we changed schools and he now reads his school reports with pride.

I know what you you mean about inflicting some poor new teacher with the emotional baggage from previous years. However, if you have concerns and wait to see how things 'pan out', before you know it another school year is over! We had concerns at the end of last year (although not about targets) which we resolved, but with a new teacher we are back to square one and I now wish I had spoken out much earlier - this time I am not waiting.

[choccyp1g]

I would suggest having the discussion all over again and then write "as dicsussed these targets will be revised, because DS can already do them", and then sign.

[richmal]

Just wanted to say I've been through more or less the same. We were not given anything to sign but were just told why dd was not as ahead as we thought and so the work at school was at the correct level for her.
If you are told they will alter it could you not at that point say in that case you really need to make another appointment to sign the form, get out a diary and ask the teacher what day next week they'll be free?
In the end out solution was to home educate until secondary.

[hillian]

Thanks for all your replies.

Home Educating does seem to be the answer except that DS loves being with his friends at school. Instead, I have started teaching him for three hours per week. I am certain his teacher will thoroughly disapprove of that, but she could always take on the teaching of him herself if she felt strongly enough about it.

I keep telling myself that primary school does not matter. In fact, deep down I know it doesn't matter! Hearteningly, my older son has just gone into year 7 and he's loving the more rigorous work and the higher expectations. He had the same kind of experience at primary school as DS2, so its a revelation to him that there is more to learning than just endless repetition. Its such a huge step up (in every subject) that its hard to believe that DS2 will be ready in two years time.

So, why do I care about primary school at all? I try not to, but then the Y5 teacher is a little pompous and it just irritates the life out of me that she is so smug about she knows best but so wrong!

[richmal]

I used to teach for roughly that amount when she was at school (around half an hour a day). It just seemed a shame to not teach her when she could understand the work and wanted to learn.