Compulsory college lecture in Easter Holidays?

[itsgettingwierd]

Ds is doing a T level.

I appreciate these are new and with lockdowns etc they are having to adapt a new course a lot. A big part of it is industry placement which they've obviously not been able to do.

The course lead isn't very clear in her communication.
She's also quite negative and spends inordinate amounts of time moaning at the students about what they don't know rather than spending the time teaching them these concepts or re visiting them. (I heard this during home schooling)

Many a time ds has got into a state because she's messaged on teams on a Sunday afternoon saying they need to be online Sunday 10 minutes later for information. We've often been out or he's not in his computer and missed it.

She then tells them all off and saying they should be operating at industry standard.

We are on Easter holidays until next Friday. Usually on Fridays they have a lesson which an industry leads end of the morning until lunch. They've been told they'll have it this Friday and must attend.

Issue is she's changed the time to first thing and ds can't attend because he has a prior commitment with his sport which is returning next Monday.

He has said he will do his sport and I've supported this.

I've explained no employer would expect you to be readily available during AL or your days off so you aren't failing to meet industry standard.

But ds is equally concerned as it's a 2 year course but with 2 separate grades for each year she may stop him doing year 2.

So AIBU (or is he?) to say he cannot make a different time to usual lesson time and not prioritise a lesson during his holidays over a prior commitment (and this isn't just a sport he's aiming for this years nationals and to get on the Olympic talent programme).

His sport doesn't take precedence over college during term time as training is early mornings and late eve and he always completes his assignments on time.

TIA

Without even 🤦🏼‍♀️

Frankly the "industry standard" thing sounds like a lot of old bollocks to excuse this woman's incompetence. Sometimes in industry there are commercial imperatives which might persuade staff to work outside normal hours for the common good. But staff who do that because their manager is a disorganised bully are just enabling bad management.

I can't help but wonder what industry this is that has people on call on a Sunday

I’m not sure about OP’s son’s studies, but there hundreds of jobs where people have to be available on Sundays at short notice. Mine for example - performing arts and events. Let’s not even start on emergency services and health.

The teacher still sounds disorganised and incompetent, though.

The three subjects for T level from Sept 2020 are

Design, Surveying and Planning for Construction
Digital Production, Design and Development
Education and Childcare

www.tlevels.gov.uk/students

Some of these industries would need Sunday working or flexible. Very few if any employers will need a new starter to be on standby any day including holidays with 10-15 minutes notice.

Industry standard presumably includes being dressed suitable for that workplace, punctual etc. It should also include bringing up issues with a manager. if expectations are not clear or as previously agreed. Learning to do this assertively but co-operatively. As this teacher is saying this is industry standard she can expect feedback from the students. If not getting anywhere take it up with the college.

Ds has sent a very polite email asking for confirmation of the time and he's not available until 10.20am due to another commitment made due to it being holidays.

I agree it's important to teach them this. I think it's good practice to teach them now to politely ask and challenge where necessary and also learn the balance of sucking a few things up.

I don't want the kid to become a snowflake

Totally agree some jobs will require weekend working or last minute calls.
But these are laid out as expectations of the job and you decide to take it based on what you're told.

They were told one thing and the goalposts keep moving. And whilst I totally accept due to pandemic and this being a new course there will need to be flexibility as they navigate this I don't agree with being told off for not being say at your computer Sunday afternoon in case there's a call to attend or having to work your holidays with little notice (they still don't actually know what time this lesson is) and being told off for "not meeting industry standards" off the back of it.

And good point about dress code. They don't have one and that's never been suggested.

I've name changed because my job is to train staff on industry placements and assess students through them and it's still a fairly uncommon job.

She is being unreasonable to expect him to attend tutorials during holidays, but he will be expected to complete his industry placement hours then, if needed. Regarding his sport, a placement should never involve a student missing a lesson, but although I'd make every effort to help a student into a placement that accommodates other commitments, if it wasn't possible then the placement would have to come first.

@KrytenKrytinski

I've name changed because my job is to train staff on industry placements and assess students through them and it's still a fairly uncommon job.

She is being unreasonable to expect him to attend tutorials during holidays, but he will be expected to complete his industry placement hours then, if needed. Regarding his sport, a placement should never involve a student missing a lesson, but although I'd make every effort to help a student into a placement that accommodates other commitments, if it wasn't possible then the placement would have to come first.

He knows this re placements. They will be one day a week (the day he currently doesn't attend college) and college/ work 9-5 hours. It may mean for these weeks he has to miss training.

He also knows there's an expectation (due to covid and falling behind) he will have to make it up over a whole week (no lessons that week and possibly during holidays) and that training that week may be limited.

It's unlikely he'd have to miss it completely (7 sessions a week) because some is weekends and some are late evenings.

He's happy with this. He understands this.

Which is kind of why my initial reaction was to support his decision re next week (even though I then questioned myself )

I have a really pissed off kid now
They've just been told this week have the lesson at normal time online and next week it does start earlier and is for a few hours.

I've told him he can attend tomorrow and annoying as it is remember it'll benefit him and next weeks changed lesson he can email and say he cannot join until late due to training that's already been arranged.

The training is everyday but not their usual timetable to get them back in and build fitness before returning to school the following week.

Currently he's refusing to attend either but as bad as the organisation is I'm not giving him that much of an easy ride

I worked in a very urgent-response industry for a while, but I still had boundaries. I had times when I wasn't available (e.g. during an evening if I was going out to the theatre my phone would be off) and the people I worked with had a good sense of what was a ring-me-now emergency and what was a text-asking-for-response-soon issue and what could be sent my email and wait.

My husband's doing a course at the moment with tutors like your son's. He knew when he signed up that there would be extra events in the evenings and at weekends, but the tutors email of a morning to tell them they've got a compulsory thing all evening, or say the day before there'll be an exam tomorrow. If he can reasonably change his plans he does, but if not he says it's too short notice and he won't be able to do it. They don't really have a leg to stand on, so he gets away with standing up for his right to be able to make plans in advance!

Thanks. That's really useful advice.

Crisis is averted because in response to him emailing tutor she responded with a lecture about how he should be prior using college over everything else and applying industry standards ( this is the message I don't like being given) and not to worry anyway because the outside company who run this lesson cannot do a longer session next week and she was going to tell them during this weeks lesson next week will be the same time.

I am uncomfortable about the expectations they don't make plans for out of term time 'in case' they have lessons planned in. Ds has 3 medical appointments next week (2 extremely important neurology apts) which I purposely made for holiday time and it doesn't sit well that he's expected to be always available because I believe I've done the right thing for making them out of term time (as you would make apts out of working hours or take AL).

I need to email and just question their expectations nicely!