to think this teacher needs to more organised?

[BenjaminLinus]

I came home yesterday (ironically after food shopping) to find that the ingredients list for a Food Technology Practical had been posted to the house. It's asking for ingredients that I expect most people won't readily have - sprigs of parsley, mint and coriander and 1/2 red chilli. The onion and garlic are more everyday, but I use chopped & frozen now so will have to get those too, adding the cost of the lamb mince and we're looking at £7.50 for ingredients to be bought within 24 hours and we're literally miles from the nearest supermarket.

So AIBU in expecting the teacher to at least know a week ahead what the practical will be and hand out ingredient lists in class the week before, or is this what to expect in Yr7?

I assumed you meant hand posted too.

I can't give an opinion without knowing the size of the envelope.

Is the letter inside typed or is it a photostat?

Do they fax if it's urgent?

I think we need to know.

Being disorganised enough to have to use snail mail absolutely does happen.

I did it in the Easter holidays. Stayed up all night before the last day of term in a desperate bid to finish writing play scripts which had to be learned by the students over the holidays. Managed it, got to school at 6am to get them printed only to find that the entire school server had had a major outage and I couldn't access any computer or printer. Had to post them the following Monday with massive apologies and grovelling - definitely a lesson in time management learned.

This teacher probably had an oh shit moment after leaving school on Friday. It happens.

Annoying for you though.

Unfortunately evidence of the envelope sealing system was damaged as I opened the letter (size DL policy), so I unable to furnish you with the level of detail required.

As so many of you seem to be struggling with the concept of the school sending written communication in an envelope delivered to my home by the postman, I am thinking of investing in a telex machine to facilitate a more modern approach to communications.

We are constantly told how cash strapped schools are and almost everyone has an email address these days, where you can communicate instantly for free (once you have the working system in place obviously).

That is why it seems so unbelievable that a school would spend money on stamps, paper and envelopes plus the time to stuff all the envelopes and frank them when they could just send out the info by email or other electronic communication.

I bought a stamp the other day. 2nd class for 55p not the 38p you claim

That being said, teachers are human and do forget stuff but I can see how irritating this is for you.

What would happen if your DC went to school without the stuff?

Franking rates are different, around 38p I think.

Sounds very irritating, we have a Tesco Local we could use for something like this, but sprigs of things are a bit beyond their remit...

What weight was the paper? A heavier GSM would surely take longer to pack into an envelope - perhaps this contributed to the delays at the sending end?
Is there any indication that the poster had to stop to tend to paper cuts?
Really OP, you do need to be more specific about these details and not drip feed - how can you expect any logical answers without them?

barbaraofseville it's a great theory, but you'd be surprised at how many parents complain that they didn't get the information sent because they can't be bothered to update their email details with the school or even check their emails, or say something other than "well I didn't think it meant me too" if they DO read them

I must admit OP, if it were me I'd be terribly tempted to post the ingredients to school

I think we need a diagram to clarify, OP.

I thought most schools used email & online portals for everything. I can't believe they'd post anything, certainly not an ingredients list. I'm not believing this.....

You'd believe it even less if you saw the name of the teacher! I thought it was a joke at first, but ds confirmed that is her name.

And there's no way I'm disclosing the name for obvious reasons, call me whatever you want, but it's not happening.

It is amusing that it seems such an unreasonable thing to have happened that people are disputing that it actually has.

Loving the obsession and suspicion over 'posted' - clearly you are a 'snail mail troll' Op

Anyway regarding your question = yes 24hrs is ridiculous for getting ingredients like that, I'd contact the school and ask politely if they can give out ingredients each week for the next weeks lesson (not that hard surely ?)

Also when mine were doing food tech (a few years ago) I always though ti was incredibly wasteful that each child was asked to bring ingredients that they'd only use a little of (garlic, herbs, milk, flour etc) surely better for the teacher to provide them and each child make a contribution to the cost.

Agree with other PPs, OP.

I'd be suggesting to the teacher/governors that it would be better to have a year plan for Food Tech - once done it doesn't need to vary much - that's both seasonal and relatively cheap. The school can then buy and possibly get a local supermarket/restaurant chefs on side. The supermarket may even deliver for a bit of good PR. And it's certainly better value as other PPs have said than asking 30 plus parents to buy a sprig of parsley each. And the school would benefit from roughly costing meals so they know everyone can get it and afford it which is presumably the point of Food Tech.

And a good local chef would be able to help plan with knowledge of what cooking facilities the school has. For more PR.

But of course the school has to make sure none of its students have allergies, so it is more complicated.

A diagram would be of immense help here.

It must have got lost in the post

I'd bet Custard or Butter as the name of the teacher but of course you can't confirm or deny...
And franking does cost less, and I just checked on the Royal Mail website, and 2nd class franking is indeed 38p. I would never have know without this thred, so thank you.
As I have yet,as a parent, experienced home ec lessons, I am keeping everything crossed that DS's secondary which he starts in August is one of the sensible ones described upthred where I can just pay a sub and be done with it.

The school I teach at only sends franked mail out twice a week!

It gets better. Ds came home and said they were told today that they can pay 20p for the herbs. Which is good for all those planning to shop this evening, less so for those who've already purchased.