AIBU to expect a bit more from school

[MuminMama]

The work the school is setting my year six child is dire. It's not nearly enough to fill the four school hours we are aiming for. It takes me half an hour to work out what they want us to do. Half the downloads are empty files. So little care has gone into it, and there's so little appreciation that working parents may need something that's fairly easy for them to administer. I feel that I'm supposed to be immensely grateful to these teachers but really they are hardly breaking their butts. This is ten minutes of work for someone to throw together. To an extent I'm just venting, but I'd love to know how much help others are getting.

As I've said on many school posts over the last few, DS's school have been absolutely amazing both before and after some year groups have been able to go back, as has his secondary school that he'll hopefully start at in September. I couldn't have asked for more from them.

I think there is an awful lot of teacher bashing on here, which is unfair on probably the vast majority of teachers. However, I've also seen some pretty awful stuff being said by a few teachers on Mumsnet which also then stirs up the teacher bashers and gives them ammunition and sadly makes them tar all teachers with the same brush - even the amazing ones

Hmmm lots of threads saying this. I wonder why that could be?!? Is it that we are all just super mean unreasonable teacher bashers or ....are lots of schools failing their pupils?

Look OP, you are totally unreasonable for posting about teachers on here. Please stick to topics you are allowed to moan about....MIL, BIL, SIL (and Ils really) OHs, Postmen, Bin Men, neighbours, CFs, doctors receptionists, car users, pushchair users, bus users, bus drivers, builders, holiday homes, cyclists, motorcyclists, slow drivers, fast drivers, dog owners, cat owners, protesters, non-protesters, Tories, Labour (any gov official) I’m sure I’ve missed some. Above all, damn you, keep your mitts off our teachers!!!

I think it really depends on teacher too. My kids school - 2 of them having great online learning experience, the third is chaotic an unorganised. When I asked the head for a little more structure she just said everyone does it differently

I think it’s just that people are reaching their wits end with homeschooling after 3months. The Government’s arbritrary decision making has landed schools with fed up parents. My year 3 has been issued a report and school have said see you (hopefully)in September. I’ve now read more threads about what other schools have run & continue to provide and it’s clear some have managed more than others. The Government need to be setting out what comes next for ‘catch up’ as at the moment there is no next positive step for a lot of parents worried about their children’s education & unfortunately teachers are getting it in the neck.

If you're not happy, raise it with the school!! Honestly, the teacher bashing going on here is ridiculous!!

Of course I've raised it with the school. I was asking if other people's experience was similar to ours. I got a variety of answers.

tar all teachers with the same brush

Nope. I was only tarring ours.

@MuminMama

If you're not happy, raise it with the school!! Honestly, the teacher bashing going on here is ridiculous!!

Of course I've raised it with the school. I was asking if other people's experience was similar to ours. I got a variety of answers.

tar all teachers with the same brush

Nope. I was only tarring ours.

@MuminMama, I wasn't talking about your post, sorry, I was talking about the teacher bashing in general on Mumsnet. Other school posts have been talking as if all teachers are pants, just based on their own school

In response to your particular problem, 4 hours is probably a lot of work for your year 6 child. As others have said, he would normally be doing 5 hours work in a class of 30.
My son's school have not been great at remote learning (I was already unhappy with them and so he is moving for September, anyway). The school I work for have been excellent. This means I am working all day and he has very little to do. It is difficult to juggle it all.

I have gone the workbook route. With some YouTube videos thrown in.

I think some of the teachers here need to accept that other teachers in the UK are doing fuck all and there should be at least some remote facilitation of learning for all students. What we have experienced is totally crap and we are not alone. That is not saying that any teacher on mn is doing badly, some are doing excellent, some are sending a couple of worksheets and answering a couple of emails, some not even that.

I think some of the teachers here need to accept that other teachers in the UK are doing fuck all
I'm aware of that - we have a couple in our school. What I don't do is come on MN and slag them off. I go through the proper channels, if it impacts me directly.

