To expect homework and revision to be put on Teams?

@Riversideandrelax ,

I have explained in detail what you asked, but you decided to critique my teaching instead!

I do think you are very aggressive and coming across as ‘that parent’. There are a lot of Year 7 parents who just don’t get that secondary school is very different to primary, where teachers stay with one class.

Nonetheless, trying to see things from your perspective, the school should be helping your daughter transition and, if it is school policy, putting the prep on Teams. Just email her form teacher and the SENCO with the issue (politely, however hard you may find that) and explain the issues. I am sure that a reminder will be sent out.

I would, however, simultaneously advise you to form a WhatsApp group with a few friendly Year 7 parents where you can share homework if you are worried and, if your daughter is up to it, advise her to ask a friend.

Finally, you need to relax a bit. It is Year 7, not 11 or 13. The odd missed homework just won’t matter that much.

I agree with you OP. Where I teach, all homework has to be set on Teams Assignments. It’s easy, consistent, removes lots of potential excuses/confusions. Parents can easily see exactly what’s expected. It’s very quick and easy for teachers to do.

OP, if it's school policy then you can raise it as a complaint or contact the SENCO about your child specifically.

But if it's not policy then teachers don't have to do it and some won't.

I guess it could be because they roll in at 9 and speed off the car park at 3 but more likely they're doing other things instead. You can't compare teachers because we all have different additional responsibilities that take up varying amounts of time, and also bigger departments have more staff to share such workload.

So you're a former teacher?

Well then you know what the problems and constraints are and how to get things done in our imperfect system?

What's the point of the thread?!

I teach in a decent school in a not badly off area. We don't use Teams but a different app. We also seem to have not paid our Microsoft bill so unless it gets sorted soon we'll be back to chalk and talk and writing things down in about a week. Maybe carrier pigeon if we're lucky.

I'm not sure outsiders actually realise how bad things are IT wise in schools. Our stuff's older than some of the teachers. Most of us have to use our phones just to get through the teaching day (because our phones work).

And I say that as someone who always puts homework online and likes technology. I have to do 90% of anything involving computers and printing at home at my own expense. Or bring in the laptop I bought.

Best plan for you is definitely a small circle of reliable friends and a parents' WhatsApp.

Teachers do have varying timetables, classes and marking loads. It is far more straightforward for content based courses to have ‘set’ homework that is linked to the content. However the skills based subjects, it would be more ad hoc.
There would have been a provision before ICT, and the onus was on pupils to record and keep themselves on track, so you could just ask about this.
This is an example of the ‘another teaspoon’ analogy in teaching. One, seemingly minor, task to you, is actually another on top of many for teachers to do.

I do think that pupils should be taking accountability for organising themselves as this is obviously a valuable skill. And your daughter will need to figure out the best way for her to do it to. You should speak to the school and see what they say- I’m sure they’ll be able to come up with something.

My issue in this situation is the lack of continuity. My DS is waiting for an ADHD assessment and is highly likely get a diagnosis. That means, sadly, he needs support with organisation / planning. As a parent I find this really hard if different teachers set homework in different ways / formats. I need to know where to look to check stuff is getting done.

Perhaps you need to spend a day shadowing a teacher with a full timetable!
For every lesson I teach, I will usually spend 10 mins tweaking the planning, 10 minutes printing off any resources and 30 minutes marking the finished work.

I teach. Yes there are aspects that are hard and there are some schools where it is completely unbearable and I am fortunate to be in a place that is fine but teachers are fallible and do sometimes get it wrong. I see colleagues tell off kids for missing or being late to activities because another member of staff hasn't let them leave X early, or let them into lunch as they should, or give them time to get changed. My form class complain about the lack of homework on Teams because if they miss a lesson through illness or a music lesson its difficult to find out exactly what it is - teens are not the most reliable source to catch up from. I can fill in the Teams assignment boxes in the two mins it takes for the kids to pack up and write "See Teams, due Tuesday" in their planners. Its really not hard and helps me too because I can see what I set and when I said it was due.

Of course teens are feckless and lazy and use every excuse under the sun but you just stay ahead of it and tech excuses are not accepted unless it genuinely is a total fail of the device - which I can usually check with a parent. I think its different in schools where students may well not have good access but then you set paper based work accordingly. I don't like the extremes on here of either teacher bashing or insisting they are the most wonderful selfless people who can do no wrong and work 28 hour days and all issues are kids' fault.

This thread is a wonderful example of why teachers are leaving the classroom in such huge numbers.

Rude, arrogant, patronising parents making excuse after excuse and blaming the teacher for their child's mistakes.

It’s a nice to have -

Teachers are there to teach your child 9-3

After that it’s your responsibility

As a mother of teens I can tell you hime isn’t an extension of school - it should be a different learning environment - cooking, gardening, meal planning, reading the gas bill -

These are your extension tasks.

As a school, we have a policy that if homework is not on the homework app then no-one gets into trouble for not doing it. Precisely because some students struggle to remember / take a note of the work / are not in class. This includes online homework set regularly such as Sparx etc - just because it is set every week does not mean a student will remember (as I may have pointed out to a teacher who failed to follow this policy!)

We use teams, but also have a homework app that parents have access to. It is not always necessary to upload everything to teams but there should be a note somewhere of any homework set and where to find the resources.

Please get in touch with the Sendco and ask what is in place to manage this for students who struggle - your child will not be the only one and they should have a way of sorting this out. It is a very common problem within the SEND world!

I use it and put every assignment on teams, with the appropriate resources. It takes two minutes tops and means they have no excuse for not knowing what to do. It annoys me when my kids' teachers don't. The system is there, it should be used.

What if it isn't every week though? Some weeks no homework, some weeks external website, some weeks something else.

I will only back my son up if the homework wasn't on teams and he didn't do it as a result. He is genuinely not one of the ones you describe, he uses teams to know what is due and when. If it isn't there it's not on his radar. And if I can't see it I can't remind him use it as an excuse not to take him to an activity when I cba!