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AIBU?

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Original poster

To not pay this?

109 replies

sockrage · 07/06/2016 16:31

Dd is dyspraxic and in the bottom set for pe so none of them are great at sports.

She has been playing rounders in PE in a group of girls.
One girl (not dd) has thrown the ball to the batter a bit too high and it has gone in the brambles. Dd was fielding so neither the thrower or the hitter.

They have tried to get the ball out of the brambles but been unable.
The pe teacher has insisted they get it out.
They haven't been able to reach it.

The pe teacher is now insisting the kids pay £2.50 each to replace the ball. Dd has got upset as she knows we are shit skint and I've just borrowed money for a trip and been told tough she has to find it.

If they had been being silly fair enough but the girls are fairly sensible and even if the thrower was being silly dd didn't even throw it!

I must admit I am feeling a bit pissed off at the teacher anyway who makes no reasonable adjustments for dds dyspraxia and moans at her and admits to others moaning at her and not stopping it because Dyspraxic dd takes too long to get dressed and moans at her for using the toilet in class (once in class today and not every class) when dd has a medical toilet pass in school.

It is also the only lesson dd has anything other than an excellent behaviour mark but the only bad thing she could say at parents evening was she was slow to get dressed. Hmm

So that may be clouding my judgement.

OP posts:
greenfolder · 07/06/2016 17:49

I second asking for an invoice and a detailed explanation with documentary evidence. I did this twice. Once when I was asked to pay £2.50 for insurance to cover a trip to the park opposite the school. The school all the kids hung around in all the time. The second time was for £49 for insurance to cover insurance whilst dd was on compulsory work experience. Both time the paperwork never arrived.

EveryoneElsie · 07/06/2016 17:53

Get a dog ball thrower (a scoop on a stick) from the pound shop and give that to the teacher in place of the money.

HerRoyalNotness · 07/06/2016 17:53

Do not pay anything!!

If the school is that tight, surely the PTA has funds for things like this that the school won't buy.

What a prat the teacher sounds.

AugustaFinkNottle · 07/06/2016 17:55

Schools will get discounts for buying sports equipment including rounders balls, so the replacement won't cost even as much as £5 unless they're stupid. And of course a used rounders ball is worth around 50p.

Creampastry · 07/06/2016 18:02

I would not pay.

mrsbates070707 · 07/06/2016 18:09

Absolute insanity! I remember plenty of balls ending up over the wall or on the roof when I was at school! We never had to pay for them and especially not at £2.50 each.......sounds like the PE teacher is on to an earned!

NeedAScarfForMyGiraffe · 07/06/2016 18:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster
sockrage · 07/06/2016 18:22

The reason I wrote she had dyspraxia is it means she is in a group with other kids who are equally crap at pe and will have less control skills.

How are they meant to even try in pe if she needs to worry about crap like this.

OP posts:
NeedAScarfForMyGiraffe · 07/06/2016 18:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

IthinkIamsinking · 07/06/2016 19:01

Would it not be sensible to at least speak to the PE teacher in the first instance to find out what it is all about? Cant believe someone has said go to the head.

Original poster
sockrage · 07/06/2016 19:03

I will speak to someone tomorrow.
There was no one to talk to by the time dc got him.

OP posts:
Original poster
sockrage · 07/06/2016 19:04

*home

OP posts:
PoisonWitch · 07/06/2016 19:12

Call teacher in first instance then escalate to HoD, HT etc. Makes it look like you followed correct process.

MiscellaneousAssortment · 07/06/2016 19:28

Agree with everyone else. Do Not Pay.

Such a stupid attitude, treating the money like its just some small change the pupil can just 'find' on demand. Yup, there will be students who this is true for, but it makes the teacher sound stupid and out of touch. Who the hell is she to decide that a family can just go on and give her their money which could be needed, every penny, no change to spare for essentials. Is she really saying that she wants a family to go without food/ transport/ electricity because she wants to punish some children? Ugh. Revolting person.

pinkstinks · 07/06/2016 19:37

Bloody hell!
Tell them you are withdrawing dd from all PE as of now as you would be unable to cover the costs of any other equipment if anything were to happen. imagine how much a hockeystick/crash mat or trampoline would cost! You were unaware this was the policy and after this information it is the best course of action. Dd would no doubt be pleased too 😂

cozietoesie · 07/06/2016 19:47

The PE teacher insisted they try to rootle through a bramble patch to retrieve a ball? A bramble patch that was nearby?

Oh the H&S implications! Grin

OwlinaTree · 07/06/2016 20:25

Doesn't sound like PE had changed much in the last 20 years!

