To think this letter is scaremongering primary school parents!

[scottishegg]

Seen this doing the rounds on Facebook from what I think is a viable source! I'm quite shocked by the message in this letter! Opinions please.

How to alienate your pupils' parents in one clumsy latter.

www.holmerlakeprimary.org/about/whos-who/

If it's not real then someone is in big trouble - it has the right head teacher, head of governors etc.

I would worry about the use of exclamation marks and the linking of grooming with 'other types of crime' as that doesn't separate a victim from a perpetrator.

Missing the point spectacularly but on what planet is that a 'wide range of clubs'? 3 on the same day and only a choice of 4 in total?? Surely all schools offer more than that as a matter of course anyway. Even primary schools.

Badly worded sure, but they probably have a point and know what they're doing.

Wry chuckle and eyeroll in recognition of the effectiveness of the tick box, Ego

I don't think they know what they are doing.

That letter goes beyond being badly worded.

Bloody hell. Aside from when I was on maternity leave my school aged child has never been to after school clubs. (They finish at 4 which is too early for me to collect and too late for the off site club which collects at 3 and provides care until 6.30 )
I guess that's my kids done for then!

Well whichever idiotic parent decided to share this on social media has just increased the chance of grooming and exploitation hundred-fold by sharing the address of the school and the timings of after school clubs, as well as bonus info on the ages of the children that might attend.

I don't actually see what harm of offence would have been caused by sending the letter. There might be a dubious evidence base, but surely it figures that the more secure a child feels in their school environment, the more likely they are to disclose any worrying information to the school?

I'm still not getting the uproar.

Personally, I am - horrified is probably too strong a word, but certainly disquieted - that the letter is so poorly worded in itself.

One of the roles of a school is to effectively communicate with people in the community. How many threads have there been here over the years with 'the teacher said this to my child' and nine times out of ten the response is no, calm down dear, the teacher would not / could not / did not and your child obviously misunderstood.

And this isn't the spoken word where occasionally something slips out as it were and you think 'oops' - I am not infallible and once or twice have accidentally upset a child by saying something with something of an ambiguous meaning but this is a bit different. It's written down, it's been thought about, considered. If she'd been trying to persuade a reluctant child and parent to join something and blurted this out I'd be very sympathetic.

So as to the letter - well firstly, it really isn't clear at all what the meaning is. I understood it to be a nod to extremism but even so, you would have to be exceptionally obtuse to somehow think that a gardening club aged nine will help steer someone away from terrorism in a decade. I understand the point they were making but it's so badly worded as to be completely lost.

Also, I hate the line about sexual exploitation. There is an inference there that if you don't join a club and are sexually exploited, well, silly you. Should have been an eco warrior then perhaps it wouldn't have happened. We know that the line between keeping yourself safe and victim blaming can be difficult but I think that letter majorly crosses it.

Very foolish.

Correlation does not equal causation.

FFS people working in education should understand that bit of basic science

There are some fabulous teachers out there. There are also people who scraped onto BEds with two E grades and no GCSE Maths (before the rules changed).

So, to avoid exploitation, grooming and exploitation, all you need to do is join a cooking club!?

Really?

I don't get the outrage at that letter, TBH.

Telford has had serious and well-publicised problems with CSE in recent years, only a few miles down the road from Brookside.

I think the letter is ridiculously over-dramatic.

However, I'm more frustrated that someone is running a school when they appear so inarticulate and bumbling.
Please; when is the government going to pay teachers better whilst demanding higher standards of education to enable us to weed out the dross?

People who don't see the harm of the letter are missing the fact that a lot of parents that receive it will think it's a ridiculous and will think the school was idiotic to send it. The school will surely loose the trust and respect of a lot of parents.

That's exactly it PHead

So in their eyes the Hitler Youth would have been an unqualified success?

The wording is clumsy but essentially they are trying to back up their idea with evidence. They are trying to create evidence for ofsted as well as encourage a high number of children to attend the clubs. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion. A sense of belonging is extremely important. The letter doesn't say 'and they will only feel this sense of belonging through attending a club' but they are trying to fill that gap in many children's lives.

Kids who live in Brookside are, I would suggest, not all that likely to live in households where there's a lot of money spare for activities after school, so if school can provide this I don't see the problem.