AIBU to say that we are not here to provide tour child's education.

[Curerofsouls]

This was prompted by the homeschooling thread and just reminded me of an email I received from a potential new attendee in our scout group. The parents have been homeschooling their children and appear quite target driven with things they would like the child to learn or cover. The parent sent me their child's learning objectives and asked how we could meet them!
I replied politely and stated that I was unable to go theough his learning objectives but would be happy to send our itinerary for the term so the parents could see. Not a happy camper the parent proceeded to tell me how I should be linking with homeschooling learning objectives. I told them I was not being paid to be a teacher so wouldn't be doing that but child was still welcome to attend. Needless to say he never showed anyway. I was discussing it with a colleague today and she thought I was mean🤣
What do you reckon...mean or not?

Their kid will almost certainly benefit from something off the Learning Plan TM.

My dd volunteered at Brownies. The home schooled ones were hard work, they weren't used to waiting for others and not getting their own way.

They can use your itinerary to support them in their planning, not the other way round.

This - absolutely!

Clearly they are bonkers and your colleague is weird. I met many homeschooling parents when DS was in Scouting and they were all perfectly normal, just grateful to the wonderful volunteer leaders like the rest of us.

I have co-run a Rainbows group in the past and a village hall parent and toddler play group with 2 other volunteers. 99% of parents were lovely and helpful. The other 1% moaned that we should:

• Run sessions every day of the week
• Change our session to X day
• Run ‘Dad-friendly’ parent and toddler sessions at weekends for men who were too busy during the week doing Important Man Work
• Look after their children whilst they “popped” to the supermarket in the next town, 12 miles away

Pointing out we all worked, Tuesday was the only day we all had off, and that we were neither trained, insured nor had the capacity to look after their children didn’t help.

We used to offer free use of all the play equipment and resources we had fundraised for to anyone who wanted to volunteer to run extra sessions. No one ever took us up on it!

We used to ask a voluntary contribution of £2/family to cover a generous and healthy snack for the children, craft activities and other consumables and unlimited coffee/tea/biscuits for adults (that we used to serve!) over a 3-hour session. I was told on more than one occasion that “I was being paid” to provide something or do something. Some people just aren’t terribly bright…

Tell them of course you will meet all their learning objectives and teach them the flute as an added extra. Oh and you’ll walk them home, Bath them, tell them a story and tuck them into bed on your way home.

Good grief. Such unrealistic expectations . They’re being ridiculous.

was discussing it with a colleague today and she thought I was mean

Your colleague is the only unreasonable one here! Are they also a cub leader?

Definitely mean OP I mean the under 8s rugby coach does mandatory spelling tests and mathematic principles before teaching them to scrum....

How dare you not get onboard with this child's learning objectives!!

(Said in sarcastic tone)

They are totally unreasonable , i would have said the same - lucky escape !

How do these people exist in day to day life without getting punched?

I’m sure I’ve talked about this before on here but a few years ago we had a Year 8 student who was taken out of school by his parents because the school curriculum and teaching weren’t up to scratch.
After writing many complaints to and about teachers they decided that they would home school.
In their final e-mail to the school, or more accurately each of his teachers, they requested his books (fine), his latest assessments (fine), past SOW (ok, makes sense to know what he’s covered), all future SOW including worksheets and book titles for the remaining years he would be at the school - 8,9,10,11, all future assessment papers and future GCSE course syllabus/SOW/assessment materials for Maths, Eng, Sci and a selection of his preferred option subjects (WTAF?).

They also asked if their DS could sit the exams at school.

Bonkers.

OP,

You sound like a love person.

I would have been tempted to tell them to buzz off and not be annoying me.🙄

Your troup are lucky to have you.

