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.

"If we were to take all your nonsense to its logical conclusion, the OP should have sent the dd to school anyway because lessons were scheduled at which her attendance was required"

isn't an argument either..............

This is not homework though Dancer - homework is set to the entire class. This is a completely unnecessary, unusual and unwarranted request to repeat a lesson as part of a non-assessed course as a consequence of one day off sick by one pupil.

" The thrust of the thread is how very dare a teacher ask a child to make up some work she missed because she was ill"

No it isn't. The thrust is should a teacher really be asking someone to do something that is pointless.

The OP said:

"What is the teacher going to gain from this? What is dd going to gain from this?"

And "AIBU to think this task is unecessary?" (She also asked about emailing, but accepted that was U)

The later debate is about where the rights of the school should end and where the rights of the parent should take over. Not whether it's a good idea to just outright blank the school at every turn.

yes it is, that is exactly what it is. it is drawing out what you are saying and implying - children should always do what is expected by the school, without question - to a place where it falls down, where we all agree that it falls down: at home, in the morning, the parent has the right to decide that their child is too ill for school. This, despite that the most basic thing that school ever expects of the child, is that they show up there. Even this can be waived by the parent, for good enough reason.

That was an argument, not just a funny face

No it's not homework it's CLASSWORK. And the argument comes back round to why shouldn't a pupil catch up with missed work? You would do exactly the same in History, Maths or whatever, why should Food tech be any different?

Suppose, for example, at the end of term there was a food tech assessment based on baking these biscuits. Or written work about baking. The OP's dd shouldn't have too much of a problem as she bakes regularly. But what about the child who never bakes at home and only gets the opportunity to do at school? Isn't the teacher HELPING that type of child so they don't miss out?

"it is drawing out what you are saying and implying - children should always do what is expected by the school, without question"

And you extrapolated that from me thinking that if a child misses school for whatever reason, they should catch up with the work they missed? Wow- full marks for long jump!

No, you wouldn't be required to repeat the work in a non-assessed course. 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, but repeat the work from a non-assessed course at home? Nope, pointless.

Since OP hasn't been back since yesterday it is quite possible that it was not the correct message-teacher quite possibly said -'here is the recipe and then you can make them at home if you want'.
I love MN for the fact that we can argue around the houses on an unimportant topic when we don't know the full facts and don't even know what DD wanted to do!
An activity that DD does often, according to OP, suddenly becomes far too expensive this week.

What your DD is being taught here OP is that you should be punished for being ill.

With the way ill people are being treated in society......treated like malingerers and having their benefits cut its no surprise to see these attitudes present elsewhere.

I think YABU to suggest that it is less important than an academic subject because neither subject would need to be done with just a day off school.

I was ill all last week-I caught up this week-it wasn't being punished!!

If you miss something you catch up.

As we are going around in circles perhaps OP could come back and tell us what happened when she actually saw her DD.

You catch up if and when it's necessary.

"What your DD is being taught here OP is that you should be punished for being ill."

No. She is being taught by her mother that schoolwork is punishment!

You catch up if and when it's necessary

And only the DD knows if it is necessary! Certainly not her mother who started this on the strength of a text message or assorted people on the internet!
I caught up with what was necessary -to me-it may not have been seen as necessary to my mother or MN!

Absolutely - I'm sure if the OP's DD feels that there is an absolute, desperate need to bake lemon biscuits then the OP will not stand in her way. She's old enough now to make a decision, and to not need supervision - although if her DD was much younger it would be perfectly appropriate for the OP to make the decision,

That doesn't mean that the OP has to agree with the stance this particular teacher has taken.

She is being taught by her mother that schoolwork is punishment

Nonsense. This is work that a teacher has instructed her has to be done at home because she was off sick. It was not work that the teacher instructed the whole class to do at home. It's off sick which is key to the whole proceedings.

What a load of nonsense. Haven't we all got enough to do without recreating a day at school for no apparent reason? Agree that it's like getting her to shin up a rope because she missed PE. Maybe you should all gather together in the living room for an act of collective worship and a kumbaya while you're at it so she won't have missed out on assembly.

I did update yesterday when DD got home. Yes it was you have to do it rather than you might want to do it
however as the recipe is on the back of the worksheet sthatompleted in class it has now been stuck into her folder so she doesn't actually have the recipe to work from at the moment so that needs to be dealt with first (she is going to ask for it in tomorrows lesson).
she has stated that she has NOT been given any extra or different work to catch up on in other subjects so any work to bring her up to speed. Any catch up work has been integrated into the normal lessons.

there appears to be no deadline so I will buy the lemon/eggs when I am next in tesco (dd would need to drive to get lemon - small village - not sure where I would get them in walking distance). She can cook at a convenient time. She is away for the next too weekends when we would normally bake - and even then baking is normally cakes in preference to biscuits so to be fair although she can bake biscuits competently it isn't top of our list iyswim (weekdays are normally a savoury meal).

I haven't asked outright how she feels about it as I don't want to pass on the 'negativity' about its purpose/value. The tone of her texts and discussion suggest that she thinks it unfair that no-one else has to the text was worded "I have to do xxxxx just because I was ill". So I kind of knew that before I posted.

I haven't joined the discussion today as it has gone round in circles about academic v non academic subjects; catch uo or not catch up; challenging the aurhority of teachers and I don't think that I have any comments additional to what I did yesterday. The thread has moved on from directly answering my questions in the OP and headed in another direction - which is fine - I just have less to comment on these issues in addition to what I have already said.

"This is work that a teacher has instructed her has to be done at home because she was off sick. It was not work that the teacher instructed the whole class to do at home"

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?

It could be for an assessment.

I think you are being very fair OP.

There is absolutely no way on earth my DS would be doing it.

are ok with making liars out of their children (get a picture off the internet

That was my comment from earlier. I was, of course, being facetious - as indicated by the which followed. I am not in the habit of making liars out of my children

OP - that sounds reasonable. Make them when you have the time, and only then. What a ridiculous request from the teacher though - and interesting (although entirely expected) that no other teacher has instructed her to repeat their lessons at home as the result of being off ill for one day.