Teacher Reply Over Summer

[hairnightmare17]

Son is in secondary school.

We received school reports on Monday. One grade on there is different to what my son said he achieved. It was a terrible mark for an important subject and he would need work on it over the summer if it is correct, since he is going into year 11.

I tend to believe my son didn't get that mark but without a reply from the teachers I won't know for sure. I have queried it by email twice this week, no reply. Attempted to call, to no avail. School broke up yesterday.

Is it worth emailing again? Is it likely I would receive a response over the summer break.

Is it really so crazy to expect someone who's about to clock off for 6 weeks to scan their outstanding emails, deal with any quick enquiries followed by a C&P message saying "I am now out of school until September and will pick up this issue then if you wish to discuss further" or just auto reply with a variation of the C&P message to anything that requires time/effort that cuts into paid/unpaid leave? Then the OP would have known "yes he got a 4 in the first/both exams and his grade was based on that and I will discuss this with you in September if needs be" or simply "I am now off duty and will discuss this with you in September if needs be".

It's not crazy, but, equally, it might not be 'quick' either. It depends on how many emails you have.

And, actually, on the last day of term, I had a five period teaching day, then a staff event for 20 minutes (three line whip) then I collected my child. So no, I didn't have the half hour it might have taken to reply to outstanding emails.

When i take a holiday I know that there will be queries for things I emailed out the day before I left so I am prepared to deal with things on that first day of my holiday. I only go for a week so invariably the first day is messed up a bit but I'm a professional so it's part of my role. I would assume teachers are the same and clear up any queries on the first day of their holiday too?

I've not read every reply so sorry if this has already been said but what your son has said could well be true. Where I work the report system is rubbish, we send all the data to the office for a deadline set by them and then often find out that the reports haven't been sent home until 5 or 6 weeks later so by the time the parents get the information it is out of date. (This happens several times a year.)

Our end of year reports were filled in just after half term which meant none of them contained the data from the end of year assessments so again it was out of date information.

Personally I find it pretty poor that the teachers didn't respond to their emails.

BlitheringIdiots

Nope. I don't send out lots of emails the day before I go on holiday because I am a professional. I am not going to be there so I don't instigate discussions I won't be in a position to conclude. If someone initiates a discussion with me, I work up to my holiday and will get to it if I can. If it is an urgent safeguarding issue I will get to it if I am at the bottom of the sea. Otherwise, the parent has known the date of the school holiday for a very long time, and should have no expectation that I will be working.

Much of this palaver is because of the requirements of reporting at the end of term. It should be a formality, because the teacher has been providing feedback to the student all term, interim short reports have been made, and, crucially, the students and parent have a relationship where the child shows their parent how they're getting on (no criticism of the OP intended by the last). The last is vital and in my experience, the least likely to have happened. EOT reports are such a waste of time.

The lead-in on proofreading means reports are written several weeks before the EOT, but released as the teachers leave the building:

Thus wasn't a last minute email from a parent Pengggwyn. She emailed on Monday. Term ended on Friday. Responding to a simple request, which this was, before the end of term is not in any way unreasonable.

TheFallenMadonna

But as several people have already said, whether or not getting back to her was possible within that time depends very much on several other factors. I don't work Monday-Tuesday. Wednesday-Friday this week I was back-to-back with essential parts of my job. An email could easily have failed to make it to the top of my list and for perfectly legitimate reasons. Responding to parents is something I do when I have time spare from teaching, planning and marking - it isn't part of my core role. Checking whether a grade is correct on a report is actually something the parent could have referred to admin or the data team before referring it me as the teacher.

I've ignored most of the replies (don't want to get into a debate about holidays/pay etc). I tend to check my emails everyday for the first week, then once a week. Fingers crossed you get a reply, but I wouldn't email again. Is there anyone else you can try? Head of department etc?

I'm also inclined to believe your son. Data has to be done so far in advanced that it would have been the previous test. Especially if the last test was done in the last week of school.

*advance -that's going to annoy me.

It would take 2 minutes to respond. Before a 6 week holiday. Why do we do this to ourselves?

