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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To resent school daughter's school trying to invade my privacy

121 replies

Felicejayne · 06/01/2022 20:55

My 8 year old came home with a form in her link book where we're expected to record screen time, devices, activity, off-screen activities and hours of sleep. This is supposed to be done every day including weekends.
Has anyone else been asked to fill in similar?
It's the whole class who've been asked to do it.
I understand the need to control screen time but it gets my back up that the school thinks they have the right or the need to micromanage this.

OP posts:

ethelredonagoodday · 07/01/2022 07:37

Not RTFT, but ours did something similar for a class topic a few years ago. Didn't think anything of it really.

CaptainMyCaptain · 07/01/2022 07:39

@twominutesmore

Just make one up. I expect it's for a piece of topic or ICT work.

I imagine it's this. Fill it in how you want, I expect they'll be making graphs etc. I've done similar about eating vegetables.

Youngstreet · 07/01/2022 07:43

First they asked for money towards school activities.
Then it was only certain haircuts.
Now they monitor the lunch boxes.
They freeze the dc to death and insist on lft’s for education.
And in 2022 they’re demanding to know how you live when the dc are not in school.

Thank god my two are adults!

Clymene · 07/01/2022 07:53

There are not enough eyerolls in the world for your post @Youngstreet

BooksAndGin · 07/01/2022 07:54

I would ask the school why they need to know this. If it's a school project that's different and you can make it up, if it's not a project and they're being nosey I'd refuse.

DockOTheBay · 07/01/2022 07:58

When I was in year 10 I did a statistics GCSE and I asked my friends and family to fill in a questionnaire asking for their age and sleep habits. I didn't realise I was invading their privacy and should have asked them to sign a consent form. I'm sure they're all still horrified years later that they gave me their precious data 😱

MrsLargeEmbodied · 07/01/2022 08:08

it is just a question for your dd to complete
no judgment on you

muddyford · 07/01/2022 08:09

If it's for a project it should say so. Otherwise ignore.

itrytomakemyway · 07/01/2022 08:13

I really could not find the energy to get too bothered about this.

If you feel guilty about the amount of screen time your kid has then just lie on the form.

Some kids have far too much time on their screens, It does impact terribly on their ability to concentrate in class. However. I really don't think anyone in school is interested in monitoring this - they have enough on their plate already.

spanieleyes · 07/01/2022 08:16

There will be surveys on pocket money, colour of cars, eye colour, fruit and veg eating, the lot.
Eventually the staff will have all the information on you that they can get, they will draw lots to assume your identity, drain your bank account and run off to the Maldives to sip pina colada on the beach!
Bloody schools!

thedefinitionofmadness · 07/01/2022 08:18

Surely it is clear via correspondence if it is a project or a wild overstepping of school behavioural monitoring

If its A make something up - or do it if it is interesting to you and DD
if its B decline and that's the end of it

3scape · 07/01/2022 08:23

As a teen i did an official survey but it wasn't through school. To be frank if it is an official data collection then there should be a lot more information from the school about taking part. So I'd imagine it's for a project. Only way to know more is ask

itrytomakemyway · 07/01/2022 08:31

In my expereience parents who complained about 'invasion of privacy' over very simple surveys such as screen time, pocket money or fruit and veg consumption, were often the same parents coming into school demanding to know why the school wasn't doing anything about nasty emails x was sending to y because x's mum was seeing y's father.

In other words totally harmless surveys that simply tick boxes about data collection / graphs for maths as well as covering healthy lifestyle areas of the spec are all the work of Big Brother. At the same times there are parents who expect schools to have a detailed knowledge of any inter family animosity, totally unrelated to anything that has occurred in school, and beyond the school's ability to resolve. The school is then accused of 'not caring' or 'not getting involved'.

Trust me - no teacher gives a damn about whether you lie about screen time or whether your child is eating 5 portions of fruit a day.

Grumpyoldpersonwithcats · 07/01/2022 08:33

I love the way that the advice here from almost everybody is either to refuse to do it or to lie about the results.
Not convinced this is the best lesson for our children...
Unless of course the school project is all about bias in statistics

Malbecfan · 07/01/2022 08:35

It's a long time since my DC were at primary school but we used to make these up, the more outrageous statistics, the better.

DD1's teacher did pull me to one side to ask about some of the more outlandish claims - maybe it was about holidays and DD wrote about a trek on yaks across Mongolia when the reality was 4 days in a wet tent in Cornwall - but I said we had provided data, the purpose of the "homework". However, we had gone above and beyond in teaching the DC that statistics can be utterly unreliable: lies, damn lies and statistics. The teacher laughed and thanked me.

Swapsies · 07/01/2022 08:41

My son reported that they were asked in class how much screen time they were allowed per day.

My son was the only one who said that he had no limits and eyebrows were raised. He could tell that the teacher didn't approve and was judging us.

However, my son was the last biy in the class to be allowed to "game". We didn't let him until year 5 when I know that there were several kids gaming from at least year one.

Secondly many of the boys in that class were suing Fortnite from around year 3 age. And at the age of 11 were playing Call of Duty. My son has never seen either of these games.

Some of those same kids who told the teacher that they had screen time limits are the ones phoning and messaging on WhatsApp at midnight at the age of 11.

By not setting any limits, my son quickly realised that 'gaming at every minute of the day' was actually quite boring and often asks to go out somewhere or plays with his toys instead. So, he self regulates his gaming.

But we were the ones that were judged by the teacher for supposed poor parenting.

Youngstreet · 07/01/2022 13:00

@Clymene. How about schools sticking to safeguarding where necessary and minding their own business otherwise.
Teachers are educators, they have enough to do without all this extra interfering.
And eye rolling is such an immature response.

LittleGwyneth · 07/01/2022 13:25

If it's a one week thing for a project, fine. If it's general monitoring, absolutely not.

MajorCarolDanvers · 07/01/2022 13:57

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats

I love the way that the advice here from almost everybody is either to refuse to do it or to lie about the results. Not convinced this is the best lesson for our children... Unless of course the school project is all about bias in statistics

This

OhWhyNot · 07/01/2022 14:00

Ds did this

I made it up as I think most probably did

Screen time was of course less and no where to add time taken to get him off the screen

00100001 · 07/01/2022 15:04

@Swapsies