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?!

Nasty, petty, thoughtless. It is really interesting how one small edit can tell you so much. Awful.

I would have to speak to the school about that, it's awful!

Mind you, I think any of the three SENCOs that I've dealt with would call me 'that parent ...' - but I do think that is a dreadful decision by a member of staff that requires an apology to the children who received it.

Yes raise it op. My dd is ASD and if she got that certificate she would be so crestfallen and obsess about it. She would keep bringing it up and worrying over the changed wording as a big part of her autism is a very rigid literal thought process. As far as your school is concerned if this certificate was meant to be encouraging I think it was very badly done and could have the opposite effect to the intended. Badly done indeed, hope your ds is ok. Give him a meaningful reward for his efforts yourself.

Not acceptable. Take it back to the teacher and email the head teacher with a photo of it. It doesn't take 2 mins to make a certificate on word...

Please keep your photo of the cert and return the original to school to ask for an explanation.

I would be really upset tbh. Whoever did that is a rotter.

I wonder if a generic certificate has been found - copies printed out with a that'll do etc. Or surplus colour excellents - does not excuse it.

I am a teacher. That is a crap thing to do.

Really shoddy-I can't believe anyone at the school thought that was an ok thing to send home!

Utterly aghast that any teacher would do that. It's not the "good", it's the crossing out that is so unbelievable. I would complain. Vociferously.

Could a kid have done that? It seems like a mean thing for an adult to do.

At DS's school I'm pretty sure there would be a lot of parents complaining.

I'd go in, open with a statement like 'I was surprised to see this last night' ... And see what they say. Then go from there.

ihatevirginmobile It isn't about te fact it says good, it's the crossing out of excellent. A certificate simply saying good would be fine.

I'm also a teacher. That's a crappy thing to do. I would raise it with school as being completely counter - productive. Certificates/praise/stickers are all supposed to encourage children and make them feel good about putting in the effort/making progress. This one clearly doesn't. I would be hurt if I was a child and received this.

crossroadsinmylife
I don't think a child would have done this as undermining someone's self esteem by damning with faint praise is quite an adult concept, a kid would probably have written something straight out rude.

I agree with previous posters, the issue is the crossing out of excellent and substituting of good, with the implication being that saying his knowledge is excellent would be going too far. A certificate that just said good in the first place would have been fine. I can't think of a reasonable explanation for this. It would have upset me as a child (I'm another one with AS who would have obsessed about it) and I would rather not have received a certificate. I think you do need to address it with the school so they realise it was unacceptable. If there is someone who has an issue with your son then that obviously needs to be addressed but even if it is some kind of unintentional cock-up, they need to understand how it could be perceived by children and avoid it in future.

Saw Dep. HT after school who said sorry and that it wasn't acceptable. She will talk to class teacher and HT about it. Glad that I spoke to someone about it but worried about having caused any trouble. Don't want the CT thinking I've slyly gone behind her back.

No need to worry - you did the right thing.

It's a teacher's handwriting and the ink is one of those hellish pink pens we're supposed to use. 'Positive pink' or some such shite. and Ofsted can shove 'brilliant blue' and 'growing green' up their arses. Honestly OP I'm a teacher and although a seemingly small issue, it shows lack of repect for pupils. I would rush around on a Friday getting these certificates ready and half of them went in the bin because of silly mistakes. How you approach this with the school I don't know. Perhaps a quiet word at parents' evening.

Well done for doing something and you may become 'that parent' but you did the right thing.

Don't think the teacher deserves a Christmas gift, but may I suggest this..?

Bizarre thing to do.

Good for you raising it op. It's quite spiteful actually.

Don't want the CT thinking I've slyly gone behind her back.

Well, that's what you did. (Although how sly you were only you can say.)

I don't think going to the DHT was sly. The teacher obviously thought it was ok to hand the certificates out so it's fair enough to speak to someone else imo.

That's appalling. How to demotivate the children in your class in one easy swoop.

LaLyra that's exactly how I put it to the DHT - that it was thought acceptable to hand them out in the first place so maybe my issue with it wouldn't be understood. I do feel horrible as I wouldn't want anyone to get into trouble, or there be any bad feeling, and luckily my son had a think about it and has since forgotten but there may be other children whose self-esteem this may affect. My youngest son's teacher is the DHT, last year he had the SENco - I think I'm definitely THAT parent Could have done with some of those mugs for my son's last school justmuddlingalong...

Out of interest, why didn't you speak to the class teacher about your concerns?

Oh well.