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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be annoyed at my employer?

90 replies

Ecgwynn · 23/04/2012 15:11

I am expecting my first baby, due this Thursday. I am a secondary school teacher and my maternity leave started on 16th April. I have just received a phone call from my line manager asking me to do reports for 90 children. The reports are done on a computer system and the spread sheets to put the comments into were opened from 16th April, so I was not supposed to have done them before I left.

AIBU to be really annoyed at this? I understand that I taught the classes and that only I really know about their progress and how to improve etc but I would have happily done this before I left work if I'd been told I was still responsible for it and been given a bit of time to get it done (ie have someone cover a few lessons).

I'm really upset that I'll probably end up having to do them. I can't see a way out of it. :(

OP posts:
amistillsexy · 23/04/2012 23:07

I don't understand why you didn't write the reports before you left...in word , so they could easily be cut and pasted into the system when it opened.

That would have been handing over.

As others have said, you take a professional wage and should have done a professional job. It was unreasonable to expect anyone else to wirte these reports.

It is all a bit late, though, really., since you are due on Thursday! I don't understand why you didn't consider this sooner Confused .

Cabrinha · 23/04/2012 23:10

Well, you could have done a couple in the time it's taken you to complain on MN.
I'd say it's fairly obvious you're the only one who can write the reports, being the teacher.
OK, so your system wasn't open - is there a reason you couldn't have written the reports in Excel ready to copy and paste in? I'd have said it was fine to have done that and expected someone else to paste them in.
I think you've made a bit of a mistake in your handover - and therefore it's up to you to rectify it.
Not sure why people are talking about unions and KIT days... I think the professional thing to do, is just do it! (and if that means ready for someone else to c&p if you don't have access when you want it, fine)

youarekidding · 23/04/2012 23:12

op when were your Easter hols? Did you actually break up on the Friday before holidays and just started the ML as of the day of return.

If so and the reports are written in the following term I do not see why you are responsible technically.

However I would have thought morally/ professionally you would have completed them? Perhaps even just typing the info on a word document to be c&p by replacement.

youarekidding · 23/04/2012 23:13

X posts cab Smile

GrahamTribe · 23/04/2012 23:13

"I put in a lot of effort to ensure all my marking and everything was done by the end of term which meant I was working much harder than usual for the last few weeks of term"

When the hell does your marking normally get done by, Ecgwynn?

This should have been handed over properly if you weren't prepared to request that the system be opened up in advance of your leaving date. Not making that request when you're the person with the greatest knowledge of the pupils concerned smacks of lack of professionalism, that you didn't hand the job over adequately makes it doubly so. You are far less reasonable to be annoyed with your employer than they would be to be annoyed with you.

youarekidding · 23/04/2012 23:16

Thing I don't understand is - you say you left Friday, so presumably when EH started. But you contracted to work until last Monday. Would you normally have completed work during the 'holidays'.

Heswall · 23/04/2012 23:19

I think what you have to ask yourself is how would you feel when your baby is at school if you didn't have the progress reports for him or her because somebody hadn't written them, who evers fault it is the only ones to lose out are the parents and ultimately the children.

EllenParsons · 23/04/2012 23:19

I agree with Emsyj.

Surely it was your responsibility to arrange a handover and it can't come as news to you that the reports will need doing?

spinningtillifall · 23/04/2012 23:20

"When the hell does your marking normally get done by, Ecgwynn?"

I would expect instead of completing it before the end of term, OP would usually catch up during the holidays?

ComposHat · 23/04/2012 23:20

I put in a lot of effort to ensure all my marking and everything was done by the end of term which meant I was working much harder than usual for the last few weeks of term

Which suggests to me, that you finished working when the schools broke up for Easter and then did nothing over the Easter Break when you weren't actually on Maternity Leave and should have been working. You chose not to though.

ComposHat · 23/04/2012 23:20

sorry pressed Enter too soon. They could have easily been knocked out over the Easter break.

EndoplasmicReticulum · 23/04/2012 23:22

I'd have written the reports before I left, sorry.

As Amistill said you could have written comments in word and passed them on, someone else could have put them onto the system.

youarekidding · 23/04/2012 23:23

Thanks compos that was what I was trying to say ^^. Just couldn't get the wording right. Grin

ilovesooty · 23/04/2012 23:24

Despite the fact that I was annoyed by the poster who had a generalised pop at teachers, I'm with those who think the OP should at least have done them in Word so they could be copied and pasted. It would have been professional to have done them and done a proper handover.

GrahamTribe · 23/04/2012 23:25

OK, I see. Sorry, I'm used to schools where the marking of work is done and returned before a school holiday, not after. All that aside, I'm thinking the same as ComposHat.

Heswall · 23/04/2012 23:32

I can't get my head around the teacher having cover for a few lessons to write reports about their class. Is this normal ? My step mother used to do them on her lap in front of east enders.

