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

[EdwiniasRevenge]

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.

No i don't but why come on and ask for opinions if you are so sure the teacher is wrong? OP obviously has a niggle of doubt, posters have given their opinion. You can give yours but you don't need to criticise the opinion of others.OP will make the final judgement.

What's the recipe OP?
I'll bake them and post up a picture before we scoff the lot.

Yab a bit u you know.

In the meantime, here.

Maybe its just like a pp suggested miss I was off miss says you can do it at home if you like ok then, think yourself lucky when dd was practising for a practical exam last year it was tuna lasange I kid you not it was frigging rank.

Lemon bikkies

INGREDIENTS

175 g plain flour
1 finely lemon, grated zest only
110 g soft butter
50 g sugar

METHOD

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/ gas 4.

2. Put the flour and lemon rind into a mixing bowl and rub in the soft butter.

3. Add the caster sugar and bring the whole mixture together to form a stiff dough. Do not add any water, however tempting.

4. Roll out the dough to about ½ cm thickness and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter.

5. Place carefully on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 6-10 minutes until pale golden.

6. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

I see no problem with doing it.

When DS was in Y7 and Y8 they did a term of cooking each year - so not much. I think he missed one lesson - and so he did make the dish and photograph it to go in his work book. The teacher didn't request it - but I suggested to him that it would be good to have a fully finished cooking workbook.

Feel should point out it was last week the child was off school, probably a once a week class, so she is unlikely to still be in need of the early night and sympathy some posters are suggesting.

Unwaxed and finely zested lemon that should be Branchingout

TA in secondary school here. I can see exactly why the biscuits still have to be made, and I'm happy to explain it. Each class, whether academic or not (and there is an academic element to Home Economics), will have a set of assessment criteria. The choice of recipes over the course of a school year isn't random but very carefully worked out to build on skills in sequencing, time-management, weighing and measuring, health and safety and using cooking techniques. There is usually a list to be ticked when something has been completed and assessed.

If you and your daughter choose not to make these biscuits, it may be that list will be incomplete, and one, maybe more, of the techniques can't be considered to have been practiced. This could affect the grade at the end.

I wouldn't have any problem with dd being asked to do this.

I expect your DD may have been asked to catch up with some of her other lessons too. Why should cooking be any different? If the cost of the ingredients are an issue, ask the school to provide them.

Thanks for those that are offering words of support. I also thank those that have put forwars opposing opinions.

I asked if I AIBU to think the task was unnessary.
I asked if AIBU to email the teacher.

Most have said YABU to email about it. I have taken thay on board and won't; and have stated a long time ago that I won't so I am listening. I find it frustrating that posters complain "whats the point of asking AIBU if you aren't going to listen or have already decided you are right. I have listened. I have changed my course of action as a result and the further questions I ask relate to the principls of being asked to do it rather than what I should do about it etc.

There are mixed opinions about whether the task is unnessary. rosdearg has hit the nail on the head when she said it feels like punishment to be given extra homework for being ill. This is where I was coming from when I said it was a principle thing.

I asked opinions based on a short text conversation with DD so that I had a range of opinions before speaking to dd.

Now I have spoken to DD she doesn't even have the recipe. There was a worksheet on the back which she completed in class today and has had to hand in. And no I didn't look at the recipe last week because I don't buy or provide the ingredients so need for me to. She just provides a tuperware box to bring it home in.

Lucky you OP, most have to buy all the ingredients! My DD has all the recipes in a school diary/planner, does your DD have similar? My point about asking AIBU was not with you but others that were criticising posters for disagreeing with you, which as you state was the whole point of you asking the question.

Most do provide ingredients but as dd is FSM they are provided for her. But yes I know I'm lucky - but I was just making the point that she can't just use the ingredients I bought last week because I didn't.

She does have a file of recipes - but apparently they have these worksheets on the back and as she was in class today has done the worksheet and filed it. I have the recipe for the things for future weeks but not the things she has already done (or not done). So she won't be able to do it until that is sorted anyway.

