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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

DD missed a cooking lesson so has to do it at home?

254 replies

EdwiniasRevenge · 11/11/2014 12:44

Last week DD was ill, had the day off school. First one this term. She probably averages 1-2 days off per academic year and only when genuinly ill. She had been up all night with fever and still had a fever that morning (38+).

She was due to bake lemon biscuits in her food class. Yr9, not an examined course. In fact it is an 'option' not a compulsory subject.

Today she has been told that because she missed the cooking session last week she must bake the dish at home (biscuits) and take a photograph with a name label shown in the picture. What is the teacher going to gain from this? What is dd going to gain from this?

Now - if it was an academic subject I would feel there was some justification for catching up on the missed class content. But to complete a practical she missed?

She cooks competently at home -bolognese/chilli/soup/cakes/biscuits all from scratch and with minimal input from me.

AIBU to think that this task is unnecessary?
AIBU to politely email the teacher and explain that I feel this is unecessary.

OP posts:
Original poster
EdwiniasRevenge · 12/11/2014 18:55
OP posts:
SirChenjin · 12/11/2014 18:55

So. Just to clarify. There is no need to catch up on work that you miss because you are off sick

As per my earlier post - If a pupil misses a day through sick leave they are not expected to repeat the entire lesson. If the course is assessed, and they have any sense, they will get the lesson from the teacher or another pupil and read up on what they've missed

If you wish to take from this that this is the mood of the entire thread, then fill your boots.

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 12/11/2014 18:59

Genuinely OP I just wouldn't be doing it. However orange biscuits sound fine.

Quangle · 12/11/2014 18:59

So. Just to clarify. There is no need to catch up on work that you miss because you are off sick. Is that the mood of the thread?

Clearly it depends. If you miss 40 hours of schooling you cannot do 40 hours of work out of school to catch up. So you'd catch up on the essential building blocks that are core skills and on which the rest of the term depends. So if you miss the intro to calculus then yes. Or the first chapter of the new book for English then yes. But if it's eg, just another English comprehension and you've done loads already then no. And lemon biscuits....no!

Hakluyt · 12/11/2014 19:00

"If a pupil misses a day through sick leave they are not expected to repeat the entire lesson"

I don"t understand. The OP's dd is not being expected to repeat the entire lesson either. There would have been loads of stuff about H&S, lots of questions and so on. She is being asked to just do the baking. 20 minutes. 10 minutes to make the biscuits, 10 minutes to tidy up while they bake. So that when the time comes to write evaluations she has something to evaluate.

LynetteScavo · 12/11/2014 19:01

Knowing how to make Lin biscuits is an essential life skill. The teacher is a wise woman to request this of your DD.

If this subject is an option surely it still has a final exam ...otherwise it's just a club Hmm nothing my ds did in Y9 counted towards any final grade...didn't mean he didn't have to do any homework. I'm confused as you can tell.

SirChenjin · 12/11/2014 19:07

In which case, what on earth is the point of only repeating one small part of the lesson? And evaluation of what?

Coolas · 12/11/2014 19:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Hakluyt · 12/11/2014 19:20

Evaluation of the baking. That's how food Tec works. And the H&S and so on wouldn't be necessary because the baking was being done in a domestic kitchen. And obviously it would be quick if she wasn't having to share any utensils or anything. Next week, they might well be writing an evaluation of the baking, thinking how it could be improved or changed, doing a break down of the ingredients-fats, sugars and so on.

SirChenjin · 12/11/2014 19:24

But we don't know that there is an evaluation coming up, do we? Or did I miss that bit?

SirChenjin · 12/11/2014 19:26

And in fact, the OP has said there is no deadline - so that would suggest that there is no evaluation in the next week or so.

MrsCakesPrecognition · 12/11/2014 19:27

I think this sounds really peculiar. Like a child being asked to do 45 mins of star jumps at home because they were ill and missed their PE lesson.

Make whatever biscuits you like (buy a packet and muss them up until they look homemade if you want), take the photo and move on. Luckily no-one has invented tasteopics yet.

