To refuse to give up time to help kids catch up?

[PeachyM]

So I’m a teacher. And we’re nearing the end of the school year- finally :) Two kids from the same family but in different years disappear off for a two week family holiday, which hasn’t been authorised. I’m not going to particularly question their parents’ decision because it’s up to them. But they’ve come back having missed two weeks of a core subject and the parents have now requested we give up time to help catch them up. I’ve said no because I already have a shit ton of end of year stuff to finish and I don’t have the time. Parents have accused me of being unreasonable and said that I’m refusing to do my job. Who’s in the wrong here?

I take your point, Chekhov'smum. I had 3 kids, one of whom had a life-threatening illness, a husband, and I worked a 70-hour week in an independent boarding school, including Saturdays 8.30-5 and Sunday morning chapel. We basically worked a 6-week "week" before an exeat. I helped kids who were struggling in my lunchtimes and before school. It did nearly kill me. I was young and stupid. And it was "expected" of us.

Can the kids just ask their classmates what was covered/photocopy their mates notes?

I wouldn't expect the teacher to give up their break time if I'd taken my child out of school, but I probably would expect them to give a list of topics (eg. "We looked at quadratic equations, WW2 poems and the reproductive cycle of a walrus") so I could Google the topics and I could work through with my children. I probably would have asked for this in advance though rather than expect things after.

If you have your lesson plans could you email/photocopy them for the parent and then at least they'll have an idea of the topics.

No, because it isn't 2 minutes is it?
Have you any idea how busy teachers are?

How many 15 minutes should the teacher be providing? 1 for each child in the class (7.5 hours?)

What idiots take their kids out in year ten for two weeks for a holiday? Shit parents.

YANBU. They can spend the money they've saved on a term-time holiday on a tutor!

They could borrow notes/exercise books from a friend. No way you should be expected to spend time on this.

Absolutely not! No. No way, ever.

Missing the point? Teachers are NOT paid for summer holidays but the remaining 46 weeks are divided up so they get a paycheck each month

This.

Be very clear that it was their choice to remove their kids from school to go on two week holiday and that is why they’re behind. So it’s up to them to catch them up. Not you.

As a yr 10 parent, give them the lesson plans and an idea of where online would be a good place to start. After all home school kids manage it

This thread was started in June 2022.

And I bet it is just as relevant this year!

I dont think that's reasonable at all because I'm the mother of a school teacher & Principal who rarely gets a minute to herself. If she had 2 mins to "shoot you an email with bullet points" she could have that 2 minutes to have something to eat that day as she rarely gets to eat during her school day (7am to 7pm on many days) and when she does eat its junk food because she's too exhausted to cook and when she gets to spend time with me once or twice a year, we don't get to have a conversation, because she is on the phone dealing with work. She was pushed into current position, is very very stressed and nothing would please more than for her to resign and devote some time to her own 3 children. I spent years helping her become a very good classical musician and am not happy that that training is put aside to act more as police officer, childminder, nursemaid to deal with children from delinquent families instead of teaching children to become good musicians.

If a parent chooses to remove a child from class it's on the parent to find out from other students what was missed and is not the teacher's responsibilty. I once missed 6 weeks due to hospitalisation and recovery at home with family and on the day of final exam the math teacher commented to me that I would not have been able to answer one of the questions. I was able to tell her it was fine because one of my classmates visited me in the hospital each afternoon on her way home and taught me the work from that day. I was in boarding school but never would have dreamt of expecting the teacher to stay late and devote extra time after hours to help me catch up.

I'm a retired teacher. This parent didn't get the absence approved beforehand by the principal, so it's unexcused. If the teacher had known, she could have sent a packet with the student. The parent wanted to go on vacation during the schoolyear, so it's her responsibility to catch her child up with the missed work. I was pretty lenient, depending on the kid. If he/she usually had good grades, I'd just let the basics count (it was a well-deserved vacation). If not, everything needed to be done to ensure the material was learned. We went to Disney when my own son was 6. I asked the teacher for work that he could do while gone. She refused, saying that he already knew the material before she ever taught it. They were also just reviewing for state testing. He took the tests when we returned and passed! So it all depends on the student, IMO.

Fellow teacher here. They're being rude, entitled twats & can f@ck right off!

Who takes a yr10 kid in the middle of their GCSE studies on a 2wk holiday?!

At my school, there's no way this would be expected of the teachers. The kids would be told to copy all lesson notes etc from classmates & directed towards study guides/online resources etc to catch up themselves. It'll all be revisited next year during revision sessions anyway.

Their kids, their decision, their responsibility to deal with the consequences. End of.

The entitled attitude is beyond belief.

If they are going to take the decision to take a y10 child out for 2 weeks then they needed to have thought about catching up before hand. They have made a poor choice and can’t expect you to make up for that. But I’d still probably try and send them something if it was really critical stuff they’ve missed.

They choose to take the children out during term time, and may well have justified it to themselves at the time, which is fair enough. It is definitely not your responsibility to make up for whatever time they lost though, other than to perhaps provide them with the worksheets/a brief summary of what they missed. If you started doing this for every parent who decided it to take their children out for a holiday during term time, then your job would be made even harder than I imagine it already is.