School letting me know that ds, 13, doesn’t have a pen.

[Veuvestar]

Oh and he was slow to get in line
Is this the best use of time?
The school has a system of behaviour points
Isn’t this stuff they should just be getting on with, or dealing with.
He lost his pencil case, he borrowed a pen, move along, nothing to see.
Does anyone rises school do this type of thing?

@LolaSmiles

Then the point generates an email, which sometimes has an explanation, mostly just a title. So whilst the original impression is that school are going out of their way to contact you, you're actually annoyed at an autogenerated email?

Wait, so it didn’t actually take and time? As was explained in the OP.

One of my friend’s is a teacher and she always tells me how disruptive it can be when pupils don’t turn up with the correct stationery.
She teaches maths and complains that at least ten minutes of the lesson can be wasted with pupils who don’t have calculators, protractors etc.
Tell your ds to make sure he turns up to school with the correct equipment

friends

The OPs son had the correct equipment, he just forgot to bring it to class. Why would the school not address it directly with him? Calling students' parents at work to tell them their kid left a pen in their locker reinforces the idea that organisation is someone else's problem. Does the school expect the OP to turn up and remind her son to get everything he needs for class while he's at the locker?

Iwanttobreakfree- I saw firsthand how the lessons were adapted for homeschooling. Ds had a full on timetable, live lessons. I know all schools were different.
I was trying to lighten the mood with that post about how much actual time in a lesson is productive.
I’m not annoyed at an autogenerated email. The teacher has to make a decision on whether or not it’s a big enough deal to make a point about it.

I ensured my son had all the right equipment.
Even though he is 13

I'd have laughed down the phone and told them to sod off and get a life. Dunno how ppl deal with half the shit schools pull kids up on these days. But then again, it is basically child prison so...

When I was a teacher I wasted a lot of time each lesson handing out pens and noting who had one so I could ask for it back.

Even then I used to spend ££ on Bic Biros each term. No they were not provided by school. Just one more thing for teacher to shell out for. Or... Parents could ensure that their children have several pens! There is an idea. Then we could indeed use our time to teach.

@Wanderlusto

I'd have laughed down the phone and told them to sod off and get a life. Dunno how ppl deal with half the shit schools pull kids up on these days. But then again, it is basically child prison so...

What an absolute charmer you are. I'll bet parents evening is an absolute delight for your kid's teachers.

@clary if the school don’t provide them, why do you as teachers (more than one have said this on this thread) provide them at a cost to yourselves?

Why not just tell the pupil to sort it out themselves or miss taking notes and sacrifice grades?

I don't lend pens. Never have, never will. If a student forgets it's their problem to solve by finding a peer to borrow from. I notice that when they borrow from each other the pen is 90% of time returned without prompting. Not the case for my colleagues who lend pens.
I appreciate for your DS his processing issues impact his organisational skills- however for majority of NT students lending them a pen is essentially just teaching them they don't need to make the effort to be organised as someone else will sort them out. Learned helplessness. As another PP has said- bet your DS and his peers don't forget their phones as often as they do pens/other basic lesson equipment.
In your son's case I suggest you send him in with a box of biros and ask the form tutor to distribute them to his class teachers, so there is a spare pen of his in every lesson which he has to return to the teacher at the end of the session. I would not object to this type of adjustment for any of my SEN students who needed this.

Also- you said the email was autogenerated, so all that has happened is the teacher has logged your son a behaviour point on SIMs or whatever system they use for lack of equipment. Very standard and expected in majority of secondary schools across the country. You could always divert those emails direct to your deleted box if you don't want to read/see them.

He doesn’t forget his pen every lesson!!
He goes into school with plenty of pens
He left his pen in his locker
One time, one lesson

Makingnumber2- I don’t think I can differentiate between them!
Seriously though, hand on heart I have discussed every behaviour point with him. I don’t dismiss them.

The teacher has to make a decision on whether or not it’s a big enough deal to make a point about it.

No, there's a behaviour policy which dictates which behaviours generate behaviour points. There wouldn't be an option on the system to give a behaviour point for lack of equipment or not following instructions otherwise.

Sorry Op I didn't read your updates about his ADHD and other issues before posting.

My comments about how annoying it is when students don't have a pen still stand tho.

When I had a student with particular needs like this, I too would keep stationery with their book in my classroom.

In answer to the poster saying why provide pens, if you can imagine trying to teach a class where they need to write something down and half a dozen of them have no pen, maybe you can see why I would try to avoid the disruption ("miss, I ain't got a pen") by just handing them out. In the end I gave up fighting and did what I could for a quiet life.

This is one reason why I no longer teach in the classroom.

I am dyslexic/dyspraxic and have terrible organisational skills although it’s something I’ve worked on. Some of the comments from teachers are awful. The ops son forgot/lost a pen once maybe he should have a spare but surely it’s part of a bigger picture and I’m not sure what I’d have done if I’d lost or broken my pen and knew I’d get into trouble for it. Probably for very upset and worried as school was incredibly challenging for me and the teachers didn’t do anything to help or make things more understandable for me or take into consideration any of my difficulties school was utter shit. Sounds like it still is for kids like me. It’s not like it’s deliberate, teachers would’ve been better sending the parents of people who bullied me relentlessly daft emails, priorities!!

A note to you via your son would’ve done, letting you know and asking for you to help with organisation

The teacher has to make a decision on whether or not it’s a big enough deal to make a point about it.
The teacher hasn't decided to make a big deal of anything. The policy says that gets a behaviour point so it's logged as a behaviour point. It's also good to see which students are routinely unprepared as well.

Why should your child be the exception to the rule?

OP- even if it's just one pen, one time- most school behaviour systems expect that to be logged. My school does. In my school that would be an automatic detention for inadequate equipment.
I do think that with your son's SEN that there do need to be reasonable adjustments made- so in my school we would log the point, but not necessarily set the detention to reflect the fact we were aware that this is an area he struggles with. I think the behaviour point emails probably come from a different email address to the ones sending newsletters out etc. so you can divert just emails from that address if you need some respite.

Another option is can you ask the SENCO/head of year if he can have a 'pen buddy pass' so if it happens again, he gets a chance to borrow from a peer and avoid a behaviour point? Again, I would see this as a reasonable adjustment request for his SEN needs.

People are not reading updates from OP. The lad has additional needs, stop berating her. Any opportunity to put the boot in, isn't it.

OP I am sorry this thread has turned so rancid.

Noblegiraffe- could you expand, not sure I get it.

Are you saying the behaviour policy dictates that the child automatically gets a point if they don’t have a pen?

It takes no time at all to input an achievement point or behaviour point - you right click on their name, done. 1 point for not being equipped, being late or minor disruption.
You HAVE to treat all pupils equally - that means using the SIMS behaviour management system for all - regardless of whether it's a first offence or not. It's neither fair nor consistent otherwise.
As someone who's just bought yet another batch of Tesco biros and board pens, it all adds up. In many schools equipment can be sold for 10p/20p but COVID was a gamechanger and pupils need their own pen and spare for obvious reasons so a statement of fact that they were not equipped for the day should really be accepted graciously.

Every senior school does this, he isn’t school ready if he doesn’t even have the basics

@Wanderlusto

I'd have laughed down the phone and told them to sod off and get a life. Dunno how ppl deal with half the shit schools pull kids up on these days. But then again, it is basically child prison so...

No wonder so many people leave the profession when this is what they are up against. I recommend you take your child out of prison and try and educate them yourself.