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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think that secondary schools should not make children do desk duty

192 replies

ReallyTired · 16/10/2014 22:12

My son's school gets each child to spend a day on the front desk on reception doing errands. They miss a whole day of lessons to do the job that frankly should be done by paid staff. I feel its wrong that parents get fined for taking their children out of school, but schools are allowed to waste children's time doing cr*p.

OP posts:

Coolas · 17/10/2014 01:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ChippingInLatteLover · 17/10/2014 01:19

What kind of teacher are you fizzymittens?

Tiptops · 17/10/2014 04:29

YABU.

I did it at school and it was great.

Nit sure whether some posters are naive, or just plain stupid, to think all valuable learning only takes place in the classroom.

Tiptops · 17/10/2014 04:29

Not

MrsMook · 17/10/2014 05:31

Schools are about developing the knowledge and skills to prepare them for adult life. The skills our pupils use on reception duty are great confidence boosters and will, be useful in a wide variety of jobs at any level. It's very healthy to see a different aspect to your students. It's good to see smart students as you enter the school. I'm sure OFSTED would have referred to it if they had any concerns about detrimental impacts on education.

I also enjoyed my turn when I was in y8.

jeee · 17/10/2014 05:39

My DC do this, and enjoy it...

But when I were a lass, it was far better - 5 years old, and we used to get the teacher a cup of tea mid-morning and mid-afternoon (didn't matter that we were tottering around crowded corridors with boiling liquid).

And by the time we were 10 we were given incinerator duty - we'd spend a happy afternoon at t'incinerator burning bundles of the unlawfully photo-copied music......

insanityscratching · 17/10/2014 06:09

Ds did it once and got banned for the rest of his time in secondary because he took the opportunity to get his mates out of lessons, by telling the teachers that the HT wanted to see them, so they could go for a game of footy in the empty gym and also having classes moving round the school because of the classroom needing to be empty for maintenance. He got caught when he tried moving three classes simultaneously Obviously there was no supervision or even any real need for the dc to be on desk duty considering how much time ds had to mess about.

Bonsoir · 17/10/2014 06:13

I'd never heard of this before but it sounds as if it is potentially (if well supervised/organised) a fantastic sort of work experience. And I am a huge fan of work experience.

Eastpoint · 17/10/2014 06:36

insanity respect to your son. He is obviously a mover & shaker showing ambition from an early age. How did you manage to keep a straight face when he told you? I presume the punishment set by the school meant you didn't need to do anything at home.

HamishBamish · 17/10/2014 07:09

I don't know why the State vs Independent argument has started here. However, my children attend an independent school and they are all involved in this kind of activity. They are expected to take part not just in classes but in the overall running of the school, sitting on committees, litter duty, gardening duty AND helping to run the front desk.

However, they are not called out of class to do so. They do all the above in their breaks and lunch breaks. I think it is a valuable exercise and helps pupils feel part of their school, not just passive participants. However, if OP doesn't want her son to do it (I can understand she doesn't want him missing class time) then she's well within her rights say so and the school should comply.

duhgldiuhfdsli · 17/10/2014 07:16

However, they are not called out of class to do so.

Which is precisely the point the OP was making, yes?

HamishBamish · 17/10/2014 07:20

Which is precisely the point the OP was making, yes?

Yeees. Which is why I said she's well within her rights say so and the school should comply.

Delphiniumsblue · 17/10/2014 07:22

I did it when I was at school, but we just had half a day. I was very shy and so it was excellent for me- I had to answer the phone, greet visitors etc
You don't just learn in the classroom and you can easily catch up- in fact you had plenty of time to work on duty when nothing was happening.

gobbin · 17/10/2014 07:24

Mine did it once during Yr 8 (two pupils act as runners for the office and other miscellaneous office work).

Good work experience at a basic level and my DS enjoyed the sense of responsibility.

As a prefect in the 5th year (Yr 11 nowadays) I missed the last ten mins of every single day as one of my duties was putting the phone slips with absence messages into the relevant register. I also made a brew for my form tutor (was allowed in the staff room ooh!).

Did no harm, great sense of responsibility, great relations with staff and, do you know, it was a laugh. Not enough of the latter in schools these days, it's all work and seriousness striving to hit ever-shifting targets.

Delphiniumsblue · 17/10/2014 07:26

It is a very narrow view that anything of value, and any learning, can only take place with the peer group in the classroom.

Arlagirl · 17/10/2014 07:28

Mine both did it in year 8.. I had no problem with it. Its one day in 5 years.

Delphiniumsblue · 17/10/2014 07:28

In my view a good school is one where the pupils give prospective parents a tour of the school- but I expect some people see that as wasting the child's time too!

londonrach · 17/10/2014 07:31

I dont remember my state school doing this but when i went with mum to a private school she taught at i do remember two children at a desk when i came in. One took me to where my mum was. That must have been desk duty. At my state school we had the option at lunchtime at working in the library is the closest i can think of to desk duty.

ThrowAChickenInTheAir · 17/10/2014 07:32

I didn't realise it was common practice. Ours did it and I thought it was strange. It was deadly dull, the staff were obviously unwilling or unable to give them anything much to do, so I can't see it was esp useful in terms of work experience and they missed a couple of lessons in core subjects because of it.

Balaboosta · 17/10/2014 07:36

IMO a very unimaginative and short-sighted post OP. What's not to like about improved social skills, service to the community and the taking of a little responsibility? Good for boys to learn how much "ladies in offices" do. And I'm sure it's just as much work to supervise kids to do this stuff as it is to do it oneself so definitely not "slave labour". Or do you think your precious child is too good for such work? In which case YABU and PFB.

Littleturkish · 17/10/2014 07:45

He has his whole life ahead of him to do shit boring jobs if he wants to.

I can't get over this attitude- what a nasty and condescending view of the admin team.

Honestly, with sentiments like this being expressed by parents, missing a day of lessons is a minor concern.

I completely agree with Coolas. Good schools will do a good job of it. Poor schools will do everything poorly anyway. It really is a non problem- if you're in a poor school, worry about the teaching, not a day of desk duty.

Allhallowspeeve · 17/10/2014 07:51

I don't like the idea purely based on the fact that if pupils miss one day of school you are dragged over hot coals to find out why and punished if not deemed acceptable.

I hate the strong hold that schools have over children's lives so it seems hypocritical to have them faffing about with phones,making tea and running errands when they can't have a days holiday in term time.

nooka · 17/10/2014 07:52

My children had the option to man reception in primary during lunch breaks, and both volunteered and enjoyed themselves (especially making calls on the tanoy). I don't think it has anything much to do with work experience, which should be related to the job/ career you are interested in to be of any real help, but I think it did make them feel more a part of leadership at their school (they were top year junior at the time). dd also did lunch time supervision of one of the younger years for a while, and found it incredibly stressful. She definitely doesn't want to be a teacher!

At their secondary they have some options to participate in leadership type activities, but I think they will both probably give it a miss as it takes up a whole option and I doubt either of them will want to drop an academic subject for a term (if it was instead of PE dd would jump at it though!).

Allhallowspeeve · 17/10/2014 07:57

jeee sounds like a blast!!!

RufusTheReindeer · 17/10/2014 07:58

Just adding an anecdote to the pile

This happens at my children's school, ds1 has done it, seemed to enjoy it and I got a beautiful obviously personal letter about how well he had done, how hard he had worked and what a delight he had been to work with

Obviously all of the children would have received such a letter but it had enough details about him in it that I knew someone had really been keeping an eye on him and watching what he was doing

In the lower years I don't believe they miss anything too vital and because it is a school thing the teachers are happy to 'catch them up'

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