A.i.b.u to think , fuck it to school work now?

[DollyPartons]

Dd , yr 9 can't be arsed at the best of times , but will just about complete most homework during term time as hates any confrontation from teachers. Started lockdown set homework but as times gone on like pulling teeth to get her to do any. Doesn't take to bribery or jossling. I've tried , a lot. She's just below average, I'm terrified this will plunder more but with no communication from school she's just not bothered . The school have not given guidelines to parents to get them to do the work , no expectations, schools out for summer early?

Yep, confirmed. Total arsehole.

Can I reiterate a pp's advice from earlier in the thread. Let the school know you are checking out. Your DD will be at a disadvantage if you aren't going to be enabling her to work at home. Schools will need to know where to concentrate resources after lockdown and your DD is going to need all the help she can get, frankly, especially as you set out at the beginning that she is below average academically.

When do you suggest your dd will be able to catch up on everything she has missed if she isn't doing it now? Weekends cancelled next year?.Holidays axed?
Teachers will not be able to magic back time to cover work not done.
Would you be comfortable with her repeating the year? It is hard but a little and often now might be better in the longtiwel than throwing in the towel altogether

The issue you're battling is that you can't force her to work.

She either gets it or she doesn't and my DD is of a similar attitude but she hates school and is already fearful of returning so I'm battling the demons in her head.

Take everything away: all tech and any perceived treats I.e takeaways and tell her she does her homework plus 2 hours of Bitesize each day, once she's done that she can have her phone/x-box/Netflix back and don't give in to whining.

If that doesn't work, take a deep breath out and let her get on with it but make it clear that if she doesn't enjoy schoolwork now she will enjoy it less when she has to retake her GCSES again because she can't leave education before she's 18.

You can only do your best, the rest is up to them.

My kids are both in high school. I’m really not fussed. All children’s education is interrupted. It’s a weird time. I’m not going to compound a difficult situation by making unreasonable demands.
They ought to reopen schools in June. The NHS is not overwhelmed. Children are at very low personal risk.

What exactly do you expect school to actually do?

You’re the parent here and IMO are looking at taking the easy way out.

My daughter is in year 8 and school is contacting us to see why work hasn't been handed in, I would contact the school and ask for support explain the situation. Your child needs support it's an important year.

My daughter is the same, well below average, she’s severely dyslexic. She struggles with the work, has asked for help and has been told to “do her best”. She’s year 9. I spoke to the head of year 9 and she said hardly any of the kids are doing any work .

@PeachOrchid27 - your child is probably one of over 100 pupils that that one teacher has - it would be impossible for the teacher to explain in detail to every single student over the phone/email/webcam. But if you are struggling to help her yourself I would email them and say we cannot do this English homework as she doesn't understand it - so instead we will read a book and then write our own story. - so it is still connected to the subject. Or find something she enjoys that she can learn that she can't usually learn at school. I think most schools would be more concerned that they are not doing anything all day but will be happy to know they are doing other productive things.

OP you're being an absolute dick here.

Your child is your responsibility. If you can't get them to work, what do you expect school to do?!

I won't write anymore because you can't argue with stupid.

I have a year 9 at home too and she's not naturally motivated. I'm insisting on 2 subjects per day which works out at about 2 - 3 hours and that seems about right. We are just focusing on key subjects and the subjects she's continuing next year as options.
Maths has been really good but it's probably because the maths teachers emails on a Friday to say well done or let's them know if they are missing work so it's more motivating. I wish more subjects were taking this route.

I teach secondary too and have found the more I feedback from work the more the kids do on lockdown. Although I'm been sooo. busy marking and making suitable resources that I'm thinking of marking less ! Only kidding, I've got mainly year 12 and I'm doing my very best to ensure they continue making my progress.

OP, what are you doing to improve her work ethic? This seems to be the biggest problem here. I would tackle that first by having an open conversation with her.

I have spent 5 hours today emailing all my students who haven't completed the work I set - and copying parents into the mix. In each case it was an email to see what the problem was, why they were struggling, and what I could do to help.

It's very frustrating to spend hours doing this for pupils where the only issue is that they can't be bothered.

As a high school teacher YABU and probably will be the first to complain when your child is behind when she returns.
I'm sorry you do not feel you are getting adequate support. We have set up a timetable for our students and we release work into Microsoft teams for that lesson. We stay online during that hour incase students don't understand any of the work. We have recorded voice overs onto each PowerPoint slide so they get thet touch to the lessons. I would contact the school and ask for more support, remember teachers had to change the entire way they teach with two days notice and a lot have children at home that they are schooling as well

Terrible idea. They start their GCSEs in a few months. I'm keeping close tabs on my year 9 and really pushing him to get all his work done. He has a full timetable. I have prioritised his GCSE subjects over some others like art & drama.

