Aibu to email school about this?

[lookaroundandsmile]

My dd is in year 7 and they school have just started using this online system for homework.

We don't have a working computer (needs fixing which we can't do until next month). She can access the system on my phone but can't use it to submit homework this can only be done on a computer.

She had an essay to do recently and since we couldn't submit it online she wrote it all out by hand and took it in to the teacher. But he refused to accept it saying that the computer was "an important tool" so she lost her "good mark for the lesson and the homework was marked as unsubmitted.

The year 7s don't have free access to computers at school and it means travelling a way on a bus to get to someone who can let her use theirs not an option for every by of homework.

Aibu to email the school and complain about this policy it isn't my Dds fault that we can't afford to fix the computer - it's not forever just a month! Surely she should be allowed to submit written versions?

There's also a big difference between dragging your laptop home and dragging 30 workbooks homes.

It seems to me that this is just another way that our society is set up to ensure that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer - because obviously, when the schools REQUIRE homework done on a computer, and students are penalized for not having one, in many cases they are essentially being penalized for not being able to afford to buy one/get the existing one fixed.

All children are supposed to be entitled to a free and adequate education, and putting roadblocks like this in the way of a certain subset of students - the low income ones, the ones whose parents work all hours but are barely breaking even (and come on, there's a ton of them out there) is so incredibly unfair. School is supposed to be merit based, to my mind: you put in the effort, you get the grades.

But they'll keep setting up these ridiculous hoops for the students to jump through, and penalizing the students who do try but fail to make it through the hoop, unless people speak up and point out the discrepancy here.

You shouldn't be entitled to a better grade just because you're lucky enough that your parents can manage to buy a computer and get the internet in, and you shouldn't have to suffer a lowered grade because your parents can't manage to buy a computer/get the internet in. Yet this "COMPUTERS ARE REQUIRED AND HANDWRITTEN WORK WON'T BE ACCEPTED/WILL BE MARKED DOWN" system does exactly that for too many kids.

Well said jayisforjessica

Well TBH, you have to remember that quiet a lot of schools now expect children to have an iPad with them to go to school with.
Our school is like this. Every child is expected to buy an iPad at the start of Y7.
Children from less advantage background get a grant (they might be given the iPad for free) as well as any family who have more than 3dcs at that secondary (parents pay for the first two, the school pay for the others).
You can also get a loan ipad form the school if you wish to do so but as homework more or less all goes through the Internet, you are expected to have a working computer at home to access it or stay at school afterwards. Or go to the library.

Is it crap? Yes. Does it actually create problems? Actually no. No one is in the situation that they have no access at all to a computer. As someone said, a computer and Internet are now seeing as basic utilities just like heating.

The school DOES need to have some system in place to cover the sort of eventuality the OP is taking about though. No access to computer at all at school and then being expected to only submit some homework by email is just wrong.

jay on paper you could be right.
Except that it IS the norm now to have some internet access and a computer at home.
the average British household owns 7.4 internet devices
And 86% of households have an internet access,

So it isn't crazy to see the schools expecting every household to have a computer/internet.

Computer skills are essential nowadays. My 6 year old is doing stuff with PowerPoint and Excel that I didn't start until university. However alternative ways to do this homework must be available if kids don't have a laptop at home - maybe these kids could do it over breaks or after-school. Our school has an after-school computer club that runs everyday until 4:30 giving kids without a computer a chance to do their typed homework. It's really popular.

86% of households have an internet access? Really?

I wonder if a significant percentage of that is via a smartphone - and you can't do homework on those!

In any event 14% is still a large number.

Libraries can be useful but it is a bit of a faff to get set up to use computers at public libraries. It's worth it if you don't have a computer or printer at home though and access at school is limited.

My son's school does not require everyone to have an ipad. They do set a lot of homework to be done online though.

I also think the school is being idiotic by not allowing mobile submission. Laptop ownership is falling. They need to move with the times. Even schools in India allow typed submissions via ipad!

Libraries are useful for jobseekers who have the whole day free. They may not be an option for students who have to get on the only school bus home at the end of the day and are not allowed to leave school premises during the day, even if they did have the time and there was a suitable library nearby. And homework isn't necessarily set so you have a weekend to do it in before it has to be submitted.

Email the school and explain in a friendly way. You have nothing to apologise for. No point DC getting ticked off when it's not their fault

Sorry it took me so long to respond!

I have called the school and explained not heard anything back yet.

