AIBU to think that schools shouldn't dish out detention to pupils who can't complete online homework as they do not have access to a pc or laptop at home?

[NellysKnickers]

As the title says, there is a homework club after school once a week but this keeps being cancelled. I've told DS1 if they do carry out the threat of detention then I will ring the school. Any teachers out there who can offer their point of view? as I'm failing to see the schools side in this.

Just a thought - does he qualify for Pupil Premium? If so, they may be able to get a cheap laptop for him. We have done that on occasions.

Nelly is the issue that the homework cannot be done on a tablet due to software/browser issues, or that it needs to be printed out?

If he can do the work, but just can't print it out, could he email it to the teacher?

If the issue is that it is incompatible with your tablet/smartphone, then I agree the school needs to find an alternative, as more and more families are switching to tablets and don't always have a home PC. It would be reasonable to expect pupils to do it in school if there were sufficient computers, but you have already said that there aren't enough and priority goes to older children.

As you have said many families are unable to afford a computer, I wonder if maybe you and they are eligible for free school meals and the school gets a large pupil premium. Perhaps some of this could be spent on additional computers?

Has this particular teacher been told? (In a large secondary where teachers teach hundreds of children, the teacher may have forgotten.) I would get your DS to see that teacher on Monday with a note from you if necessary explaining that you don't have a computer and please could he/she come sort out a solution with DS as homework club keeps being cancelled. Or alternatively if he has school email, get him to email the teacher now and you can check what has been said.

I'm a teacher and my home printer is highly unreliable, I usually end up printing everything at work. It seems quite reasonable to me that students might have the same problem and it is reasonable that they might not have a pc, I am the only person I know who still uses one but doesn't have an iPad.

Of

acasual are all teachers and all schools always right then? Because it strikes me that they're run by humans and mistakes can happen (about anything!) but you seem to trawl for these threads and assume that all parents are teacher hating wrong 'uns. Sometimes parents need to check with other parents about stuff that happens in schools. Without being school/teacher hating wrong 'uns!

Acorn, you just said almost exactly what I said about pupil premium to buy computers! But I don't think school laptops should be taken home, too much risk of him getting mugged.

YANBU. The school should set homework that all pupils can complete. The detentions are totally counter productive.
This sounds like something that would happen in some dystopian story where children are set up to fail.

Is it high school? Ours has an ict suite where kids have access to computers every lunch time for homework. Could your ds not realise/be stretching the truth? If they only have access once a wk that's pretty poor and the school need to address it.

I think the school IBU. We have plenty of kit at home but like lots of rural families round our way have we have rubbish or no internet access and the phone signal is also non existent.

We are increasingly in situations where a lack of high speed broadband and phone signal means we cant do basic stuff. MY DC school also uses on line revision sites and it is painful for them to do their homework from here.

Yes the school know. Or so ds says..........

I'm assuming he's Year 7? In which case you need to contact the school and tell them that he doesn't have access to tech at home, so can they advise you on what he should do. A lot of Year 7 & 8's try it on to get out of homework, so if there's a genuine need, you'll need to act as your DS advocate for a couple more years.

They may give him priority at lunchtimes, or ensure that the computers are available to him after school, or provide him with a school-allocated device.

Or, they may tell you that there plenty of opportunity for him to use school resources and he's been spinning you a line

OP Have you spoken to the teachers. Head of year/house. assistant/deputy head?

I'd check with the school. Homework club only on one night and being cancelled seems very unusual. Ours runs every day for an hour. As well as two classrooms of computers being available at lunch. I'd never penalise a child for not having a computer at home, but would for choosing not to use the school ones.

If what your DS is reporting to you is the situation then the school are being very unreasonable indeed. Take it up with the head of year.

You need to contact the school.
Explain about the 5 lunchtimes he's spent trying to get on a PC. That needs to be addressed.

Long term why don't you try to address the issue? It doesn't cost £100's. There are second hand ones available at very reasonable prices. And companies and charities and business that offer ones to less privileged children for free. And the Internet/wifi at home can be got for not too much.

