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.

You are not being reasonable at all. However I don't want to bash teachers I'm sure they are doing the best they can in their circumstances. I personally feel year 6 state education isn't good enough to stretch the more able children. I also don't think it's within teachers capacity and sometimes ability to stretch an able year 6. The school is limited by the system, class size, structures and varying abilities that can stretch across 3 different age ability groups in a year 6 etc. Therefore I ignore everything our teacher sets for home schooling and do our own thing. Not because they don't have best intentions as I honestly think they all do.

@MsTSwift

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?

Or the third option of being goady fuckers. The fourth option being the same posters over and over again. There have also been plenty of trolls that MNHQ have eventually deleted but they still stay in the psyche to make it seem like there have been more.

@maddening

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.

Evenings and weekends. I'm not denying that you are unfortunate in having a school SLT that doesn't seem to be ensuring decent work is set. However, it is what it is, and at the end of the day, I wouldn't sit around getting cross at something I couldn't change (assuming you've tried, to no avail), but do something about it myself, to benefit MY child. It's not ideal, no, of course it's not. That's the shit of a global pandemic. You can let your child fall behind and blame the school. Or you can get on with filling the gaps yourself so your child is less likely to fall behind (and still blame the school in your head). I know which I'd be doing.

ChloeDecker

I'm going to add a fifth option of those parents that CBA to get the kids to do the work, and just want to moan about schools.

If you go on any teacher forum or twitter thread youll find that the constant teacher bashing is making teachers suicidal. The suicide rate in primary teachers is 2 times higher than the national average. THINK. Be kind. We're in a global crisis.

I haven’t ever moaned about my children’s school or teachers until this. I am a school supporter. Most of my family are teachers.

I have been somewhat taken aback by the fact my child’s primary have emailed out worksheets from another school and that’s it - for 3 months. I am not an unreasonable person or a “goady fucker” 🙄 but I think that’s pretty bad. My friends state school primaries are even shitter.

@MsTSwift, You what?!

A school supporter???? Don't give me that shit! You've been one of the loudest teacher-bashers on here all the way along!

Dear Miss Smith
Class 6a
ODFO Academy.

I am writing to express my disappointment that even though you are in school teaching year 6 children every day that you are not also immediately answering my numerous phone calls, emails and carrier pigeons that I send between the hours of 9 and 3. I am also extremely angry that Pertunia's year 4 teacher who is currently covering key worker children in school is not simultaneously broadcasting the lessons live on zoom, google classroom and teams whilst printing off work packs for the children not able to access the internet.
I find the lack of CAN DO attitude in your inability to not only find funding for port-a-cabins but to not have them constructed according to the DFEs non-existent guidelines.
Now according to an opinion piece in the Daily Mail from Katie Hopkins ALL schools have excess budgets, 100% parental involvement, PTAs that raise millions in extra revenue for the school and complient children who do what they're told when they're told. So these claims about schools in deprived areas where teachers are more concerned about the welfare of their children and worrying about whether they have enought to eat or if dad's drinking again are merely twaddle those lefties trot out in order to have an extended holiday.
Also can you tell me why I haven't recieved any phonecalls at 10.30 and 12.15 on a daily basis to let me know when break time and lunch start? I pay my taxes so you need to start doing your job!
Finally I have it on good authority that you were seen in YOUR garden on Sunday afternoon having a glass of wine without either your laptop or any marking to be seen. If I hear of any more instances of this egregious behaviour I shall be writing to the Chair of Governors, my MP, Boris and the Daily Mail.

Consider yourself on notice Missy!

Yours Sincerely, Mrs Richard Cranium
Grousing Bovine House

An avaerage school day is 5h long. A proper home schooler doesn't set 5h of lessons. At home alone you can't replicate a school day, lots of time is taken up moving around, in dicussion, transition, explaining in a numbers of ways to suit differnt kids. At most a couple of hours a day should be enough for primary level. It is different is a live lesson is being taught as there is all the phaff and discussion etc.

If you can't get response from the school go above them. However 4 hours if work a day may well be too much for either you or your child to sustain and achieve quality.

I am not a teacher basher.

My child’s school have done NOTHING to educate the children since March 23rd!!!! I think that’s pretty outrageous whichever way you cut it. All the daffodils in the world don’t change that fact.

Yes my child's school is pretty poor too. I'm speaking to the head tomorrow to voice my views. God knows what the teachers have been doing

@MsTSwift

I am not a teacher basher.

My child’s school have done NOTHING to educate the children since March 23rd!!!! I think that’s pretty outrageous whichever way you cut it. All the daffodils in the world don’t change that fact.

I’m sorry but I just don’t believe that they have done nothing.

Have you reconciled with what you were expecting vs what the government advised vs what is appropriate for home learning? Even the OP’s expectations have not tallied up with usual home educator/schooling experiences.

They’ve emailed work sheets prepared by another school that’s it. No contact teaching links to web sites pre recorded videos nothing.

Even other parents who are teachers think it’s pretty bad. Hey ho.

@MsTSwift

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?

