To complain to teacher about state of DS'topic book

[startingafresh1]

DS is in Y7. His school went into special measures a year ago, after a bumpy road towards improvement it gained 2 new head teachers in July, became part of an academy and seems to be making good progress.

The mood is finally more optimistic, and the school emphasises that it encourages communication with parents.

DS has a physics exam on Monday.

It is on a topic that I think is quite complicated. One where you need a clear understanding of concepts, definitions etc..

I sat with DS last night as he asked me to test him. It quickly became apparent he was confused and had got his facts mixed up.

We got his book out and I found his work looked chaotic, was incomplete and factually incorrect in many places. For example he may have written a=B + c, which was completely wrong. Or that increasing something, decreases something else- but had his 'things' the wrong way round. Or he has mixed up and misused key terms.

I am sure that these are actual mistakes as I remember this topic from A level physics and have used google, and gcse bitesize to double check.

There was no sign that the book had been looked at or marked since the start of term. The book contains no worksheets- only written notes across 12 lessons for this topic. He has no text book.

The upshot is that he had spent about 2 hours learning factually incorrect physics.

DS is usually quite capable and engaged. He is in the upper set in maths, and this has automatically placed him in the top science set.

Maybe this is all too much for him, or maybe he is not concentrating. Either way I do feel that this should have been picked up on at school.

I would like to email his teacher. I'm actually quite annoyed, but I appreciate teaching is a really tough job and I don't want to be unreasonable.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

I would have thought teachers would mark homework and not the children’s class notes at secondary level. Tell him to ask if he’s not sure and to concentrate on what he’s writing.
Buy a revision guide.

When we had an issue with a particular subject teacher we raised it with form tutor who quickly raised it with head of year and head of subject.

Problem was dealt with.

@Russell19 I had to laugh at your comment! I'm a secondary/A level English Language and literature teacher and spend hours and hours a week on the very lengthy responses my students produce. 120 books a day does sound horrific (how are there that many per day?) but I would love to do a comparison of how long each book takes you to mark - my average is around 30 minutes per book due to the length and depth of the responses and I have four exam classes currently. There is no joy like the joy I feel when I get to a book and find the student has only written a paragraph or two (awful I know! 😀) and I can whizz through it a bit faster! To answer the OP, I would expect some feedback in books and wouldn't be offended if a parent asked where it was - it could be a case of the book not being handed in in class and therefore being missed in the last marking round? It does happen but I'd appreciate the heads up so I could keep a closer eye in class.

Then be more proactive yourself by regularly looking at the rest of his work in other topics and see what else needs discussing with them.

That’s fine if you know what you’re looking at like the OP does but isn’t that failing the many children who won’t have parents who understand their school work.
What are they supposed to do when no one at school has noticed they’re not understanding the work?
I don’t think it’s good enough.

Where have my paragraphs gone?! 🤦‍♀️

Gamerwidow--I totally agree, and schooling systems that become reliant on parents to see the process through are grossly unfair on kids without competent, switched-on, English-speaking parents at home.

Unfortunately, from the OP's perspective, however, it may be that this is basically what she has to do if she wants her son to be able to learn physics. It sucks though.

That being the case OP then you need a copy of the school's marking policy. I would then raise it with DS's form tutor. Giving the book to the head is a bit OTT at this point.

Rabbity there is no specific marking policy. There is a feedback policy though, it's a bit woolly though and doesn't specifically mention book marking.

It does talk about regular feedback about one in every 4 lessons though.

I also agree that it’s not OPs responsibility to check on her son’s work. That’s all well and good if you have an understanding of the topic or are provided some pointers as to what to look out for. If you don’t know the topic then how on earth can you be expected to know that what is in front of you is incorrect? Not everyone has decent knowledge of physics- or any subject for that matter.

OP I’d have a word- just a polite/non accusatory “I’ve noticed DS’s notes are a bit mixed up and I think he’s got a bit confused with what’s what in X, Y and Z” see what the teacher comes back with and then take it from there. I agree that it should really have been picked up- not necessarily the notes that he’s been taking but you’d expect that at some point the teacher would have asked questions and/or set homework which would give her a good idea of where each pupil is at. It may well be that your DS is struggling with the top set level of work, but again that really should have been picked up. I don’t think it’s acceptable to have got all the way to half term (which is 8 weeks here, might not have been the same for you) without someone other than his parent noticing that he wasn’t understanding properly.

I would buy a CGP KS3 Science Guide and use that for revision.

This. Also BBC bitesize. It's great that you are helping him to revise.

An exercise book is not for revision. It's for doing work in class, including doing it wrong. The teacher may well be marking other things than book work (given there are no worksheets that seems a distinct possibility).

Hopefully they are because writing in books is a really ineffective form of feedback and a huge waste of time unless done very well.

only written notes across 12 lessons for this topic

See this bit would worry me- are you sure it's copied notes and not independent exercises?

No Y7 student is good at making notes. Getting them to be can be worthwhile but it's hard and requires drip feeding a little and often. 12 lessons of notes is an awful way of teaching and would suggest an issue.