Agree you should contact the school, this is ridiculous.

Gide · 07/06/2016 20:31

Call teacher in first instance then escalate to HoD, HT etc. Makes it look like you followed correct process.

This. Let's not get ridiculous with requests for invoices and other bollocks. The above is exactly how I would go (and am teacher and would advise if you rang me in my capacity as form tutor). I might not escalate to HT, rather pastoral head first.

The PE teacher is being a twat. Paying is totally unacceptable.

MustStopAndThinkBeforePosting · 07/06/2016 20:38

It is the teacher's responsibility that this ball got lost. The teacher decided where to put this group during the PE lesson. The lost ball is a consequence of that decision. No child should be charged for activities that are a normal part of the curriculum and if PE lessons are taking place somewhere where it is possible for balls to get lost then the cost of replacement balls should be covered by the school.

sashh · 07/06/2016 20:42

I'd ask for an invoice, including where the school normally bought balls and any discounts.

A written risk assessment including the 'reasonable adjustments' for dd's needs.

A copy of the lesson plan, including the diagram of the field / standing plan, location of all hazards eg brambles, litter, contingency plans for changes in weather and for lost / broken equipment - so you can fully assess all the precautions the teacher took to stop this happening.

A redacted group profile updated with notes about who works well together, stretch and challenge etc.

Your daughter's ILP for PE.

I would then state that as this should (except the redacting of the group profile) have been done before the lesson so you expect it by return of email, say within 2 hours of the email being read.

When it's not forth coming in that time frame I would send another reply saying that as long as the school stops making silly demands then so will you.

halighhalighaliehaligh · 07/06/2016 20:54

I would speak to the pe teacher. Maybe your dd and her friends were messing and that was the 3rd ball gone that lesson or something? If it was a genuine accident then there's no way I would be paying!

cozietoesie · 07/06/2016 21:36

Have any of you been near brambles recently? Those things can be lethal. Grin

Any teacher that asked youngsters to go in the middle of a patch to retrieve something would have to have been affected by the heat. At the least.

Minispringroll · 07/06/2016 21:37

To be honest, I don't think your daughter's dyspraxia has anything to do with it. I used to take rounders club and have taught rounders for quite a few years. We constantly lost one or two balls in the hedges, over the fence, in the farmer's field,...in on case even on the road (that was quite an impressive hit). If it was safe, the kids would get them back, but they were usually running off and had them back within seconds. Never forced anyone to get them. I took about three spares out each time anyway.
Just contact the head of PE and ask about it. It sounds ridiculous.

Are you sure that the teacher wasn't joking and your daughter simply didn't quite see it as a joke? I quite frequently go:
"Oh dear, you've broken the laptop. Now you need to buy the school a new one. Better still, you could buy us a whole set...because otherwise they might not match and look different and that would be a disaster." (Cheerfully said, while I'm fixing whatever they've muddled up.)
I also accuse certain children of having broken the internet at times. They now happily accuse each other. "You really need to stop breaking the internet...how are we supposed to watch Youtube??" Grin I teach LKS2 at the moment and even they understand that I'm being silly.

Original poster
sockrage · 08/06/2016 06:38

She definitely wasn't joking. Dd was upset and she insisted she still had to pay.

OP posts:
Original poster
sockrage · 08/06/2016 06:44

Ok have wrote an email to form teacher (don't have pe teachers contact)
I'm aware it sounds shitty and am past caring. We have had an awful year Blush

'Secondly perhaps you could clear up why I have to pay for a PE ball I apparently have to replace. Dd was in a bottom set pe class today doing rounders. She was fielding. Another child threw the ball to the person batting a little too high and it went in bramble. The children tried to get it but couldn't so in some baffling guilt by association dd has been told despite having no control over the ball AT ALL she must pay towards it as she was in that group. She told the teacher we didn't have money and she hadn't thrown it to no avail and was told I had to find it. Lets hope another child doesn't break something more expensive or any bigger balls don't go in the bushes.

Thirdly if it I going to be an issue that my Dyspraxic child is told off for taking too long to get changed (the PE teacher told me herself at parents evening that she was frustrated with dd for being too slow and the other kids moaned at her at having to wait) maybe reasonable adjustments can be made to allow her in a few of minutes early to get changed? I would also appreciate she not be told off for using her toilet pass particularly when she had cystitis as I haven't been made aware she abuses it.

I'm beginning to see why dd dislikes pe and why it is the only subject she hasn't got exceptional or very good in on her report! '

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