Teacher rang regarding home learning

[OntheWaves40]

DS (14) teacher rang, didn’t speak to me just to DS. I could hear conversation and it was along lines of, you should be sticking to school schedule, you need to finish my subject for last week even if it takes you to 5pm.
DS was working yesterday until 8pm as he was every day last week. We don’t get enough down time. He watched one film last week for 2 hours.
DS was apologetic and said he’d get straight to it. I wish DS would have explained to teacher he was working flat out but DS isn’t confident enough to.
AIBU to think this teacher is wrong to call at home to push pressure on DS?

Maybe they were told to?

Ring the school and find out. Instead of Internet randoms

DS does need to talk to the teacher as clearly this is too much and he perhaps needs more support. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong in teachers calling home to discuss work but your DS does need to explain if he is struggling.

Teachers shouldn’t be talking directly to students on the phone without checking their parents give permission and that they are there in the room and can hear what is being said.

And it sounds like he has too much work. I would contact the school and give my ds’s side of things.

Teachers talk directly to students without their parents listening in all the time at school.

We are being told to contact students who are missing work. I set 3 pieces of work for my year 10 students last week - the majority did everything and a few did nothing. I am in contact with the few today. They had a week to the work which could be done in a computer or they could complete the work in their exercise boom then upload a photo. Most students / parents have a smart phone!

We’ve been told to ring students too.

OP - why don’t you get your DS schedule? It could be he is struggling as he is missing the regular prompt that he gets in lessons. You do not have to stand over him. Just a regular how is it going / have you finished xyz.

No I don't think the teacher was wrong at all.

That was your DS's chance to have a proper conversation with them.

I think it's good teachers are pushing them to stay on track. His 'working day' is theoretically longer than at school so perhaps a schedule is the way to go.

I think you need to discuss the amount set with the school yourself. My son has lots of work set but he us working thro it at his pace.

My son is doing 5 hours school work a day and working hard. But teachers need to remember this is not school, they kids are working in the home environment with often younger children, parents working from home. All family members sharing devices so limited time each. Each family has its own challenges and sometimes work won't get submitted by the deadline for every subject. Teachers need to be alot more lenient.

Teachers talk directly to students without their parents listening in all the time at school.

^ This. The teacher contacted your DS to see what was happening, it's not the teacher's fault that your DS lacked the confidence to explain that he was struggling - he will have to do this at school whenever it happens.

My DS is getting messages from his teachers all the time at the moment, if I wanted to then I could check them all but I don't because I trust his teachers - if I didn't trust them collectively to contact DS directly then he wouldn't be at that school.

Has he really been working until 8pm every evening?

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable - teachers have been calling here constantly and to be honest I’ve got a bit sick of it.

I know that it isn’t their fault but I’ve politely asked that we are left to it unless it’s urgent.

My secondary aged dc has so much work to do...it's really hard to keep up. It's much harder to go at the same pace as a school. We seem to waste lots of time trying to access resources, work out what format to so stuff in. Plus sharing a laptop, dealing with technical issues etc. We have barely any downtime. All these great ideas to keep your kids busy on Facebook are useless to us. We can barely do the basics.

@my2bundles I totally agree with you. Teachers need to be more lenient. I’m not happy with the children being pressured so much. Especially at such an uncertain and frightening time. We all have our individual circumstances. I think guidelines and prepared lessons are fine. But less pressure please.

Mine rang yesterday to see how we were getting on. We are primary though so not the same pressure. Why is he working til 8pm every day does he have a timetable? Are you able to help him?

Yes he has. We did Joe Wicks every morning so he started at 10:30am ish and worked through until 8pm with bits of time in between for meals or half hour exercise. But def not enough family time to relax and get heads round new situation.

Poor bloody teachers can get nothing right. If they don’t contact students, they’re lazy, unsupportive sods, but if they do, they’re berated for speaking to the kids/putting too much pressure on them. FFS, I’m glad I’m not a teacher.

Calm down

I am a secondary teacher. I don't think the teacher was wrong to ring, however, if your son is struggling with the amount of work, please contact the school.

I have been setting work for whole year groups and it's hard to get a balance between too much and not enough because there is such a variation in ability. If a student was struggling, I would be more than happy to adjust the work for them.

I am keeping in contact with my students (and parents) simply to make sure they are ok and offer support.

It's still early days of working from home so we will all still be getting used to things.

@BananaPlant he has his school time table where he is running over his lesson times all the time because there’s too much work for the space of time. I do sit with him and understand where he’s up to and help him organise his workload but it’s Year 10 stuff so beyond my understanding. He was getting very stressed last week with it all but I told him not to worry because he can catch up over Easter.

I’m impressed that a teacher took the time to do this. In an average large state school each teacher will probably have in excess of 150 students in their classes. For someone to take the trouble to phone individual students in those circumstances is remarkable.

If your son is really worried/overloaded encourage him to contact this teacher or his form tutor or HOY and ask for help. He may have to deal with independent learning for quite some time so it would be helpful to set up good practices now.

Remember this is new to everyone, teachers, students, parents, SMT, are all learning as they go.

The learning platforms we use show EXACTLY how much work a student has done. Exactly went they started and finished. We can match it up with other data and knowledge of how much the child is capable of.

Has he really been working that much or has he been on the computer for that long?

The kids' parents I have emailed have certainly given me the story their kids have fed them. But I can track how much they have done. I have on occasion screenshot evidence and emailed back to the parent.

I am not accusing your son of being dishonest, but it sounds like you don't know the basic facts on which to really make a judgement.