I agree that I could help by hand holding DS through science. I shouldn't have to though, and it's hard to know what level of depth he should go into for each topic, never mind find the time to teach him.

DS enjoys science and is hungry to learn- it seems such a shame that his efforts are upside down and inside out and haven't been corrected.

More importantly, not every parent has the time or inclination to help like this, and understandably so, which puts their DC at a disadvantage.

DS really really likes this teacher and is very nervous about me bringing this up.

I think there are 2 issues here.

Firstly the lack of marking/ any evidence of assessment of class work.

Secondly the lack of revision support.

Pupils exercise books are often not the best revision material, especially lower down the school. Much of class time will be spent doing practicals, group work etc and not note taking. So I would expect that prior to a test pupils are clear about where to revise from - eg cgp, bite size, etc. I always provide support materials online that can be accessed from home via the schools website.

What is their marking policy? Has he been handing his book in for example? Sometimes if a child is off or puts it in their bag it slips through the net.

it's hard to know what level of depth he should go into for each topic

That's why the CGP books are so helpful as they pitch the correct level. e.g. neutrons protons and electrons not quarks and leptons (sp?).

Bring it up politely not as an attack and it will be fine.

Are you sure it’s the exercise book that he’s supposed to be revising from? My pupils use exercise books for exercises, not notes.

I hate that ds(14) needs to learn from his written notes which are sometimes incomplete or difficult to interpret outside the class. Physics is a worry for us too this year as they have a NQT.

His school gives out very little homework (the cynic in me says that is so they don't need to mark it) but tells the S3 (Yr9) students to self study classwork for 1.5 hrs a night.

I don't check his notes but tell him to check them and compare with BBC bitesize and subject books I have purchased for him for physics, chemistry, geography, modern, pe. We use an app for French practice. Maths is the only one that gives out weekly homework plus provides as many additional revision sheets as required and offers to mark them.

It does sometimes feel like he's learning more of some subjects from the Internet and the subject books we purchased than he is in class.

OP then if I were you I would challenge the heads about the woolly marking and feedback policy; it beggars belief they insist on regular feedback but don't actually state how often books should be marked. Is there any evidence in his books of green pen work (redrafting and correcting a task)? If there is no specific marking policy then yes the teacher should have the nous to mark his book but really the fault also lies with the school. They need to get their MAF policy sorted so both students and teachers know where they stand.

Exercise books imo should be marked regularly. It could be that he doesn’t hand his book in or that the teacher doesn’t mark or a bit of both. I would not be happy if my child’s book had not been marked. I also think that parents should give books a quick glance over at the least every so often. Personally I check my dc’s books weekly. I am a teacher and marking is a pita but it has to be done.

it beggars belief they insist on regular feedback but don't actually state how often books should be marked.

Not really. Marking policies have become increasingly prescriptive over the last few years as Ofsted started to look in depth at progress and consistency, but Ofsted are now 'loosening up' and emphasising that they don't require any specific frequency or type of feedback, so heads are responding to this. Frequent marking is of debatable help to students.

Maybe its a wake up call for your ds too as he is taking down notes incorrectly and needs tp pay more attention. If this is homework he did recently he needed to check his manual to make sure its right. No way can a teacher see everyones notes every time so ds needs to see its up to him. And revise from manual always so details are correct.

Im presuming he is not dyslexic copying down notes in reverse . It just sounds careless and he needs to take some responsibility for that. May be a good lesson for him.

As a primary teacher who has to mark over 120 books a day I find it frustrating that secondary teachers don't even mark once a week!
We do. We mark homework that is set. Daily, for all our classes, which can total up to 15 different groups a week (in my case)
However, we don’t mark notes made in class.

Year 7 seems young to be revising solely from notes and not a second source. Would have thought they've barely learnt how to take decent notes yet.

I'm a secondary teacher and would recommend you find out the school's marking policy. At my current school we aim to 'properly' mark each class's exercise books every 2 weeks and in between we use stamps/verbal feedback/self or peer assessment. Then we mark their formal assessments, of course, which are usually 1-2 per term in KS3. At previous schools, however, I have known only assessments to be marked and books are left pretty much alone. Or only specific tasks are marked (such as homeworks) but not everything. Also, does your son make sure to hand his book in? I can't tell you how frustrating it is to take in a set of books, mark them and find someone hasn't handed theirs in. It could well be the teacher just hasn't marked the books though, which is of course unacceptable, and in that case I would definitely speak to them or perhaps email the Head of Department who can chase it up with them.

Oh sorry - just saw you have seen the marking policy and it's unclear. Ask the Head of Department for clarification and also ask them to take a look at your DS' book and see if it's what is expected or whether there should be more feedback. I think that would be the best course of action.

I have been off since the beginning of term and none of my classes' books have been marked except one set by me, as I wanted to see where the pupils were. We have inspection on Monday and so most of my books are unmarked!
I won't be marking the work that has been done in my absence.i am not even sure when I am going back at the moment.