"Lucky you OP, most have to buy all the ingredients" Yeah, really lucky to qualify for FSM...

Do people not bother to read the OP's posts before commenting?

Well don't worry. If she has no recipe she can't do it tonight. I'd send a note in with DD next week saying why she couldn't do it.If teacher thinks it is a must she will say so. I really do think that Food tech is so important as a life skill and i would be careful of giving your DD the impression it doesn't count. She is lucky you cook at home with her but as another poster says the teacher needs to evaluate each skill or technique.

Edam the OP's OP did not mention FSM, I presumed the school provided, sorry about that.

I can't understand why there is confusion about why the OP would post "AIBU?" and then not necessarily be dutifully instructed.

In a case like this, the question is not really "AIBU?" but "I think the teacher is being unreasonable; I will continue to think this of course, as I have good reason, but I just want to hear some views about whether this is a common convention now". You can learn that this is normal and still think it is bonkers. FWIW I do a ton of stuff with my dd for school that I think is pathetic, because I am getting social cues that it is quite normal these days to do these things. It doesn't stop me thinking it is pathetic, and if one day I feel like expressing that on here, I will.

The OP has already said that

1 - her dd is a decent cook, including of biscuits
2 - this is not an assessed course

so no biggy, surely? It's just proving a point. It's just the nonsensical box-tickingness that teachers have internalised and it's getting them all uppity and pompous (some of them) about what rights they have to family time (oooo there is no proof that she can make biscuits, on a course she isn't taking for an exam or a qualification in anything, Ooooooo OP's dd is in TROUBLE). I mean come on, face it, it doesn't matter. If you want to make a child jump through these meaningless hoops you have lost all sight of what education is and what role school plays in a functional family life. (I don't blame you if you are a teacher and you have lost sight of all this, because of the nonsense that has been going on in schools for the past years, but come on, get a grip, apply some critical thinking and ask yourself what teaching is for)

Year 9 work IS assessed.

s'OK Green, it was in one of her other posts but I think it's the whole thread that is making me grumpy, not your fault!

I think a lot is being assumed on this post and a lot of posters's angst against teachers is being vented. It is just possible that the teacher wants OP's DD to do the best she can in this subject( notes her skills and interest in it from home cooking etc) and doesn't want her to drop a mark due to no fault of her own. Maybe? Go on, benefit of the doubt edam? {wink}

"Yr9, not an examined course. In fact it is an 'option' not a compulsory subject.
...

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

So - no academic importance; no practical value.

"There is usually a list to be ticked when something has been completed and assessed.
If you and your daughter choose not to make these biscuits, it may be that list will be incomplete, and one, maybe more, of the techniques can't be considered to have been practiced. This could affect the grade at the end."

What happens to the grade? What does it affect? Surely in year 9, nothing? IF she chooses to do GCSE or something later, it won't matter as we know she actually has the skills to build on.

Serious question - my children are much younger - when I was at school nothing mattered till you took external exams or put coursework in towards actual qualifications. Is this different now? Do the poor sods actually have to jump through all the bloody hoops because when she applies for 6th form college, university, or a job, someone will say "she has a gap in Biscuits For Thirteen Year Olds"?

Ha ha now that would be funny! My DD has all her work assessed and i think it goes towards her choices for GCSE so if OP's DD wants to follow Food tech it would be good to complete all skills.

All work is assessed. I know that.

but doesn't contribute towards a formal qualification

Just want to say that as your DD qualifies for free ingredients due to FSM then if the teacher expects her to do the task at home the school should be providing the ingredients and sending them home with your DD.

If the teacher asks why she hasn't made the biscuits yet just point out that the teacher hasn't yet provided the recipe or the ingredients. If it's necessary that the task is done then I'm sure she'll sort out the ingredients, if it isn't she'll say it doesn't matter after all, but you shouldn't be out of pocket for this.

This way if your DD does end up baking at home then at least you'll get free biscuits.

maybe already suggested but why not just buy some biscuits and take a photo of them, perhaps with one of these in the background?