Mumsnet Talk

Never heard of a school setting work Surely they know everyone will be out playing in the snow ?

The best snow day work we have had was a couple of years ago when DS was given art - to make a snow sculpture of his initals (he was studying Initial capitals at the time). Fortunately he only had to submit a photo for marking rather than the actual sculpture!

I would set it for exam groups (Year 11-13) but below that it's not worth it. Sometimes I set something related - whilst playing in the snow, what adaptations did your body do to help you stay warm? - however kids get about 2-3 snow days a year, let them enjoy them and they'll work better when they get back.

I think it's a load of rubbish, myself (I'm a secondary teacher) and I don't put it up online. I would feel free to ignore it and tell the school your Internet connection was down if they asked for it in.

I'm normally a very well-behaved parent, but tell my two to ignore snow day work. A couple of years ago they were set a ridiculous amount of work, most of it was clearly not thought out by the teachers and wasn't at all relevant to their other work (or the snow). None of it was ever marked or even asked for.

Now they go out to play in the park, then all troop off to the cafe with their mates for hot chocolate and cookies.

say you haven't got a computer

Seems teachers are damned if they do and damned if they don't.

Schools do it because otherwise there will be parents who complain! So much easier to set work with VLEs nowadays!

Exactly swan, my dad "helped" by setting them more work about why the snow melts from some roofs and not form others....

This drives me potty when they do it. Luckily ds didn't have a snow day today, so I only have last year's pottiness to make comparisons with

I digress; last year they set work on an Inset Day, in case the dcs got bored . Such a pity. We were looking forward to it, and it was ruined. Surely there was enough homework to be getting on with without more supervision from parents being required (Year 7 workload being what it is).

I find it extraordinary that they should seek to interfere with snow days in this way. Surely the whole point is to get the kids OUTSIDE, noticing nature, if there is this sort of enforced break from school. Something active. Or maybe make some sort of scientific invention relating to snow, adding salt to ice to see if it melts...anything brief and exciting but not 2 hours of extra homework..

DS1's school, is closed , Yr7

When the original message was posted about the closure, it said work would be set ASAP and that was duly posted about 11:30.

I have had a miserable day trying to get DS to understand it and do it to a decent standard. It was obviously (understandably) set in a rush, most if it involves links to website and making notes. Some of the links don't work and none of it appears to bear any relation to what he's been doing in class. There was no attempt to differentiate for different ability groups, despite setting, the whole yeargroup was set the same work.

Anyway it's done as far as it's going to be today, although I'm not very happy with the standard of work DS has produced (but that's another story) I can't take any more.

My question is was it worth the trouble? What will the school be expecting children to have produced? What can DS have possibly learned from it?