School work remainly at school at the end of year.

[jkbabymassage]

I just found out that at the end of the academic year my daughter who is in Yr 1 won't be allowed to bring her exercise books and school work home for us to keep and cherish. And that she won't even get them at the end of her time at primary school..that they will be archived? Apparently it's some stupid safeguarding thing? But what about parental rights and my daughter's rights? Surely the work belongs to her and we should take ownership of it? My mum to this day cherishes work that I brought home from school. It's made me both sad and angry that the best that I'll get is a quick peek in them on the odd parent's evening and then it will just all collect dust in some archive box somewhere. Anyone else had this at their child's school?

I was just suggesting that the physical ownership of the exercise books was not the school's simply because they paid for them. That as a tax payer we had shared ownership?
Tell me you're just having a laugh now? This simply can't be serious.

there is copyright in basically every "work" - You automatically get copyright protection when you create: original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work, including illustration and photography.
The bar for what qualifies is, legally, very very low. Which is why you get copyright law suits over evern very very short musical snippets, sometimes just a short sequence of notes. So, legally, there is likely to be automatic copyright in her dd's work (provided of course it's not copied from someone/ something else).

Isn't your house already full of crap your kid has done beautiful pieces to cherish? I wish all schools banned stuff from going home then maybe I wouldn't have my husband's GCSE coursework cluttering up the loft. If he dies first I'm hoofing it straight in a skip, what is the actual point of hoarding this stuff?

So if you've not talked to them what's the issue? Try go be reasonable and calm and explain what you want and chances are there will be a solution.

Well it’s surely no more ridiculous than suggesting that a school ‘owns’ all the work in a child’s exercise book, because a teacher gave that book out in class?

They're not attempting to steal the content of a Reception kid's workbook, believe me.

I hope my Dcs school starts this! I dread the big pile of paper coming through the door at the end of the year

It's possible that her work has been picked as a sample, for the likes of year-on-year comparison. We sent exercise books etc. home at the end of the school year, apart from one considered "above average", one "average/expected standard for the year", one "below average". Our learning coordinator told us which pupils were concerned; it was not a value judgement from the class teacher.
We just told pupils we were keeping samples; didn't tell them why they were chosen!
When the school celebrated its 150th anniversary, the archivist was able to display past work from the 19th and 20th centuries, which was absolutely fascinating.
My forms were KS2, by which time most of them (and their parents!) were well past the cherishing phase!
You might find, if you approach the class teacher again, (without mentioning sampling!) that she might be amenable to you taking snapshots.

YANBU
I have no idea why people are piling on, she did the work, they don't have any use for them. Very unreasonable on the schools part.

It's nice to look back on their work, especially when they're little.

Could you look around other schools? I wouldn't be comfortable with one that so actively pushes parents out. We ended up home educating, but the school we applied for sent out monthly newsletters about what the class had been up too. I am fairly certain they would have given work back at the end of the year, they wanted parents to be involved in their child's learning.

It certainly isn't a crime to be involved, or to want a record of their learning.

Turns out OP hasn't even talked to the school/ apparently expressed her desire to save some of her DD's work. So I am not sure this issue is an issue at all.

Oh, dear lord. This rabid foaming about a small child's wonky writing... get her to do some at home, and keep that?! I cannot see why you are getting so worked up about it, OP. It genuinely seems like a storm in a teacup here.
I would echo the thoughts of others.

• Ask the school


• It's not String Theory.

Some posters are being really unkind here. The OP has a simple request: she would like to keep her DD's school books once they're no longer required by school. There may be reasons why that's not possible, such as if they are needed for Ofsted inspections. But the OP's desire to have the books is entirely reasonable, and yet she has been ridiculed for this. Are PPs really so lacking in imagination that they are unable to understand the perspective of another mother, despite OP clearly explaining on many occasions? Or is she being bullied? I think it's the latter, and I'm surprised and disappointed at most of these responses. I thought MNetters were generally more supportive of each other.

Talk to the school.

If you have parents who live along way away, wouldn't they like to see their grandchild's work, or at least some of it? And as they have not been able to visit much over the last two years, would it mean a lot to them? Seems an argument to put to the school.

DDs school keep the latest Maths/Numeracy, English/Literacy, and Topics books to be passed onto the new teacher the rest come home but the photos are taken out of them unless the other parents are fine with their child appearing in other childrens books.

Where are you gonna store 12 years worth of school work?! Hoarding tendencies? Just keep the odd special craft etc
wait til she starts brownies or Cubs or whatever and brings home a bird feeder or flower crown or jubilee picture or whatever every week!

We've got every book they had - in years 9 and 7 now! Never had the school keep them.

I've been told I can't have the work. I haven't queried it yet. If you look at OP I was just seeing if anyone had been told the same regarding their child's school work? Fact finding...

Honestly can't believe how people have piled on this. OP I can assure you out in the real world lots of parents quite fancy keeping a few nicer bits of their child's work and none of the parents I know would find this an unreasonable thing to want 🤔I really don't get why people are acting like you are being precious, there's a reason most schools do send the books home, they don't need them and loads of parents are interested to see them! This thread is very odd, I can only assume some of the people being overly vociferous about this are having a bad day or something 😂

Being a tax payer gives you shared ownership?

Right, I’m off to get a policeman’s helmet and perhaps an ambulance.

A right to my own child's school work is in no way the same and you know it!

I’d be ecstatic

I wish my dc's school would "keep" their workbooks. And by "keep" I mean bin them so that I don't have to feel guilty about doing it 😂

Spoke to the school this morning..the headteacher. The teacher in question is completely wrong. I do get my child's work. Direct quote: 'Of course your child and you have the right to their work! You get it a year later so the new class teacher can monitor progress.' I wasn't aggressive. I didn't mention tax...for god's sake why would you? I have a great relationship with the head as I'm staff at the school too! ( I do pastoral support over lunchtime). So for all the haters who called me ridiculous and entitled, sometimes it's the teacher who doesn't actually know their own job! My only experience of Mumsnet has been terrible. Won't be back. I'll let you all get back to sniping at each other...

The op's made more "this is my last post ever" posts than the Rolling Stones have done farewell tours.

Having it a year later seems really bizarre too. Strange school.