The year 7s don't have access during the school day . There is a homework club BUT since we didn't get in to any of our school choices the school is quite a distance away and she has to get the school minibus home which only goes once at 3:30 so she cannot attend ANY after school clubs at the moment. (She goes to loads of out of school things like scouts and swimming so it's not been an issue before).

We normally have an iPad, a laptop and put phones but the iPad smashed and the computer broken.

We are not a low income family we don't normally struggle to pay for things like this BUt we had a lot of unexpected costs the last few months which have floored us and we just don't have anything left to pay for things until January.

Embarrassingly DH is a software developer and so I do get that computers are the norm it's just really really bad luck the last few months.

Thanks for your replies

The obvious solution here would have been to photograph the work and email the jpegs (I have marked work in this format when necessary) or for you, DH or the teacher to scan it. Bear in mind this policy may come from higher up - it's not necessarily the individual teacher being difficult.

Also, if you live a long way from school being able to upload work may well come in handy - illness, bad weather, lost instructions etc.

I didn't mean to offend, OP, or suggest that you were low income (not that there's anything offensive about being low income!!) just suggesting that there are low income families and then families like yourself who aren't necessarily low income but for whom money might be a bit too tight to just swallow an unexpected bill. Especially at this time of year!

86% of British households have internet access? I find that hard to believe, and will continue to disbelieve it unless you can cite a credible source. I suspect, as does a PP, that many of those households have access via smartphone (and you can't complete homework on a smartphone). And, as another PP mentioned, 14% is still a huge number. Do you know that redheads make up 1% of the world's population? Sounds tiny. Until you remember that that 1% of 7.5 billion is still 75 million.

According to the 2011 census, there were about 11,184,000 school aged residents of the United Kingdom (ages 5-19, based on available data). 14% of 11,185,000 is 1,565,760. That's over a million and a half children out there who don't have internet access, based on your statistics (and my very rough math). That's a lot of children out there who are potentially suffering because of the heavy-handed application of "MUST HAVE COMPUTER RARGH" type policies.

I hope the school come up with a solution.

The school where I work are now pushing online homework, and a lot of homework is easier to complete online (e.g. learning vocab - you can learn it from a sheet, but it might be easier to use Quizlet or Memrise) but I would never refuse to accept handwritten work!

86% of British households have internet access? I find that hard to believe, and will continue to disbelieve it unless you can cite a credible source.
Is the ONS good enough for you? Although actually it says that 89% of households have internet access.

I still agree with your point though - even 90% would mean that, on average, up to 3 students in a class of 30 have no internet at home (I say "up to" as I expect that a lot of the households without internet are older people with no kids)

Every library has computer access. Even those on JSA has to log in every day.

MarjorieSimpson expected to have an ipad and a computer? Wow!

Just keeping up with cheap laptops plus software and a printer has been a huge expense for us.

This is so unfair on so many households. How many households genuinely have a few hundred pounds to spare to pay for these for each child as they start secondary school with all the additional uniform expense plus maybe a few school trips and other extra materials?

Maybe some schools have hardship funds but many parents will feel that trying to access these is humiliating.

EveOnline2016 my local library charges £1 for 20 minutes of internet access plus you have to book in advance to use one of only a couple of ancient PCs.

I think it is free for JSA purposes only.

Love the knee jerk of contact the head.

We often ask for type work, it is a whole lot easier to mark. I have 10 groups, so almost 300 students. It is a sod to haul books home, so I stay a lot later and arrive a lot earlier than contracted hours. With coursework, I do request it on the school email system. This means I can edit, comment, show changes and explain clearly with examples, add suggestions and I can see when the child has closed a query. I can also share supportive resources/links. I would, of course, accept non IT based work, I work in a mix of deprived/well off areas.

I'm pretty sure most children would be OK to spend a lunchtime or two in the library. Whenever I go in there, half my form are doing homework or helping the librarian.

DailyFail1 not all school VLEs are compatible with iPads. Also a proper keyboard is easier when you have to type a long essay, and can you do powerpoints on an iPad?

Gnome no they expect them to have an iPad OR a computer.

One big difference is that you can access computers at school but as some PP have pointed out, some children wouldn't be able to use them due to school bus etc...
There is quite a bit of work that involves doing some research, googling etc...

There is quite a bit of work that involves doing some research, googling etc...

So for the students who for one reason and another dont have the access at home, cant use the school access that leaves the local library at £3/hour. It doesnt make for a level access to education.

It is the children who's lives are most chaotic and challenged who could do with support yet it seems that they get the least though a form of institutionalised marginalisation.