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’m a secondary head of dept. We never ever mark class notes!! And my dept is often used as an example of best practice. I assess every class using sample or past exam papers every 4-5 weeks. My subject is assessed mainly via essay questions - a class set of assessments takes me at least 4-5 hours to mark. 30 pupils in each GCSE class - I teach 3 GCSE classes. There are 15 students in each A level class - I have 6 of those! Our marking is very very different to primary marking. We don’t have the volume but it certainly demands similar amounts of time.

In terms of revision I provide all my lesson resources on the school VLE, we provide topic booklets and recommend which revision books to buy from a retailer.

YABU to expect me to waste time marking clas notes!!!

how do you get found the end result of a chaotic error filled exercise book being used as a basis for revision by the pupil?

I walk round class and cross out the work that wasn't coherent so they do it again (before anyone recoils in horror- kids like my lessons, I use loads of praise, no-one feels got at). This requires carefuls setting up of lessons so that tasks are well structured. It also needs teaching kids how to write well, and (most importantly) that it's OK to make mistakes. It doesn't matter whether each piece of work is correct- it matters that they get better.

I currently have a specialist SEN Y7 class that can't manage writing well in books. I'm stepping up my marking to try to correct it, but it makes bugger all difference- they don't read and act on the comments.

I’m a secondary head of dept. We never ever mark class notes!! And my dept is often used as an example of best practice. I assess every class using sample or past exam papers every 4-5 weeks.

Can I come and work for you? This is how it should be done.

OP is there evidence that your son is marking and correcting work? That is the more important bit.

Slightly off topic but I'm a secondary Science teacher. If you need any resources or practice questions to help your son please feel free to PM me. In the meantime this is from the KS3 national Curriculum:

Current electricity

• electric current, measured in amperes, in circuits, series and parallel circuits, currents

add where branches meet and current as flow of charge

• potential difference, measured in volts, battery and bulb ratings; resistance, measured

in ohms, as the ratio of potential difference (p.d.) to current

• differences in resistance between conducting and insulating components (quantitative).

Static electricity

• separation of positive or negative charges when objects are rubbed together: transfer

of electrons, forces between charged objects

• the idea of electric field, forces acting across the space between objects not in contact.

Back on topic, our year 7s have books marked, on average, every 3 weeks to check for errors. Each half term they also have skills tasks to complete independently and these are deep marked with opportunities for them to improve their work. I wouldn't be happy if books hadn't been looked at by now.

If your son is copying incorrectly a lot then I would mention it to the teacher. I don’t think it’s unreasonable at secondary for a teacher to assume accurate copying if there are no Sen so it may be that your son is messing around rather than he CAN’T copy accurately.
Have him look at the Bitesize for revision.

Why not buy him the appropriate level subject books to revise from? He seems to have improved lots and I wouldn't be taking this up from the school. Just buy a few Letts books (or similar).