YDNBU. To me such a policy penalises children from poorer back grounds. Yes okay they can use public libraries, but These libraries are getting closed down and their hours shortened left right and centre.
Plus I think you get about an hour on them. That's no time at all if they have a huge assignment to do. Also if you don't have one locally. Getting to these places costs money.
As long as its done. Be it online or with a pen. Why does it matter.

Does anyone know how to get MS Office cheaply? We've got a laptop and printer, but the hwk we need to download comes out skew when we try and print it as we don't have proper Word, PowerPoint etc. Only the opensource type.

The issue here is that your DS need to see the teacher as soon as the homework is set and explain his problem. I am sure that unless they are completely unreasonable they will help him find a solution, be it alternative homework on paper or by letting him use a PC in their department at a suitable time.

I think that if he just rocks up on the day it's due claiming not to have been able to get access they are completely right to give him the detention.

He is at secondary, he needs to take charge of sorting this, not you. (Although perhaps saving for a budget laptop over the next few xmases/birthdays would be a good idea if that is at all possible financially). Don't you ever need something non-tablet to write a letter/fill in a form or do you do this at work?

TheColonelAdoresPuffins

Software4students

Other student software discount sites are available. be weary of office 365 as its only a years licence.

Thanks Boney

I don't think proper computers are a thing of the past, ours gets used way more than our tablet and it is important that the children learn to use one. I understand that some families can't afford either but I would choose a laptop over a tablet every time if it was a choice of one or the other.

However it is an unreasonable expectation from the school that everyone should have this, poor internet connections, financial constraints mean that some pupils cannot access the homework and the school needs to provide an alternative. I would contact the head of year to discuss this.

What boney said.

Also, any Scottish parents reading this may be interested to know that the full office suite can be downloaded for free from the Glow web system

A laptop/computer really doesn't need to be expensive...access to the internet is the most expensive bit...
I do think it is unreasonable to expect people to have printers though...paper and ink are an ongoing cost and often not cheap. I would complain about that!

You can get second hand laptops for approx £100 from companies that usually give you an at least 3 month if not 6 month guarantee.
DD1's first laptop was one like that - 3 month guarantee, decent make, lasted 18 months - and that was only because she took to carrying if around by the screen -after 7 months the screen failed - it was a £20 repair (just needed a new ribbon cable) - she carried on carrying it like that so I refused to get it repaired again.
They are now using my old laptop -from 2002 - as a homework computer. I put a new hard drive in it (cost £12) - really easy to do. I had the disk for the operating system so I reinstalled that myself - but it costs around £30 to get someone to do that for you. It does have wireless internet and working usbs - but it does have a tiny hard drive (40GB) and a slow processor but it is sufficient for their needs.

I just don't think it's ok to say they can complete it on pen and paper. The world is digital now. It's all online. Homework is predominantly set on line. You need to keep with the times. He needs these things now to 'access all the curriculum' or whatever the phrase is these days.
Apply to get him a free computer/laptop and sort out the Internet/wifi. Problem solved.

And where are these companies that give free laptops and wifi?
The government scheme ended several years ago. And other schemes you are looking at a minimum of £90 without wifi.

I'm with you OP. We don't have a computer. Or a printer. Or ink. In fact I don't know anyone who does now days

I don't know anyone who doesn't own the above. But I know a lot of people who are parents of year 12 children. In fact we are thinking of upgrading our printer to a laser printer with a duplex facility. Also OH works from home and uses a desktop PC. He has long complicated emails to deal with that require a full sized keyboard and large screen. He has a desktop because it is far less likely to be stolen than a laptop should we be unlucky enough to get burgled.

Tablets and smartphones are simply not a decent substitute for typing essays of several thousand words. DD uses a Macbook Air for her homework.

The school's science department sets homework on their VLE and it needs printing off.

I agree with WhoKnows that if you have children at high school a laptop is far more practical than a tablet.

The main issue though is that you need to contact the school to let them know that your son needs to be able to access his homework.