To ask , as a parent , what are your pet peeves about school?

[SteveAs]

Inspired by the teacher and the school child thread

I will start

Schools closing at 2pm on Wednesday every week , such a pain

We had a message last year stating that there must always be a parent or emergency contact within 10 minutes drive of the school at all times

Yes i'm sure we had similar. And a letter saying they need copies of prescriptions. Don't think so!

The thing that really annoys me is that they are sticklers for getting the children into school on time, fair enough, but they are completely inconsitent about letting them out, they are normally late, but occasionally they will be on time, so you can’t even guarantee the lateness.
I just think it’s double standards.
Also they are good at starting new things, but crap at following them through.

For those laughing at the use of the comic sans font for letters going home this is a recommended font for those with dyslexic type difficulties. There will be parents that struggle to read.

Last minute requests. Book day particularly annoys me. It is always the first Thursday in March and DD's school do the same things every year so why do they never send the email out til exactly one week before? its ok once you've been there a few years and know what they do to celebrate it but would it really kill them to give a bit of notice?

Mormont - really? I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing

(In which case, one wonders, why aren't more important documents in Comic Sans?)

Schools stuck in the 1950s. Every child has a mummy at home who can pop into school with 5 minutes notice.

This, in a nutshell.

Many of the average school's communication methods, organisation, processes are basically designed for a family, working pattern and social structure that doesn't exist for most families.

Think about it.

Time at short notice for meetings/events? Doable if 1 SAHP.
Donations? Doable if you have the disposable income.
Cash only? Doable if you're living and working locally and have actual cash/a local bank rather than cards for everything or direct deposit online banking.
Emergency contact within X minutes of the school? Doable if you can afford rent/housing locally and either don't work or basically have a high powered flexible job or are self employed really.

None of these schools are set up to respond to modern families.

Which are not nuclear, 2.4 children with a SAHP and working parents local at all times!

If working practices in any other sector had stayed the same for so long there would be services and alternative providers destroying how schools currently operate, but education as a sector moves slowly.

Teaching my daughter that sky fairies are real

The fact they can't seem to get their heads round the fact that lots and lots of children have two working parents and cannot attend:

Tea time concerts
Inter house sports matches
Easter bonnet parades
Mother's Day teas
Harvest Festival
Open afternoons
Read, Share and Celebrate
Founders Day (school closed on a random Friday)
Lunchtime finish at the end of term
Summer shows
Open swimming class afternoon

And so it goes on. Particularly if you have 2 DC's school events to support. DH and I use all our annual leave (except two weeks in the Summer), booking random days/half days to attend school events. It's a fucking joke.

That every child in the class/grade is at exactly the same level, despite the various age differences and abilities. They don’t seem to care and do not adjust for it.

Must get those damn grades for funding

PE teacher making kids go out to play sports in the freezing rain and then the school sending you crappy letters when the kids get under 95% attendance.
My two primary school kids bring all sorts of nasty colds and coughs, then my 3 year old gets a chest infection, then I catch it and my asthma gets worse. Two years ago we all got really sick with chest, ear and sinus infections and the kids had 3 days off as they were really poorly with high fevers etc. One day I was literally crumpled on the floor crying because I felt so ill and I had 3 small sick children to look after, with no help. Then the last day before Xmas the school sent me a threatening letter about their attendance!!. It ruined my Christmas and I ended up complaining to the school. I told them teachers should not be expected to act as glorified nurses, sick kids make other kids sick and they are hardly going to be learning anyway when they are slumped and crying with a chest infection and a fever. How heartless. 😠😠When they said they would require proof of illness I said drs don't issue sick notes for a primary school missed day (I've tried!) but next time one of my kids got a tummy bug I'd be happy to email detailed photos of the event 😁😁😁

My complaints aren't as serious as some on this thread.. (was a bit at the 10 min drive away from school post!)

But my issues are -
Dressing up days.. so far this year we've had Number day, and oh no of course they can't just be any number.. it has to be their class number that they dress up as
World book day - as standard, though I've read some schools just get children to come in pyjamas & read stories (this seems a better idea than competitive parenting costumes..)
And next up we have Sports Relief dress as a sports personality..

Short notice communication.. we got a text to let us know there would be a 'maths lesson session' for parents the day before it was happening.. do they expect everyone to be able to just drop an afternoons work at short notice to turn up?

Oh yeah I forgot! Sports Day!! A whole morning sat there listening to kids screaming so you can maybe catch a glimpse of your own child for a second if you are lucky. 😪😪😪

My peeves are PE teachers only being interested in the top 10 per cent,and blatant political bias.