However, I've just received a text to say my local MOT garage is opening on Monday. What the fuck have they been doing for the last 12 weeks? Can't recall seeing any threads demanding their heads on plates - even though MOTs are a fairly vital part of road safety in this country.

Bollocks callme - There are plenty of threads that talk about crap service, what you don't get is other garage staff coming on getting defensive.

There are also plenty that come on to anonymously complain about crap colleagues.

No one is naming the teacher or the school, there is quite an alarming number of reports of some really poor teaching during this shitshow, it is OK to say so, and the calls of "teach your own child" "this again" and random daffodil pictures do not shower the profession in glory.

I think some of the teachers here need to accept that other teachers in the UK are doing fuck all
What does that have to do with a thread where OP has turned down a place for her child in school, where teacher is providing face to face teaching, but complains than online offering is not enough for him/her?
The answer to original OP is YABU in these circumstances. The end.

He’s your child. Educate him yourself.

This is ridiculous - as if a parent coming on here worrying that their child had a medical problem would be told: He's your child. Operate on him yourself.

However, you have the opportunity to send your child back into school to be educated and have turned that down - at that point, I'm afraid you've kind of made it your problem now!

We've been at this for three months, and they only went back last week. And of course, he would still need work to do at home in the other week. But yes, he could have gone back every other week. And it has always been my problem -- I just wondered what other people's experiences were. Seems there's a whole variety, as you'd guess.

Well yes, but that said, if I didn't think my child was getting what they needed from school, I'd roll up my sleeves and fill in the gaps myself.
My child, after all. Who's going to suffer most if they're left behind? certainly not the school or the individual teacher.

Wifeofdarth, it was in response to many comments from teachers which are not about the specific op.

Callme - actually also have a full time job to do, if I don't do it I lose my job and we suffer unemployment, either case the fault lies with the specific shit teacher who is being paid to teach and failing dismally.

I'm aware of that - we have a couple in our school. What I don't do is come on MN and slag them off. I go through the proper channels, if it impacts me directly.

However, I've just received a text to say my local MOT garage is opening on Monday. What the fuck have they been doing for the last 12 weeks? Can't recall seeing any threads demanding their heads on plates - even though MOTs are a fairly vital part of road safety in this country.

I can just imagine how quiet MN would be generally if people only ever went through the proper channels rather than discussing on MN.
It seems people think you shouldn’t discuss teachers on here even when you have gone through the proper channels!

So, from now on I assume there will be no moaning about your MIL or your ex-husband.
No mentioning your colleague even if they are sexually harassing you.
No moaning about the estate agent who you think is delaying things
No moaning about the rude doctor’s receptionist
No discussing the lack of provision for SEN or mental health issues

After all, you should only go through the proper channels, not come on here . Even when you have gone through the proper channels, you still shouldn’t come on here!

However, I've just received a text to say my local MOT garage is opening on Monday. What the fuck have they been doing for the last 12 weeks? Can't recall seeing any threads demanding their heads on plates - even though MOTs are a fairly vital part of road safety in this country.

No, but I’m pretty sure people would if there mechanic who was meant to be fixing their car and claimed to be fixing their car for the last 12 weeks had actually done nothing with it and instead had sent some links to a ‘fix your own car’ website or sent you a few worksheets about it!

*their mechanic

It would help A LOT if schools that are struggling to provide much work for their pupils could contact parents to explain what their school is up against, whether it's IT problems, lack of training or equipment, lots of key worker kids in school, or whatever.

Then perhaps parents with time and skills could possibly help, or at the very least understand the situation. And schools that aren't up to the mark can be pushed to do better.

The main cause of teacher bashing here is that parents aren't being informed by schools/teachers of what is actually happening or not happening that would explain a lack of work.

Then perhaps parents with time and skills could possibly help, or at the very least understand the situation. And schools that aren't up to the mark can be pushed to do better.

