Reception teacher wants me to do homework!

[Janey01359]

This is my first post. My four year old brought home a book called home/school book
Inside, the teacher had written that he is settling in well but as she doesn’t see me (he gets the bus with his brothers) it would be nice to know how his evenings are? I think she is asking me to write in this every day. I’m actually a bit annoyed but am I being unreasonable? Evenings in my home are chaotic, by the time all my children are settled in bed all I want is to cuddle up on the sofa.

My dc all had this. With dc1 it was handy to note any medication changes. Not because the teacher had anything to do with his medication but so she could look out for any unusual behaviour. Dc2 had selective mutism so I was able to pass on any information that he was unable to relate for himself. Dc3, I wrote things like “Dogger for bedtime story tonight” or practiced sounds with Daddy.

Both my sons had similar (I worked FT so rarely took them to school or saw their teachers).
As previously posted, the teacher just wants to keep in touch and is only interested in your DCs welfare.
I doubt you’re meant to fill it in every night - just now and again when you’ve something to say - ‘Reading xyz with DC’, ‘DCs grandparent not well so DC may be a little upset’ etc etc.
They don’t need chapter and verse of what you do every night. Just keep them informed of anything pertinent.

God almighty, you think this is homework for you?! 🙄

Just write once

@Thank you for the book , DS seems to be settling well and is quite happy about going to school. I will let you know if anything changes or we have any issues."

Done . DD has has one for the past 4 years(same one) . I only wrote in it twice,once with a copy of medical results and once to let the teacher know we'll be on holiday.

It has been proved that children do much better in school where there are effective home/school partnerships and good communication systems in place.The teacher is just facilitating this.

I’ve never heard of this either

'Dear Teacher,

As you can tell from the blank pages of this book, our evenings are busy"

The cynic in me says this is primarily for school to demonstrate parent engagement however meaningless

Having a channel is good. Expectation of documenting evenings events in it every night is unreasonable and unnecessary.

Those smugly saying you could have done it in the time it take to post on here are missing the point. MN is leisure time. Busy working parents of multiple children are entitled to as much of that as they can get and don't need another meaningless thing on their "to do" list every night.

Communicate if there is a need, not for the sake of it.

The cheery "thanks, all seems well" and ignore it hereon in seems sensible. Some sort of app like class dojo is way more appropriate and effective too.

Our teachers never ask us what they did in the evening when we pick up and drop off. I would quite like a book to do that. Our teachers aren't that interested. But I don't blame them. Ours would be very boring when I think about it.

Meh, she's not asking you about your activities, just how he is.... RTQ OP, tut tut

This is ridiculous. God help the teachers, if this is the state of some parents.

OP, it’s called a homework diary. Every school uses them. It’s about as standard as it gets.,

No she does NOT want an essay about your entire evening, fgs. It’s just a quick note eg - “He read well this evening,” or “He seems to be struggling on this new book level” or “He seems very tired this week” or “He’s mentioned he a bit worried about x,y,z - please could you talk to him?” or “Could you check he’s eating lunch please?” etc etc

Similarly, it’s a way that she can provide you with any feedback - positive and negative!

The whole point is that school and parents are meant to be supporting each other, especially in these early weeks.

How old are your other boys and us it a public bus or school bus they go on?

You sound very defensive.

All children in my school have contact books, I've written similar comments this week, it just mean do they seem happy about school, is everything ok, are you checking this book? its just to make sure we have a line of communication open and parents know they can send us notes. I doubt they want you to write in it everyday, school is pretty hectic too and they'd have to reply everyday, they just want to know you know the book is there and what its for. You have older ones so you know how school works, how to contact teachers etc but lots of new parents might not so they'll have put notes in contact books of all the children whose parents they don't see.

YABVU and I feel for this poor teacher who us obviously just trying to do her best to get to know your son and help him to settle.

You have time to write a mumsnet but not to write in his home-school book?

FFS.

*mumsnet post

Dear Teacher,

As you can tell from the blank pages of this book, our evenings are busy"

Except that the pages wouldn’t be blank if you wrote that instead of a helpful comment. And you’d come across as a massive arse.

OP is clearly an experienced parent with children further up the school @aqua00. I imagine she'd recognise a reading diary if this was one. I have 3 children, one still in primary and never had a homework diary (older ones have planners).

Its possibly a home learning record type thing which are designed so a school can evidence parent engagement without really doing anything(cynically) or so performance parents can satisfy an urge to get recognition, and sometimes, quite reasonably, to see if there is a gap between what a child achieves and does at home and at school.

YANBU to not want to do it, OP

If DS went to after school club every night, I'd be pleased with a book to communicate with his class teacher. As it happens our CM is pretty good at getting a feel for how DS has been in Reception.

My conversation tonight with DS about school was as follows...
Me: what did you do at school?
DS: silence
Me: drawing?
DS: no
Me: writing?
DS: no
Me: reading?
DS: no
Me: did you go outside to play?
DS: no
Me: what was your favourite thing you did today?
DS: I can't remember
.
.
.
and so it went on. I did find out he had rainbow pasta and tomatoes for lunch with crackers and cucumber for pudding. 10yo DD told me it was a pasta/lasagne hybrid and we think he took stuff from the salad bar for dessert

We suffered this nonsense through nursery (who expected us to write in it at least three times a week) and primary school (who want about a page a term) and I've never filled in a single one. We do homework and sign the box to say it's done, but that is separate from the home-school journal things.
Nobody has ever asked why. If they did, I would tell them, but I think the teacher knows me well enough not to ask!

Teachers can’t win.

I've never heard of this. A good idea if you have an issue but otherwise I'd have nothing to write.

Well I can’t imagine how a parent of multiple children would be confused by something so basic as this.
They just want you to know that you can communicate with them. Why the cynical attitude?
As a parent you have a role in supporting reading and homework - obviously - is this is a channel for that. If you think the books are too easy or too hard, you can let them know. Or whatever really.
Sometimes they put a sticker in or a note -“Please bring in empty cereal boxes for Friday” - stuff like that. Or “Don’t forget its mufti day”.
Some people would literally make an issue out of thin air.

The Catholic school in my town puts on school buses, presumably because their catchment is much wider than the other primary schools around here. I have to say, I was horrified when I heard about an August born just-turned-4yo (with SN) using the school bus... and being put on the wrong bus home at that

But that’s by the by. Some Reception children use school buses and not just because they live rurally.

I thibk the fact your 4 yo is not taken to school by an adult has been flagged up as a concern.

Unless you misunderstood and she just wants you to write how many pages of Kip, Chip and Biff he read.

“...and primary school (who want about a page a term)”

What - a whole page!!

Sorry to the pp, but a term is 3-4 months. Could you really not galvanise yourself or find something to say about your own child???

I can't imagine telling the teacher that my child's reading book is too easy. Surely that's for them to judge? I know my child can read much more difficult books than the stuff they get from school, and his teacher knows it too because she has said so, but the homework he has is the homework work he has.