I almost forgot! The Year 8 boy wanted to do Product design GCSE and the parents were hoping he would be able to use the school workshop facilities and machines in the future.
Honestly couldn’t make it up 🤣

Omg I read this and could believe entitled and insufferable parents like this ! My nine year old is at Cubs as I write, he made dens last week and loved it. I would never put him in a social, life skills club like Cubs and expect him to have personal learning met. Firstly he goes to school, Cubs is NOT school, I don’t think he’s more important in the lodge ( surely that’s a good lesson ) and lastly maybe they should be paying for extra tutors. I would of told them to fuck off, perhaps why I’ll never be scout leader 😂😂😂😂

@Rosierosa15

Definitely not unreasonable and that's coming from a parent who is currently homeschooling. Some people expect the world, don't they.

Came to say exactly the same! My DS has been home ed for years and he adores scouts. Why on earth would I expect them to educate my child in any way influenced by me?! He does scouts for fun, for independence, for friendship etc. He learns plenty of things I’d never think to put on a timetable at home.

As it happens he recently had a few bits of writing to do to finish off a few badges, so I worked that into his targets for the week as one involved some research etc. That was cool and saved me coming up with tasks for him. 🤣

That’s my job to sort, being his parent. Not the scout leaders who do a huge amount of planning and risk assessing etc as it is!

Bizarre CF behaviour.

@Tal45

Perhaps they got you mixed up with a private tutor duh. Do they have any idea about what being a Scout leader involves, and for no pay - I'd guess not!

This too! I do private tuition and most parents don’t even ask me to do anything like what this parent is asking of volunteers! 😳 So weird.

@SunShinesBrightly

I’m sure I’ve talked about this before on here but a few years ago we had a Year 8 student who was taken out of school by his parents because the school curriculum and teaching weren’t up to scratch. After writing many complaints to and about teachers they decided that they would home school. In their final e-mail to the school, or more accurately each of his teachers, they requested his books (fine), his latest assessments (fine), past SOW (ok, makes sense to know what he’s covered), all future SOW including worksheets and book titles for the remaining years he would be at the school - 8,9,10,11, all future assessment papers and future GCSE course syllabus/SOW/assessment materials for Maths, Eng, Sci and a selection of his preferred option subjects (WTAF?).

They also asked if their DS could sit the exams at school.

Bonkers.

That’s hilarious 🤣 how mortifying, I hope one day they realise how ridiculous they were being. Maybe they were confusing home ed with being on roll but educated offsite due to health reasons etc, where the school would provide work… used in exceptional circumstances not just when the parents decide they want it. Talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it too. 😳🤣

Can’t see why they were so desperate to get all the school resources if the education wasn’t good enough for their little darling anyway mind.

As a teacher and a scout leader I’d be thanking my lucky stars they didn’t turn up. If they’re this demanding up front they won’t get any easier! There’s still an awful lot of parents out there who think we get paid for all of this!!

Maybe they were confusing home ed with being on roll but educated offsite due to health reasons etc, where the school would provide work… used in exceptional circumstances not just when the parents decide they want it.

Yes! It was very odd. Nobody could understand why they were asking for our ‘substandard’ teaching materials or for the use of our ‘inadequate’ facilities!
They hated everything we did and had made it very clear!

Talk about wanting to have your cake and eat it too.
And they wanted you to make the cake!

Sadly I have also come across this before. I run a club & have had weird requests like this. I have done all the logs & things for DoE awards but that's it.

@Howshouldibehave she is a fellow Scout leader though not the same group.

I think the same parents may have attempted to join my rugby tots session. The poor kids will be so embarrassed by their parents in a few years time.

You've dodged a bullet!

You are definitely not being unreasonable and I say that as a home educator. When my daughter went to Brownies I didn’t expect anything more of them than they did for everyone else. We turned the badges into a project and think we were the only people who didn’t find the new brownies badges a complete nightmare because we had the time to do them.

The parents are ridiculous. I home educated my girls - the very reason I liked things like scouts was it gave them something different, something I couldn’t. What on earth is the point of them sending their children if they’re going to try to dictate what the children do whilst there? It then becomes being taught by your parents by default but in a different setting.
Well done for sticking to your guns.