AIBU to think that school should have given my son a different certificate?

[notenoughbottle]

I'm probably being a bit U over this but my son has some minor additional needs, including Dyslexia and tries really hard at school despite a wandering concentration... I was a bit surprised to see this certificate he was sent home with. They have crossed out excellent and written good above the crossed out word. WTF?! Surely it should have just been sent out with the original wording. Even my son commented on it! To be fair school are normally pretty good so no complaint there but I thought this was well, just a bit odd?!

I work in Learning Support and think that certificate is really quite cruel. I do think you need to raise it with the school. Has it been signed by anyone?

Mediocre might be being generous Giraffes! Don't think it was a draft either as his name was handwritten onto the top too... Having read all comments am now quite angered! My poor DS!

What an absolutely cuntish thing to do.

I have a child with SEN, I think that is an appalling thing to do and I would have to raise it with the school.

What a fucking shit that teacher is! You have to say something tomorrow.

That's cruel. Who best to report it to? Class teacher? Or upwards?

Surely this is something that is so pointed abd obviously wrong I don't quite know what to make of it.

No not signed curbside but not sure it's his teachers handwriting either but more the TA's. They moved to this new school a year ago - I was hated at the last one for being what I suppose they would have labelled me as 'overbearing' a pain in the arse because school were crap, so I try not to make s fuss now and generally keep my mouth shut.

& please tell your poor DS not to worry, the silly teacher just couldn't remember how to spell Awesome

I would be absolutely furious if my wee girl's college did that. How fucking dare they! It's not the 'good' or even if they put 'fair' on the certificate, it's the fact that they put a line through excellent instead of printing a proper certificate off.

I thought this was going to be something very trivial but YANBU. This is terrible practice. They need to think again about this so they can do better in future. Amazed that anyone could cross out excellent and write good instead without thinking what a terrible idea this is.

I'd have a word. At best it's lazy and thoughtless, at worst nasty! None of the above are good enough.

It's so obviously a mistake! I would take it in and get it done properly though. I can imagine there was a few to print but the master had to be amended first. E.g. Some to have 'improving', some 'good' and some 'excellent'. Unfortunately your ds appears to have been given the original sample. If it wasn't for the fact that your ds is upset I think it's quite funny.

I would post it back to the Head with a note saying that it is counter-productive as it has made your DS feel worse about his achievements than he did before. It would be more useful not to issue a certificate at all if it is going to be altered in this way.

The only way I can think of this happening is if he wasn't going to get a certificate and then at the last minute, they remembered that he should get one (for encouragement or not being left out or whatever) and just edited what they had. But they shouldn't have crossed anything out...its just not necessary.

I hope he's alright about it.

Absolutely not on. My ds (asd) would have picked up on this too and been absolutely gutted about it. I would definately be having words.

If this were me I would be taking this certificate back in myself and would be having a word. Not angry at all just bemused and amused by this "error" or "mistake". You could say " I'm not sure what happened here? Is it a printing error? Can we have another one?"

If they don't apologize for this "mistake" with very red faces and say thats what they did mean to do then I would then speak to the head.

This is so not on.

YANBU

Mean b'tards!

Crikey, no certificate would have been better than that.

That's shocking. The certificate is meant to be for achievement. Instead it's actually a negative message. You aren't excellent, you're just good.

Yanbu

Even if they realised they meant to put good instead of excellent then thsy should have either reprinted the whole thing or just left it as excellent. It's a certificate, what's the harm in saying excellent when really he's only 'good'? But this is unprofessional and hurtful.

I don't know what exactly you should do, but definitely worth raising even if it's just so no other child gets the same thing

I think GoEasy's response is a good one. Would hate to think a teacher would do this on purpose. Some kind of cross purposes between teacher/TA/office surely.

You really should raise that with the school. I'd be less than impressed if any teacher under my leadership had sent that out and I'd be having serious words with them. What an awful thing to do to a child. As a parent I'd be furious if one of my children had received that, as an HT I'm livid that any school would allow that to be given to a child.

That's mean-your poor DS

YANBU & I'd definitely have a word with the school. Even worse that it's been given to a child with potential SEN, but not acceptable for any child. I'd rather my DC's received nothing if this was the "reward" they received