GrahamTribe · 23/04/2012 23:34

I was surprised at that too. It isn't normal in my DCs school and it wasn't normal in my own either, Heswall.

ilovesooty · 23/04/2012 23:36

I think it would be reasonable to give the HOD some time off timetable if she has to write the OP's reports as well as her own, though.

olgaga · 23/04/2012 23:39

I would have happily done this before I left work if I'd been told I was still responsible for it

You have to be told you're responsible for it? Really? You knew the spreadsheet wouldn't be open until 16 April, so why not say anything at your handover discussions?

I put in a lot of effort to ensure all my marking and everything was done by the end of term which meant I was working much harder than usual for the last few weeks of term

But you thought you'd just ignore the fact that someone would be landed with 90 reports to write?

I'm really upset that I'll probably end up having to do them. I can't see a way out of it.

Well if you didn't make any prior arrangements for it to be done by someone else then I agree - there is no way out of it!

I'm just wondering what on earth did you expect?

treadwarily · 23/04/2012 23:48

I'm just amazed that you would even consider not writing reports for children you have taught Shock

DoesItComeInBlack · 24/04/2012 00:01

FYI a lot of the report systems that schools use cannot be done in word and cut and pasted- they are a kind of tick box system that selects relevant statements for your child and then is fed into a system which reads them and collates the reports. You cant even start them until you are given the sheets, which have to printed out from a central bank. They take bloody ages- about 65 hours for a class of 30 children the last year we did them that way and when parents get them they are largely meaningless crap. So OP couldn't do them until she was given her sheets when the system had been opened. ( about 30- 40 tick sheets per child plus reference sheets giving all the statement options)

To my mind the management knew this situation was going to occur as soon as the OP knew she was pregnant and should have set up some system to avoid this situation prior to her going on Mat leave, esp if they knew she was going on leave so close to dropping.

Doing reports is a massive job and I don't know how she'll do it with a new baby, but like she said, I can't see a way round it. I would check with the union though to see what their view on it is as they will have all the info on the legal situation. FWIW I think the hand over etc was handed really badly with poor communication of what was expected of you.

chocolatebuttin22 · 24/04/2012 00:10

YANBU. Yes the OP could of done the reports over the easter holiday. she had a baby to get ready for, and a break and rest of the extra work she put in to ensure that the marking was all up to dat before the holiday, after all it is a holiday.
Some of you dont realise how much teachers do, there job dosent finish at 3.15 when the bell rings, they have marking every night. Dont forget the OP is pregnant.

She handed over, made her manager aware of the situation. They failed to acknowledge what needed to be done even though they where told. Her manager has the notes and each pupil's progress was disucssed, so that her manger could write the reports. NOT OP's probelm now.

ComposHat · 24/04/2012 00:17

YANBU. Yes the OP could of done the reports over the easter holiday. she had a baby to get ready for, and a break and rest of the extra work she put in to ensure that the marking was all up to dat before the holiday, after all it is a holiday
Some of you dont realise how much teachers do, there job dosent finish at 3.15 when the bell rings, they have marking every night

I am well aware what teachers do, my parents are/were both teachers. If the op wanted the Easter holiday to prepare for her baby (which is fair enough) she should have started her maternity leave, on the last day of the old term, not the first day of the new term.

Aren't teachers always telling us that holidays aren't a jolly up and that they work in the holidays too: she could and should have done the reports during those two weeks of non-contact time.

FirstVix · 24/04/2012 00:19

All the 'shouldn't the marking be done anyway...' comments I think, aren't taking into account the fact that when you mark for yourself you don't need massively in-depth detailed notes as you are aware of current abilities/progress etc.

When handing over a class - especially if you don't have the opportunity to speak to your ML cover as I didn't - then you end up writing wodges to try to help them understand EVERYTHING that you've learnt including dynamics, seating plan strategies, etc - stuff you just don't 'normally' do in writing as it's in your head.

We also have a similar SIMS system and although I left current levels with class lists and general comments for the HoD about progress etc I could not have entered any reports that came after my ML without physically being on-site.

The 'where does it end' comment? I assume that this could be because some schools have reports every 2 to 3 weeks for different year groups some terms (especially near the end of the year). If you teach a subject like art and therefore teach a large proportion of each year group you can be expected to write many reports at a time. When does the new teacher gain enough information to be able to write the reports themselves? You could use the 'but you know them best' comment for at least the rest of this school year.

TheFallenMadonna · 24/04/2012 00:23

I'm a teacher. I'd have done them. If your system is like mine, you can leave it in a very easy format for input by your department leaders.

If it was a comment bank, I'd have highlighted the statements that needed to be selected. If it's a report you write, I'd have written them on a word document or spreadsheet to be pasted in.

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