I have mixed feelings. In some ways, I’d prefer it if all these points were due to DC messing around or something as that’s something that he can control and can be fixed. On the other hand, I’m glad he’s settling in, getting good marks and not being disruptive. The form tutor spoke with the other teacher before contacting me. She was speaking to me to corroborate what she’d been told. The stories match.
Some of the points are teacher-centric (so along the lines of banning yellow highlighters from the classroom, but orange is allowed). Impossible to know in advance, easy to follow once known. Human error of DC’s e.g. getting a question wrong, turning over an extra page in exercise book. Teacher error is “oh well, I’ve already given the point”.
Inconsistency of expectations - e.g. having a particular piece of equipment out (think along the lines of goggles in science) will make teacher angry one lesson. In another (same teacher), children will be in trouble and get a point for having this specific equipment in their bag. They don’t know in advance what teacher will want.
Some points are overzealous, e.g. ruling margins through the whole book and one page was wonky on bottom three lines, so overzealous but obviously still DC’s fault.
Some negative points were sheer guesswork at the time, as they’re not told about them in the lesson, so it might not be specific to DC.
It’s a level of detail I only need to know about due to the points stacking up. It’s a mismatch between things I inherently feel are important in school and a ridiculously high level of mountains out of molehills that I’m picking through. I signed up to this ethos when I accepted the school I was allocated, so am trying my best to support it and show DC I support it. It’s an internal struggle if I’m honest when even those tight constraints are breached. Schools are meant to be the expert, so what seems like diminishing returns to me may not be in practice. I accept that.
The other stand out feature is there is not a single positive point received from this lesson. It’s not the be all and end all, but is odd to be so fast with the negatives, yet tell children they’ll get a positive and then not give it. This might be human error or forgetting and it’s not worth me raising it, but the promising and not giving has happened a few times now, but only in this lesson.
It’s an eggshell-walking lesson in a very strict school. All the teachers are strict, but the vast majority of them seem fair and they operate within the school’s narrow boundaries. The exception is detentions where the point system often seems ignored.
DC tells me when he’s been in trouble or escaped trouble. For example, in a dance class, the children were shown a video of a comedic dance. Those who did laugh out loud were given on the spot detentions for disrespecting the teacher. DC was upfront with me that he’d just about managed to hold his in so didn’t get a detention, but was lucky not to. He was upfront about an occasion when there was no queue at a truck near the end of lunch (rare) so he grabbed the opportunity for some food but was still chewing in the corridor. He was upfront that he wasn’t seen running through playground to a lesson (sanctionable) and recognises he wasn’t seen so avoided a sanction, whereas those who didn’t run were sanctioned for being late. He told me about being sanctioned for saying hi to someone at line-up time (no reason to tell me as some on the spot sanctions such as stand up in front of the school aren’t noted in the app).
I respect the form tutor for raising her head above the parapet, as I doubt that’s easy in this school. If on her further discussion with the teacher there are things DC can address or which come to light, I’ll fully support that. I’m not sure what these would be though as think they would have been raised prior to contacting me. I’m also hoping her request to remove some points doesn’t result in the other teacher giving them even faster!