17 year old asked to help after school for the people who don't understand the maths?

[regrsa]

DD has been asked to do this. Well not really asked, kind of "X will help you after school, she understands it" and the 3 students going yeah great thanks. DD was never asked. She said oh and her teacher said what will you be doing when you get home and dd said she isn't sure and she said oh well that's okay then.

AIBU to think this is really bad

I would contact the teacher and ask for her version of what happened.

I’d be very wary of using students to mentor because of the risk of the helper student giving incorrect advice. It sounds like a dreadful idea.

Maths teachers train to teach A Level maths; there is no way a 17 year old should be asked to do it.

“Really bad”- nope. A little rude and presumptious if it happens in the manner you describe, yes.

Helping someone else with maths is a great way to cement your DD own understanding and so it could be really good for her.

I really wouldn’t be so stressed about it. If she doesn’t want to help she can always say no, but is it the worst thing to give up a little time to help someone else?

I think it is normal for 6th formers to be iven the opportunity of tutoring younger students.It is good experience andsomething to put on their PS and in their reference!

It is very common for sixth formers to be encouraged into some type of volunteering to help with UCAS applications.

As a teacher I’d say that the child helping often benefits just as much as the child being helped. Explaining something, especially explaining in a way that is easy to understand, often deepens our own understanding and helps put things in our long term memories.
I’d also want my child to help others if they could because it’s kind.

The helping others is well understood as standard practice as it's beneficial to both parties.
It's the 'after school' bit which is the problem

For some future professions it could be very good (even necessary) experience, also useful for job references in future. I know it may be total hassle, but I would look for ways to make it into a good opportunity.

That's fairly standard at A-level. I used to spend quite a few lunch times and free periods helping others. It helps you understand it too. Dd1's volunteered to do that for the year 12s (she's in year 13)

Sometimes peers can explain things in a way they understand better than a teacher. Nothing wrong with it as long as she wants to do it. It was rude for the teacher to assume she would.

There are actually proven benefits for students helping other students, it helps solidify the more advanced student's understanding. It's also just a nice thing to do - surely everyone has started doing this by the time they take A-levels? Now they're in sixth form they should be relying on the teacher less and collaborating between themselves more in preparation for university.

Obviously if a student is having fundamental difficulties understanding a topic then the teacher should step in.

As a 1 off I'd suggest she do it. As a regular thing? Then it's up to her. Learning to say no to things you don't want to do is at least as good a lesson as improving her maths through teaching.

I would be outraged that she was told, not asked.

I would certainly be contacting the teacher about that, having put DD in an uncomfortable position. What if she was unable to or didn't want to for perfectly genuine reasons?

It's common practice but if that was genuinely the way the teacher approached it then it was rude. The teacher should be asking politely for your DD to help, not assuming or steamrolling her in to doing it.

What will the teacher be doing in the meantime? I assume they'll be staying to help too? Your DD shouldn't be stopping late if the teacher is using her as an excuse to go early themselves.

It’s a UCAS thing. My DD and her boyfriend did it with year 7s who were struggling with reading.

The younger children are likely to feel less intimidated with 6th formers who are more like them than with teachers who might be a bit posh and strict.

Feelikeimthemaid- because the teacher clearly doesn’t have anything else to do and is hoping to sneak off straight after class and put her feet up at home?!

I don’t have time to help students after school hours. Not because I don’t want to, but because 2 nights a week are already taken for staff meeting and year 11 intervention. The other nights I need to do planning and marking for all my classes. Plus all the other admin that constantly needs doing. Phone calls that need making to parents. Students that I need to chase for detentions. Etc.

What's the big deal? 6th form is the time when pupils are expected to get involved with helping the younger ones. Is doing a little something for someone else so terrible?

Having to explain something to someone else is a good way to firm up one's own understanding, even if one is fairly confident. I taught Maths up to A level but when I was not working full time when the children were young I was asked by a desperate Head to do some supply teaching in an Infant school. Doing that taught me the why-it-works about things I could do standing on my head, I had been taught the rote method but not the why, even something as simple as subtracting with 'borrowing' .

I helped other students with reading - it was done in school time.

If she'd offered to help, fine, if she was "signed up for the job" then no, whoever said it can fuck right off.

Even though volunteering to mentor is an excellent thing to do, it is your Dds free time to spend as she chooses - and she didn't choose this - and she wasn't asked. Harsh it may be but I would tell her to say no and start sticking up for herself. I have an extreme dislike of free-time commandeer types.

I would definitely find out the other side of the story, may have been a misunderstanding (hopefully).

There may well be benefits for OPs DD of doing, that's not the question. It's whether a teacher has the right to dictate how the DD spends her time. She doesn't.

If the teacher had asked nicely it would be one thing but telling her what she's doing with her evening takes the absolute piss and on principle I'd be saying no.

Yep, the teacher will be busy doing her job SleepyMcEdie. Since when did that give them the right to offload some of their work onto a child?

If the DD is excelling at maths, she doesn't need to spend more time on it. She could and should be focussing on improving in other areas.