OP, ring the school. I have a list of about 300 students I am responsible for chasing. I am only just reaching the end of that list now, 2 weeks in. When I call them, many of the parents believe that there is little work set, or it isn't being marked, or we're not checking up on them. There is, it is, and we are. On top of those phone calls, I've been sending messages to the kids daily. Unless you are checking their work personally, don't take their word for what is, and is not, being set.

Some children unfortunately go to great lengths to hide what they should be doing from parents and do as little as possible, I am afraid. I have had several children who yes, have been accessing our online learning platform daily. But instead of doing the work set on simultaneous equations, they have been doing 2 and 3 times tables. So they LOOK like they are doing work, but they're really not. They are "forgetting" passwords. They are reading messages but not acting on them. They are coming up with all kinds of excuses, such as "I don't have Word installed" - no, but you don't need it to access a website, do you?

In school, some of these children would, I am afraid, have to be constantly nagged to get their books out of their bags. To open them. To put down their title and date. To copy the notes from the board. Quite aside from actually doing any work. We know the battle you are fighting. We fight it with many, many children, hour after hour. This behaviour is not new. Getting them to do anything can be very, very hard work and we teachers often feel that we are putting in hugely more effort to get them to do it than it is taking them to actually do it.

The most important lesson you can learn in school is not maths. It isn't how to identify fronted bloody adverbials. It's how to work hard and persevere. We can try to inspire them, even when, especially when, we know they are bored. But we can't teach a work ethic without your help.

If you really, really can't get them to do any school work, this is my suggestion. Give them the option of doing school work or pulling up weeds, or cleaning the bathroom. Don't make it the option of doing work, or having screen timey fun. The real world doesn't offer that choice to any of us and you won't be doing them (or us teachers) any favours making them think it does.

Everything @nellodee said, with bells on.

Has anyone considered the safety staff in school when school's go back?

I know several very skilled teachers at the school my daughters attend and a fab TA have underlying health conditions. They might not be able to return and if they do the children could put them at risk. But the 'can't be arsed' brigade will presumably be wanting them to support the children who haven't been bothered to keep up and whose parents haven't apparently been able to influence them.
Then there are the children who have been working hard. Are they going to be held back while the 'not bothered' catch up?
I am glad I am not a teacher, damned if they do and damned if they dont.....

Oh gosh, you’re not going to get much sympathy on here OP!
I’m with you though! My son also Year 9 & it’s pretty painful to get him to do anything really. And I’m a headteacher (so at school all day)
He has learnt to cook lots of nice meals, how to work washing machine, hang washing out better than his 47 year old dad, can now run 5k in under 23 mins & has broken his keepie uppie record of over 200. We’re happy, we’re alive. Don’t sweat it too much!

Agree with pp who said give them the option of schoolwork or housework. I told my son today he could either empty the tumble dryer and sort washing by person, or do his maths. I’d have chosen the maths too fwiw.

Ok, so you go ahead with your "fuck it to school work now."

Do you think the teachers concerned are going to (realistically) give a fuck at the end of the day if your dd fails? Who's going to suffer? Your dd. And possibly you.
Sorry, but if you want to help your dd make something of herself, you need to help her in the right direction. That doesn't necessarily mean forcing her to sit down and study Shakespeare right now, but it DOES mean instilling some sort of work ethic in her. Her teachers can't do that at the moment because, you know, Covid, but you can. Don't muck it up.

Hang in its worth persevering. My ds school have been good (though it's the opposite I'd have preferred them not to hand hold as much).
Loads of things online but if it's worth it I would
*Phone school and tell them (they may talk to her if she knows she'll be bottom of the class?)
*If school is rubbish find a crossover to what she does like (search tes & twinkl & bbc bitesize).
Lastly when ds has lost all motivation I get it back by blocking all his things that need Internet connections. Means no games no social no you tube etc...just don't give in

Your choice though...Ironically if she was well motivated and near the top it probably would matter less.

08PeachOrchid27
It maybe (hard work though) better in your situation to ask what's been covered in the syllabus and do it yourself (you know your child best)...the staff should support you as it's what they learn that counts not how it is learned. Just a suggestion (homeschooled ds2) for a while some years ago...now ds3 year 9 and feels different as school is micro managing.

. I told my son today he could either empty the tumble dryer and sort washing by person, or do his maths. I’d have chosen the maths too fwiw.

My son would choose the housework any day. He’s even been cleaning the toilet.

Op have 14 year girl it’s a nightmare and she year 10. She not interested that age generally aren’t and lost the threat to ground as we all grounded.
We both with full and from home now & it’s tough.
I let her lay in until 9am and then walk dog then start at 1000 with us in sane room. Can’t be trusted. She normally good at school but lost all work ethic. We complained about lack of work as school sets just 1 hour a day. Find out exam boards and if you can afford buy the gcse revision books online. Try tassomai for science again it’s £45 a month but she happy to do that and bbc bite size.
Your lucky she in year 9 hopefully be back to school in September still plenty time to GCSEs.
Big hug can only do so much x