was ibu.... emailed school asking for son to be emailed school work

[ghostspirit]

hi, my son was off school for a week sick. i thought a week is quite along time and i emailed the school and asked if they could email work over so he would not fall behinde. I never heard anything back. was bit fed up as schools in general are always going on about education etc. hes back at school now. but im bit fed up that they did not reply. but would be fast enough to say about bad attendace.

anyway was asking them to email work a bit to much to ask. would if have been esasy for them to do or would it have been quite difficult?

[Osolea]

I know my ds's schools have done this when students have been off sick, but it doesn't really compare to being in lessons, and it's not really that they send work home, just that some teachers will send a quick email back saying what the class has been doing. Then it's up to students and parents to do their own research using websites that have already been suggested or text books that have already been provided.

Students are expected to email the teachers directly themselves though, rather than a parent just emailing the office and then expecting the office staff to look up which classes the child has missed with which teachers and then have to ask each of them individually so they can then pass formation on to you. I don't think you can reasonably expect the office staff to do that sort of chasing around for you.

In secondary school, there will not always be revision worksheets of things like adding, subtracting and times tables! If it were that simple, then a parent could just write out a few lists of sums themselves.

[TheSecondOfHerName]

DS1 has a long-term illness and most of the teachers at his school have been helpful.

In Y9 the German teacher lent him a copy of the textbook so he could keep up with missed work. It had listening exercises you could access online.

In Y10 the school lent him a copy of the science textbooks and emailed me with which topic was being studied.

[honeysucklejasmine]

TheSecond does your dc have any teaching input? The LAs local to me all have a "medical needs" team of tutors who come out to your house for kids like yours, so they don't miss out on teacher input. It's worth finding out from the LA if they have one.

[NotMeNotYouNotAnyone]

Yanbu to ask, I'm surprised they didn't at least respond to say no. But I agree it's not usually practical to send much home without a lot of work required to tailor it to independt learning.

[RoseWithoutAThorn]

I don't allow work to be emailed home. If a child is too sick to attend school, then they're too sick to work is my reasoning. If they are long term sick then a home educator would be arranged. Although, I have visited children at home in the past for a few hours a week until the home educator is put in place.

I often get requests for work while parents take children on term time holidays. That answer is always a firm no as well.

The only time I ensure work is supplied to go home is if a child is excluded.

[Osolea]

That doesn't work when children are infectious though, and are fine to do work but are staying off school so that they don't infect other people. Or if they have an injury and are immobile but are capable of sitting on a chair with a foot up and work in front of them.

I completely agree with not taking the time to sort out work for children going on holiday though.

[FithColumnist]

Just a week? No, I wouldn't send work home, I'd see the child individually when he gets back to catch him up. Sending work home is a faff, and just adds to the marking load. I would, however email back to explain this. It's only polite!

[TheSecondOfHerName]

Thanks honeysucklejasmine his attendance is nearly 100% at the moment, it's now a case of catching up and trying to cover lost ground, whilst also maintaining his health.

[HighwayDragon1]

Does he not have a mymaths login?

[RoseWithoutAThorn]

shiney I'm in Primary education not secondary.

[noblegiraffe]

I don't think it's too much to ask really.

Yes, it really is too much to ask. Your DC can catch up on work missed themselves when they are back at school, by borrowing a friend's book and copying up, and asking the teacher for help if necessary.

If a teacher teaches 5 classes in a day and 3 kids are off in each (not unusual at this time of year) then that's 15 emails to send which tbh is over an hour of work once you've dug out all the email addresses. And our kids don't have textbooks so you can't just tell them a page number.

Teachers don't have an hour to spend each evening on something that the kid probably won't do properly anyway, just to placate parents.

[CalleighDoodle]

Does the school not have an online homework / extra work page of some sort? Moodle? Showmyhomework? All schools i know well all have a virtual learning environment with links to sites that have skills based tasks etc. check the school website.

[thatsn0tmyname]

Our students catch up on their own steam when they return. We also do not provide work for students being taken out for holidays. There is no harm asking teachers for work during prolonged illness and you should at least get a polite no, though.

[catfordbetty]

schools in general are always going on about education etc

[CalleighDoodle]

And it is a lot to ask. On tuesday between 8.30 and 6pm i had 20 minutes to get lunch and go to the toilet. I certainly did not have the time to create a resource suitable for a child to do at home. if i have something suitable i send it, if not i dont.

[mrstweefromtweesville]

Teachers are really busy, you know.

[RoseWithoutAThorn]

shiney if it's for a week missed then it's not worthwhile. By the time I run around speaking to teachers, be given the textbook, ask admin to scan relevant pages, then send an email to the parent the child would most likely be back at school. I often have up to 28 pupils absent due to sickness. Long term absence is different as I said. The LA dictate the hours allocated to children who are medically unfit for school long term, not me. Due to budget cuts and short staffing home educators are thin on the ground. It's always better to minimise any gaps in the first place but not always possible. In a perfect world with no short staffing and a healthy budget these issues wouldn't exist.

[cardibach]

it comes down to the willingness of the teacher to make an extra effort.
Biscuits don't you think the teacher is already making the effort? Then some more effort for some initiative? Then some more because they're involved with some extra curricular work they aren't paid for? And then some more for any number of reasons which crop up in schools? At what point do you think it's reasonable to accept that there isn't time for even 5 minutes 'extra effort' if everything else is to be viable?

[GingerDoesntHelp]

Unless a child is off for two weeks or more, I expect them to borrow their friends' books when they get back and copy up or even photocopy and stick in work. I often have emails from parents faking for missed work when the child had only been off one day - the child is usually back in school before the 24 hour reply window is up.

[GingerDoesntHelp]

Asking, not faking.

[GingerDoesntHelp]

And has, not had.

[RoseWithoutAThorn]

Shiney. Sorry, I misunderstood your post. Apologies for that. We would normally work with the HE's. They would meet with the teacher to understand where the pupil was in relation to learning. The teacher would then run through her plan with the HE for the next week. I've often gone to teach pupils at home when the HE has only been allocated for x amount of hours. One to one teaching is easier than a full class IYKWIM . I've often had to take into account the medical condition of the child as well. Some children who are long term sick can't cope with a normal school workload. I'd normally tailor the educational needs to what the child could cope with. Some children do fall behind in their learning and yes, it can be difficult for them to catch up. I rarely send extra work home with a long term sick child unless the child was 100% able to cope with it. I openly admit to having a much "softer" approach than a lot of HT's I know though.