The main cause of teacher bashing here is that parents aren't being informed by schools/teachers of what is actually happening or not happening that would explain a lack of work.

The problem with this is the different levels of ‘what up to the mark’ actually is.

Far too many times the complaints have been because someone has missed what has been offered. Whether that has been a genuine mistake or the child (usually Secondary granted) has used it as an excuse or the parent has not checked information. I mean, during normal times, there are always parents in every class/form who miss announcements/messages. It’s not unreasonable to think this has happened a lot of the time on Mumsnet (I am not counting the ones who have ‘heard from their sister in law or neighbour hat not work has been set )

By missed, that is missing voicemails, emails (because they have gone in to a parent’s junk folder or just not read), not going to the school website or a student not telling the full story, which has happened numerous times in my experience.
(I dealt with a parent complaining today because their child ‘was bored’ and had ‘not been given any work’, to then be shown where all the work was for the child for each subject (including beloved videos a la Mumsnet) and child hadn’t even logged in to the school system all this time, not sent any work to be marked as requested and parent hadn’t read their emails. They had changed phone number but hadn’t told school hence this wasn’t picked up when we tried to phone home. Can imagine them on Mumsnet happily stating they had had no work from the school and someone’s telling them to check!)

Another anecdote not related to the school I teach at, was a parent slagging off their own school in my Facebook community group that their child had been given no work in 12 weeks and cue many parents from different year groups saying the opposite (often with screenshots-was heartening to see!) and how much work and contact they had had. Turns out the parents were just three hyperlinks away from the school homepage from a targeted scheme of learning for their child that they hadn’t bothered to try (kid was a Year 8) and had blamed missed voicemails on their phone from the school. Didn’t even need a username or password to access the work and I had a nosey. Yep. Very easy to find and lots of work, assemblies and support available. Ranting parent then deleted the post...

So, to be honest, I have started to take the ‘no work from the school’ posts with a pinch of salt and wouldn’t automatically jump to the request such as the one above quoted and which is why it is not unreasonable for posters on Mumsnet to suggest contacting the school and actually speak to someone!

@MuminMama

The work the school is setting my year six child is dire. It's not nearly enough to fill the four school hours we are aiming for. It takes me half an hour to work out what they want us to do. Half the downloads are empty files. So little care has gone into it, and there's so little appreciation that working parents may need something that's fairly easy for them to administer. I feel that I'm supposed to be immensely grateful to these teachers but really they are hardly breaking their butts. This is ten minutes of work for someone to throw together. To an extent I'm just venting, but I'd love to know how much help others are getting.

What system is the school using? Is it google drive? If so are the empty files the files your DC is supposed to be working in? With so little information in your OP it’s hard to work out if YABU. Although your DC should be able to take some of the brunt of the work if they are in year 6 with you only just checking over what they are doing.

Yes YABU

-I would be surprised if a single primary school aged child in the country did 4 hours pf solid work at any time of the year. You do realise time in school is also spent teaching and discussing.

-You think that it takes ten minutes to put together work? In all the time I have been teaching it can take half a hour or more to search and find a worksheet that suits what we have been doing. More often than not it is easier to make one from scratch. Even if it have been obtained from another website there is a very high probability that the teacher pays a subscription to the site FROM THEOR OWN POCKET to obtain the worksheets.

-Your child isn't the only child in the class, just because you don't think it took that long to put together their work just remember the teacher likely has to do the same for 3+ groups

Finally, what do you hope to achieve with this rant? You claim you have contacted the school. Anyone who is giving you advice of how to home educate you are shooting down. What is the objective of your post other than to bash teachers at your child's school?

My year 5 dd had finished her work for the week by 11am yesterday (Monday). That's 2 hours after she got it. I'm not that impressed.. My ds's school sets him loads of work. I think he is working harder in lockdown than in normal times.