In your case definitely the former. Do you have an alert set up for any thread like this to contribute nothing but spite?

My DDs school have been amazing, apart from a blip at the beginning where work was all over the place, they finally settled on Teams and she now has 4 subjects a day with work that gets marked and returned. She is covering all her secondary school subjects.
My DS year 4 school work has been atrocious and yes we have complained several times. We’ve had to resort to scouring the internet for online resources. This is not teacher bashing, this is fact and we are just as entitled to come on here and moan about it as everyone else.
If someone moans about a hairdresser, we don’t get a million people standing up for hairdressers ffs! Allow people to have a whinge about teachers without jumping down their throats! They aren’t complaining about all teachers.

@MsTSwift

They’ve emailed work sheets prepared by another school that’s it. No contact teaching links to web sites pre recorded videos nothing.

Even other parents who are teachers think it’s pretty bad. Hey ho.

I don’t know what you mean by contact teaching links. They don’t have to do pre-recorded videos and I’m not sure why they would be any better than the Oak National Academy or BBC Bitesize with the plethora of amazing people doing videos for all subjects anyway. What links to websites would you want? And would you be annoyed if it was just links to websites and not videos that are so loved on MN? (Because plenty do moan about getting links to websites and yet this seems to be your gold standard) And you say every single worksheet (and don’t knock worksheets, wherever they come from-they serve a good purpose) has come from another school. Does this mean they have the school logo on them? That’s it? Are they relevant worksheets to what is being taught? If they are, what is the problem? Be honest with yourself here (and you appear on so many of these threads saying the same thing) is it because you want to ‘see’ your child’s teacher working hard writing everything from scratch, so they earn your taxpayer’s buck regardless of what else they might be doing that you don’t know about?

My DS Year 4 work has been atrocious

And has been proven on many posts that one person’s atrocious is another person’s ideal outcome.

If someone moans about a hairdresser, we don’t get a million people standing up for hairdressers ffs!

When was the last time you saw a post morning about hairdressers?

Allow people to have a whinge about teachers without jumping down their throats!

So you admit that people just want a whinge and aren’t looking for genuine advice, despite their faux claims to the contrary? Therefore, they are just wanting to bash teachers (or their teachers at least)? Got it.

They aren’t complaining about all teachers.

Oh plenty are and have done.

*moaning

My experience is bad. Really bad. Sorry that’s not what you want to hear. Wish it wasn’t true either.

Damn right I’m complaining am having to do their job as well as my own!

You really can't beat the Oak Academy lessons. We just told our child's teacher we were doing Oak lessons rather than the powerpoint-based work she sent out and that was that. She's happy he's doing something constructive and we're happy DC is engaged and getting on with it.

My Y6 DS has had a lot of help from his teacher... Each Sunday we get an email with Days 1 to 5 listed under
English, Maths and one other such as Science, Geography, History plus they do 30 min reading and 30 min Physical Activity per day.. Each week they also do Wellness Wednesday so have done worry dolls, positive points, thankful trees...
They do a weekly diary email to their teacher outlining their week, positives and any worries she then replies...
Weekly zoom group call

He is now in school mornings but also has English transition work sent home from his school.

New secondary has also sent
Intro Pack
What to expect
Transition activities including
English Lessons Inc Brief, Explanation, Starter, Task, Debrief
Maths Daily Booklet.
Easy Science Tasks
PE tasks
Map Reading Skills Task
Friendship circle and Hobbies activity to return before Sept so they know a little about each child

No complaints here we have been very lucky

If you want to fill those four hours you can't beat Oak National Academy.

My son's school (in Wales) has been great at setting work online over the last few months, but they've told us they won't be setting anything this week as they are focusing on writing reports and preparing to welcome all children back into the school the week after next.

So, I've set him a couple of the activities on Oak to do. They're pretty good (apart from all the fronted adverbial bollocks they had to put in for the English, but we ignore that). It's really brought home why home schooling doesn't have to take as long as a school day. He seems to spend half his time watching and listening while things he already knows he got right (because the answers are on screen) are explained slowly. Just like real school!

20ChloeDecker - for example, rather than an English worksheet asking questions about English language/writing /grammar that ds has not been taught, requiring me (actually doing a full time job) to explain the concepts required and trying to find on line resources in between actual meetings and actual work so ds understands enough to complete the work (and am not sure that I have explained it properly as I am not a teacher) the teacher could have a group on line to talk them through and point them to the online resources before they break off to do their work. Later on they could have a 30 min maths lesson and break off again instead of me having to help ds work through something he has not been taught. Today I was having to try and find appropriate geography info for ds and explain politics between countries that he read about while trying to answer a badly put together worksheet. Again teacher could go through this with them online. I should not be trying to teach in tandem with my own work when the teacher could do what many other teachers are doing and teach on line.

Fed up with what amount to whining excuses when their counterparts are proving these excuses to be lies. It is possible to hold on line lessons. Ffs do some teaching.

I'm not sure how Y6 teachers are supposed to be in school with their classes or bubble and simultaneously delivering online teaching tbh.

Even if the children are only in every other week, the teachers aren't.