Concerned about DD being a school office 'runner'

They did this at ds' old school too. He loved it, a day off lessons!

My children both did this in year 8. It was one day out of their entire time at high school. They enjoyed it and it's good for their confidence.

Never heard of this - a whole day sounds excessive to me!! Theyre meant to be learning, not working as an admin assistant

Your children's school sounds very high-tech to have phones and email

The secondary is under 10 years old -the primary school is much older 1950s, and it has phones in the classrooms.

The receptionist rings down and or a passing member of staff is asked to get them. Fair bit of communication with schools is done via e-mail.

I’m in Wales were school aren’t well funded - but yes it's impressive they’ve manage to move on with technology in the 20+ years I was at school.

They are still learning when doing this though, as well as doing their homework, your child will be learning more on responsibility

My ds is in Y8. They have a rota for this. It's called Student Reception. He does it with another pupil. They all love it. He's done it twice this year.

They greet people, take missing pe kits, run miscellaneous errands, take detention slips to various classes, etc etc. It's useful to the school of course, but it's like a form of work experience.

Your children's school sounds very high-tech to have phones and email!

They don't do this at my DC secondary - they have phones, e-mail and enough staff around to do this.

It did used to be done at my old secondary but it wasn't common practise - I never did it in fact I don't think anyone in the top stream did it always seem to be people from the lower streams though that was probably just my school.

Quite normal. I did at my school over 30 years ago, they do it at dd's school in year 8 and at other secondaries we visited when deciding on schools. At dd's school they do it in pairs and show round any potential new families who are visiting the school that day. I have no issue with it at all. Don't think it takes too long to catch up on missed work really.

My dc's school does this.

It's not a bad thing. They get to learn about taking messages, sorting out admin including using the photocopier and all sorts of things that get used in the real world. My girls enjoyed it, and I certainly wouldn't say it was useless.

Both my DC did this in yr 8 and enjoyed it, it makes a change, they get asked to do some quite responsible things and get to know the house office staff better, they take messages, deliver lots of forgotten packed lunches, pe kits, art folders and homeworks handed in by parents to pupils, my DD helped a disabled child and his mum look around the school on her day and later when he joined the school, he has become a friend. She also helped take delivery of various things (art stuff) and take them over to the right classroom. I’m quite happy about it, it was fun & helped integrate her better into the school.

DD’s school did this and they’re not understaffed. It’s a fun day and teaches the kids all sorts of little skills - how to politely interrupt a room, how to use your initiative if you can’t find someone, let’s them know the whole of the school building & teachers not just their classes. All sorts of fun little ways. It also gives them an aspect of working a job where constant new tasks are thrown your way. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not life altering. But I think it’s a fun way for them to learn a little bit of life skills and all DD’s friends loved their day doing it.

I remember doing this at secondary school! Am I the only one that enjoyed it? It was quite fun getting to walk round the school instead of being in lessons and feeling a bit important with messages on bits of paper/in envelopes. Let’s be honest there aren’t many other perks to being a year 8 😂

It's great. Our school did it back in the 90's. Everyone wanted to do it - you're treated almost like a member of staff all day.

I think you're being terribly precious.

Haven't come across it yet in secondary as DD1 is only yr7 but last year in yr6 they had 'secretaries' and the kids absolutely loved it. It wasn't as structured as one day out of class etc but they were called on as and when to do tasks. Good experience I think.

We used to do this (not for a whole day). We would read the ‘private’ notes (come on, if they were that private they should have put them in a sealed envelope) and get a sweetie from the headmaster if we had a message for him.

Don't see the problem really. My 5 year old is the class "bin man"

@Dodgeitornot ds and his friends were forever bucking the systems. The "getting their mates out of class for a game of football" game came after the "move the class round the school" game. So they'd walk round school looking for an empty class, then they'd go to the class that their form was in with a "message" saying that there was urgent maintenance to be done in that room and class was to go to the empty room that they had already sourced. Then they'd go to another class with the same message and get that class moved to the one they had just got the class to leave. Competition was to see how many classes they could move round the school in one lesson.

And the number of people who say schools don’t spend any time on life skills...

Don't any of your think that they may learn something from it and that they may look forward to doing something different for the day. The responsibilities they have for the day may make them engaged to learn again and make them feel good about themselves.

I work in a school that does this and it's brilliant. Some of the kids who don't do well in lessons are actually great at showing visitors around, doing little jobs for teachers etc and it's a great confidence boost for them. For others this will be more or less the only responsibility they have to write about on college applications.

I remember doing in year 8 too, almost 15 years ago now. We called it ‘office duty’ and did it in pairs, I think I got to do it two or three times in the year. We all loved it!

Don't think it does any harm. I know someone who wrote in asking for her DD not to do it because she would be anxious walking into a classroom full of older kids. In my view exactly the reason she needed to do that job for a day, but some people would rather reinforce their children's notion that they are not capable of doing things than boost them and believe in them until they discover they can.
To the posters asking why they don't email teachers, clearly you have never been a teacher. You don't have time to read emails while teaching unless you have a very docile class! Little Johnny's mum who has arrived to take him to the dentist would be waiting a very long time in reception before the teacher had time to read the email summoning him. A runner is much more efficient.
I do agree though that students who are persistently absent shouldn't be allowed to be a runner.

Maybe you should fund raise with the parents to be able to pay for another member of staff?

our school do it and they are called prefects. Dc love it. Its 1 day.