"For those laughing at the use of the comic sans font for letters going home this is a recommended font for those with dyslexic type difficulties"

There's no evidence to prove that's the case, although a lot of teachers seem to believe that particular myth, hence why they keep using Comic Sans! Dyslexics are helped more by large letters and large spaces between letters and words. Another sans-serif font such as Verdana could be used instead; there's no reason to inflict Comic Sans on innocent people. And presumably if dyslexic people can read bills, newspapers, books and everything else in the world which doesn't use Comic Sans, they would have no trouble also reading letters from school?

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/long-read-whats-so-bad-about-comic-sans-anyway

The shitty 'walk to school and get a badge etc as reward' thing.

Ds is in breakfast club at 7.30am (5/10 minute drive) and they walk him down the path to school. He cried and begged to walk (would have meant leaving home at 7am , walking then running back for the car...) every day for 2 weeks

I personally use Ariel as a dyslexia friendly font because I don't like comic sans but I know a lot of schools jumped on the comic sans bandwagon so I was just explaining to those that were sneering why it might have been used. At least the school was trying. If they sent home letters with large font and large spaces there would be even more sneering. And no some parents can't read bills, newspapers,books and everything else in the world. Some parents can't manage the newsletter in whatever font and it will be their six year old child reading it for them. Have you ever seen a mother cry with joy because her 14 year old had learnt to read and admit that he could read better than her (his actual reading age was 7.6).

@OlennasWimple
In which case, one wonders, why aren't more important documents in Comic Sans?
because the casualty rates among frontline office staff would be unsustainable

Our school could never be accused of lack of communication. There is a cake sale on tonight...they'll next me later to remind me. I'm good though because they've sent me 3 already.

Mind you, I once did not attend an optional carol service only to be met at the school gates the next day by a cross head teacher. Turns out that by "optional" they meant "under pain of death".

Homework (anything beyond reading, spelling, times tables).
Anything involving a costume/dress up.

We had a message last year stating that there must always be a parent or emergency contact within 10 minutes drive of the school at all times
That's one of the most bonkers things I've ever read. I've actually been within the school grounds and received a phone call asking me to pick up my sick child - and it took me more than 10 minutes to get to the office from the opposite side of the school. Imagine if I'd had the audacity to leave the school grounds!

I have minor niggles with communication and the seemingly constant requests for money. I am especially thinking of the Xmas Jumper Day that I only found out about a couple of days before. DS had outgrown his Xmas jumper and shopping opportunities were limited so I ended up spending £20 on a new jumper just so that he could take £1 into school! It would have been much better to make it a "Xmas Dress Up Day" so that I could have stuck a Santa hat or bit of tinsel on him and sent him like that!

But that really is a minor niggle as it's a brilliant school, especially in comparison with his old primary school which was truly shocking, and never, ever did any kind of dress up days, rarely did outings or had people come in or anything like that. DS has tons of opportunities in his current school and I don't really mind putting my hand in my pocket to fund them...it's so much better than the alternative.

I remain annoyed that only one parent can be only the contact list for communication though. I am separated from DS's dad so it would be so helpful if we both got the texts/emails from school but they all come to me and I have to forward them on. Luckily, we get on fine and it's just a case of me hitting forward and letting him deal with whatever's going on on his days but I imagine it would be worse for separated parents who don't get on.

On the whole, the teachers do a fantastic job and are really caring and dedicated. But...

• Choosing the same (already confident and articulate - usually privileged) six or seven children for every speaking and leadership role for the whole of primary school. When challenged, giving the reason that they have the necessary skills. Well of course they have - none of the others have had any practice, and their self-esteem has been shot-to-pieces by being overlooked. All while boasting on the website about how much they focus on inclusion, and value every child.

• Putting test results on leader-boards on the wall, so the children who aren't doing very well feel even more shit about themselves, and everyone (including all visitors to the classroom) can see they're struggling. Presumably it's meant to be motivating, but I just can't see this working as motivation, and there is so much potential for negative effects.

• Any opportunities (e.g. school council rep.) being chosen according to class vote, so children who aren't 'popular' (through no fault of their own - special needs/overweight/neglected) don't stand a chance.

Teachers vary in how much they do these things, but the leader-boards seem to be a whole-school thing. Why? Just why?

IToldYouIWasFreaky that "we can only send 1 text message per child" set-up is exactly what I was talking about earlier.

There's no technical reasons why it can't be done. It's just that school processes & ways of working are usually set up to deal with stereotyped family structures that only a minority of kids actually have in some areas!

Agbnb - I believe you are correct there. As I said previously they can send me duplicate texts...one hopes they don't pay individually for them.

When my youngest went to school, at our welcome meeting with the head I was asked what I was going to do with my time now, had I considered going back to work. (Official question not small talk). I was actually already working but said I was going to study and change careers. (True). She seemed pleased and wished me luck but then a few months in expressed surprise that I wasn't able to volunteer for a regular school time activity.

It was all a bit strange but she was a very nice lady so I put it down to conflicting priorities.

Lack of communication. Fucking My maths!!