We haven't broken up yet, and at my primary school, parents aren't able to contact us directly by email anyway, BUT any post-report queries from parents requiring any sort of action are put in our pigeonholes and we have been asked to deal with them before leaving for the holidays.
I don't think that's unreasonable.
However, if a parent sent in a complex issue on he last day of term and I discovered it in my pigeonhole just as I was leaving, would I deal with it? Probably, although I'd be pretty pissed off about it and secretly judge that parent.
(Not saying this is the OP's situation)

If he's getting between a 4 and a 7 in year 10 I don't see the need for panic stations this summer anyway. Or the need to question the teacher. Hes fine let him enjoy his holiday .

TheFallenMadonna

Do what to ourselves?

And yes, maybe this email would take 2 minutes to respond to, but maybe it isn't right at the top of the list of things I need to do but haven't had time to do. If there is a more urgent email in there that will take 10 minutes to deal with, a data entry that will take 20 minutes, two hours of marking, etc., that 2 minutes has been used up several times over on more important things by the time I get to the point where I am going home to collect my daughter and go on holiday. Time is finite. I prioritise and do as much as I can. Then I go home.

parents aren't able to contact us directly by email anyway

Saving a host of problems, I suspect!

BlitheringIdiots
Quite a few schools in our area have 'PD days' on the start of next week, but schools have done twilight sessions to make up the hours. We've done 2 days of PD in twilight sessions so we don't have to go in next week.

It's quite common to take 3 PD days and do the other 2 as twilights (especially when PD days seem to get threads started about how PD days are awful for parents and why can't teachers add them onto term time instead of closing when they feel like it - often said by people who fail to understand they are in addition to the 190 days their child is in school)

Maybe he is on target to get a 7 but he only sat a Foundation paper (which is what our school do for all abilities in year 10-higher deemed too tricky when you have only completed half the course) The maximum grade for Foundation is s 5.

*does

Primary teacher with secondary teacher husband. Teacher should have replied during the last week of term (both of our schools have a 24 hour response we policy for replying to parent emails/calls) so it seems fair that you've tried again in holidays.

DH has the view that the 4 would be an average over all assessments in the year so even if DS got a 7 in final assessment this would only improve grade to maybe 5 or 6 overall. He also says that, while it's possible to drag a grade up in the last few months, consistent revision and work is what leads to the highest grades particularly as exams require a large amount of knowledge recall.

So, even without the teacher replying (which as a professional, they should have) he'd suggest your DS would benefit from an hour or so revision over the holidays. He points out that this is habit forming and also a good time for shifting knowledge to long term memory as he will probably be also getting lots of sleep!

I guess you could offer a reward at the end if he has achieved the higher grade as he says, and withdraw the reward if not

Both is us commented how lucky your son is to have such an involved parent - we work in areas of high deprivation and would be delighted to have parents who even read their children's reports.

One of my kids' teachers is very likely to reply to emails during holidays (and I do have her named school email address - which I never ever use unless it's replying to something she's sent me from it) - she's a right blooming workaholic though and I really wish she wouldn't hover over the school office inbox like mad when I've sent an email just with a "can this be passed on whenever it's convenient - it's really really not urgent" type comment on it.

The other one - is very very strong at splitting work and life and, while a few other parents don't get it and get a bit huffy about it at times - I respect her for doing it and having the strength to do so and understand fully why she runs her life like that.

They're both bloody superb - just have very different places where they'll draw the line.

Pengggwn

Do what to ourselves?

This:
two hours of marking, etc

Two hours of marking Mon, Tues, Weds and Thurs, the week leading up to the summer holidays - in a secondary school? Oh come on.

We make a point of not doing any work in books or that requires deep marking in the last week or two of the year. Apart from anything else, it's a waste of time as the kids have completely had it and are not putting any much effort into school work.

Clavinova

You have NO idea what you are talking about. My school sprang surprise end of year testing on most of the students, and teachers were marking to the last day.

MaisyPops - didn't know that. Sounds very sensible to me! Just assumed there were in.

Two hours of marking Mon, Tues, Weds and Thurs, the week leading up to the summer holidays - in a secondary school? Oh come on.
I took drafts of coursework in and was turning them around ready for the last day so students had feedback.
I was finishing off marking some assessments that were done in bits because of lots of trips, sports days etc in the final few weeks. Add into that curriculum meetings and long term planning for next year for the whole department and suddenly that's quite a lot to do.
But then again I work in a school where we don't have 'sod learning and stick films on' week, just like most other schools I've worked in.