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 12/11/2014 19:28

Have I missed something? Is this towards a final mark or something? I did skim read a bit.

SirChenjin · 12/11/2014 19:30

Nope, not an assessed course.

Hakluyt · 12/11/2014 19:31

There normally is an evaluation of everything cooked in Food Tec.

My ds was off sick a few weeks ago, and his English teacher asked him to have a go at the work they had done in class -annotating a poem- because they were going to discuss it at the next lesson. Should I have refused to let him do it because it was "punishing him for being ill"?

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 12/11/2014 19:33

Then what's the point? It's a plate of biscuits.

How very strange.

SetPhasersTaeMalkie · 12/11/2014 19:34

My DS 'evaluates' his cooking every week. It's either eaten or binned.

SirChenjin · 12/11/2014 19:36

because they were going to discuss it at the next lesson

There's your clue. This is not the case with the OP though, is it? There is no assessment (as there is in English), there is no deadline, and no forthcoming evaluation which requires the biscuits to be baked by a specific date.

There is no point - or none that has been clearly communicated to the OP or her DD.

BoomBoomsCousin · 12/11/2014 19:37

"because they were going to discuss it at the next lesson" look at that - a clear reason for doing the work!

BellaVita · 12/11/2014 19:38

If DS2 missed a food tech lesson, (think he has done twice), he made the food at home so he could write up the notes in his book.

SirChenjin · 12/11/2014 19:43

Was that part of an assessed course?

Hakluyt · 12/11/2014 19:49

"No bloody way would I be doing this. If my children are off sick then we don't get instructions home to do the PE they missed, the art they missed, or indeed any of the other work they missed."

So when you said this, SirChen you didn't actually mean "any of the other work they missed"?

SirChenjin · 12/11/2014 19:53

Yes, I did. I actually meant that if they are off sick (as in, sick for one day) then they don't get instructions home to do any of the other work they have missed.

I then actually went onto to say (and I quote, again, 3rd time now for your benefit) "If a pupil misses a day through sick leave they are not expected to repeat the entire lesson. If the course is assessed, and they have any sense, they will get the lesson from the teacher or another pupil and read up on what they've missed"

Original poster
EdwiniasRevenge · 12/11/2014 20:04

I think the evaluation was done in yesterdays lesson so she hasn't done it. She is cooking the next dish tomorrow - fruit crumble so the class have "moved on" from the lemon biscuits and any associated evaluation I think.

OP posts:
rosdearg · 12/11/2014 21:06

"So. Just to clarify. There is no need to catch up on work that you miss because you are off sick. Is that the mood of the thread?"

I don't know. I don't presume to speak for "the mood of the thread" or for anyone but myself, but, for the millionth time, here are two of the key points I am making:

  • there are two reasons for making up work: making sure your knowledge and skills are fit for you to keep up with the class as the course goes on; earning points towards lasting external assessment. Neither is relevant here.
  • therefore, the parent has the right to take a holistic view of the situation, with greater knowledge and therefore better overall judgement than the teacher, who is operating narrowly within the confines of formal education, and whose sphere of influence should therefore be that only. This is not to disrespect teachers. it is just to say teachers don't rule LIFE.
  • Repeatedly implying that disagreeing with teachers is just being some kind of stupid silly low-life, as some have done on this thread, pointlessly disruptive and not worthy of respect, is just being mindlessly insulting as you are clearly missing both points above and just jumping on a bandwagon to display some imagined superiority. Why do you feel the need to do this?
  • this attitude has a lot to do with the contemptuous "othering" of various sorts of people that drives this disastrous neo-liberal hate fest, and is fostered by our nasty media. It is really fascinating and disgusting to see it close up.
  • £5 to the first person who scoffs at that last point saying something like "it's only bloody biscuits, FFS". No, I wasn't the one who started invoking coke in water bottles with rhetorical hand waving at disobedient scum. something nasty is going on here.
  • that's £5 to put towards your own social, political and philosophical education. Buy a book, read it, it'll do you good. Oh no you won't have time because you'll be jumping through the hoops set by the school, reading books about Sid and Nan and a Pit or something. Oh well