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.

Come on BoBo...you know full well that Bertrand is referring to temporary accommodation meaning that they are unlikely to have full access to the required tech.

You cannot adapt school expectations to the most deprived members of society.

Bobo in guessing you've never experienced poverty or severe hardship

Not everyone can afford all this technology. Schools need to be flexible when it comes to this

Schools cannot lower their expectations of pupils indefinitely and also educate them to a standard that will allow them to participate in society. There is an inherent conflict of interest when schools are endlessly forgiving.

Reality is not that simple

School wants every child to have access to Internet and printer. Fine in theory

In reality you've got parents who are scrimping for next weeks meals, you've got parents who are homeless and living in temporary accommodation. Neither one can afford to go out and just get a computer

This is where the school HAS to be flexible

If schools are flexible they risk sending out the message that computer illiteracy is an acceptable situation and will not disadvantage DC.

Anyway, in France, poorer households equip their DC more fully than richer ones!

Good for France
Not so good for the UK

Do you think there are no DC living four to a room in Paris Catholic schools?

I'd have thought that relatively few homeless illegal immigrants would be sending their kids to fee-paying Catholic schools but I'm happy to be proved wrong on that

I really hoped we'd moved on from
This shit tbh. Back in my day it was humiliating pupils for the wrong coloured blazer (hand me down basically from a relative who'd gone to another school, blue rather than black so not like he turned up in a Red one !!). But no now it's expensive equipment used to create the divide

Poorer house hold equip better in France ? You are assuming there is a bloody house to equip in the first place

My grandson has homework on a site called Spelodrome which only works on laptop or pc. He does have access to a laptop so it isn't a problem for him. He is year 5.

YANBU

DD1s school seem to think I'm running a printing shop. Do they really have a clue how much printer ink costs or how bloody fiddly and temperamental these things are?

Also at our primary school has introduced many online programs that require flash player so they unsuitable for iPads and many tablets.

And don't even get me started on the hell that is MyMaths
Why do kids need to repeat the whole thing again if they get one wrong.

Why are we discussing homeless illegal immigrants? The OP is not a homeless illegal immigrant.

You clearly no nothing about schools in Paris, PlasticBertrand. 1/3 of college aged DC attend private Catholic schools in Paris and pupils are far from all being highly advantaged. In my old building the gardienne and her DH, who lived in a one-room loge on the ground floor next to the bins, sent both their sons to our local Catholic school.

know

Poor buggers, not only do they have to live next to bins but attend catholic school too, somebody put them out of their misery !

Can I just state again that there has been no punishment yet. There has been no discrimination. All the OP has to do is talk to the school herself NOT through her child and it will all be resolved. Schools DO make allowances but we have to know that there's an issue before resolving it.
The vast majority of people do have access to computer/internet. The constant exam changes have made expensive textbooks an unlikely option. This is why schools are going for internet based options. I work in a department where we cannot afford new books. The books we do have assume constant access to computers/internet in the class. We don't have that (humanities subject - not timetable priority for computer rooms). Believe me when I say I appreciate the struggle.

Puffin Academy does enable flash products like mymaths to be done on ipads. I email my students at least once a term to remind them of this.

A quick Google and I see some of the mentioned programmes require a tablet or pc not optimised for a phone.

I do set online homework sometimes. In 7 years of teaching I have had 2 students who I had to something different for due to lack of Internet access at home. One lost the sheets I printed for them repeatedly which fid get them a cosequence of sitting and doing work at lunch - same as a written sheet homework I would have set. The other lost a lot of my belief when he discussed within my earshot how he had spent the previous night on his Ipad and how he had been facetiming - so pointed out how he could do my homework.

My room is a computer room and is frequently used before and after school and at break and lunchtime for students needing access.

I agree with others a note is needed - Internet not working/printer not working/mymaths not working are the new dog ate my homework excuses!

I also ask students to print screen and emsil it to me if mymaths is playing up as proof I also then speak to mymaths directly to report these issues.

Sigh.

This is a bit of a bugbear of mine. We do have a laptop but I get very fed up with the awful platforms school insist on using. Don't even get me started on Flash! The problem seems to be as a PP suggested that the school gets sold the idea of this platform that will run on anything and is 100 percent reliable. Yeah right. Then they can't understand what you mean when you tell them the damn thing won't run.

I don't print anything, e.mail or memory stick all the way. The printer we have has a mind of it's own (don't they all) plus ink is really expensive and they always seem to want graphics, photos and graphs printed. If they want to use technology then lets use it properly. Otherwise lets just write and draw.

Actually I teach at an ESPE bobochic so I do know a fair bit about the dducationn system.you do realise there are schools outside Paris too, right?

Also! (See...bugbear).

I don't think teachers should be suggesting that a tablet is in anyway suitable to complete homework on and a smartphone? Really?

I completed a college course online and I had to have a keyboard, I couldn't have done it otherwise. It was hard enough as it was I used to spend longer sorting out their rubbish formatting than I did writing my flaming answers!

Schools need to be providing access to computers if they want computers used. Maybe most homes have the necessary equipment but not all will have the relevant programmes, reliable internet access (yes talk talk I'm looking at you) or enough screens to go round.

I know all about schooling in France, Plastic. You are the one displaying crashing ignorance here, not me .

Please arrange a meeting with the head and the teacher concerned, to explain that ur son is worried and struggling to get access to computers at lunchtime, and ask for their help and support in solving this. They should be concerned, and they shouldn't be putting little kids in this embarrassing position because they don't have a computer; if the head is good, he will want to sort the problem (they may even be able to loan him a laptop), and to sort out the general problem so that other kids r not put in this position.
No one should be able to tell who's poor because they're queuing to use library PC's at 11, instead of making friends at relaxing at lunchtime - that's just wrong :-(

'I find it mind boggling that a household would not have a computer printer and web access. I can't understand how they manage.'

What do you suggest they do, magic it all up? We have a printer right now that we have to get rid of because we can't afford the ink and it won't take substitutes. I have to buy another one but I have to wait till payday because we don't have a spare 30 quid - it's all budgeted to the last penny on essentials like food, power, fuel for DH to go to work, etc. So no printer till then.

I am a teacher. Those people who don't know anyone without a printer AND don't appreciate that not everyone has access to all technology are indicative of the lack of awareness in society of how other people live. Not everyone is privileged. The average weekly wage in Hull in 2014 for example was £376 against the UK average of £504. I think it is reasonable to assume those whose friends all have a printer are moving in circles earning well over the average. (I do realise plenty of people have a printer and are aware of the inequalities in society)

My DD had to do group work last year with DC who didn't have a printer at home, or their own mobile.

One of those DC lived in a large McMansion with an indoor swimming pool. Another was similarly well off.