AIBU to message the teacher re Christmas play cancellation

[Rascalsandradishes]

DS(10) in y6 came home very upset today saying that class performance has been cancelled. It is tomorrow morning.

Teacher messaged in the class app approximately half an hour after school ended to say the play hasn't really been cancelled but wanted to use this as a stimulus for them to write a persuasive letter to get the head to change his mind. Teacher requested parents play along and help them form some arguments.

DS was really quite upset that his last show of primary school was 'cancelled'.

I couldn't play along, it just felt cruel and I don't lie to my DC. I had to tell him it wasn't real and that this was the base of a homework task.

AIBU to message the class teacher to say I've not played along and tell her how upset DS was? I can't imagine being the only parent feeling this way.

Tweens are wound tightly enough already this time of year. Pulling this cruel and manipulative nonsense is not fair, and provides a terrible example. My mother was not one to interfere in school. Trouble at school meant trouble at home. She would have called the head to complain about this.

Nah. I’m a p7 teacher (Scottish equiv. of Y6) and I think this is an incredibly poorly judged decision from the teacher.

We teach persuasive writing by getting children to critically engage with both sides of the argument and to discuss and consider all viewpoints. It’s important to choose a subject they can get passionate about…however getting them all worked up and flustered, then sending them to bed distressed when they have worked hard on something is just cruel.

You get the best out of children when they trust that you have their best interests at heart; that you make decisions and put in boundaries that benefit them. I wouldn’t be surprised if she started having difficulties in class with attitude and behaviour after this.

Really stupid idea. Poor kids

a couple said they were happy that it been cancelled because they didn't want to do it anyway (so that's backfired!)

it would be hilarious if the kids collectively decided to pretend they didn’t give a shit and came in this morning saying “whatever” to the teacher.

I think it's a bit immature/mean, but some of the responses here ("Get the teacher sacked for misconduct!!") are so ridiculously over the top. Most kids will be mildly annoyed if they think their end of year concert is cancelled, unless the adults around them are teaching them to have no resilience and to get excessively wound up about things - I really don't think the hysteria and catastrophizing here is helpful.

Then again, I also don't understand the MN hysteria about "leavers" needing all this special stuff to leave primary school - special hoodies and gifts, proms, a bunch of events, blah blah. We had very little of this when I was at school, and I'm buggered if I can remember most of the concerts we had.

As for my own actions: I'd tell my kid the truth, and ask them to write the letter anyway.

I would mention at the next parents' evening that telling kids fibs may not be a great idea, as it puts doubt in their mind about the veracity of everything that's said to them.

This is a normal Y6 piece of work, both of mine had to write persuasive letters to the head when they were in Y6, however I think the topic was misguided and I would feed that back. I think my two had to argue why afternoon break shouldn’t be cancelled and why they shouldn’t have to do extra maths. They had to write for and against arguments. Something they could have a strong opinion on but not be upset by is best.

Just so we're clear, you feel that the best way to resolve this situation is to have the teacher (who OP is otherwise happy with) sacked for a one-off lapse of judgement, leaving Year 6 with a patchwork of supply cover for the spring term as they prepare for SATs and possibly only getting a new permanent teacher for the summer term if they are very lucky and the headteacher is able to advertise and recruit an excellent candidate in the last, and busiest, eight working days of the term? Right.

It won’t be the class teacher who set this task, no need for her to be sacked !

Who do you think plans the classes' work?

Bad idea.

Something such as asking children a month ago to say why there should be a play would have been a worthwhile exercise, but not the day before.

The teachers are not allowed to teach whatever they want. They plan the lesson following “ the grand plan” set by those in higher office.

So the year group teacher/teachers were following the unit of work for year 6 persuasive writing. They may have added their own embellishment eg the scenario, but in all schools I’ve worked at over almost 40years, something like this would have had to be run by the head first.

The scenario is the total issue!

I don't suppose anyone minds about y6 doing persuasive writing.

This is a completely unprofessional lapse of judgement, and downright cruel.

I wouldn't mince words to the teacher and I would cc the HT.

So what what was the schools response @Rascalsandradishes?

Jesus. You sound horrible. Poor teacher! Anyone would think she told them Santa wasn't real.

I’d speak to the teacher in the morning about how upset your DC was. I wouldn’t bother the head with this (unless a series of similar things have happened). This time of year is incredibly busy in schools and with scarlet fever/strep A doing the rounds, I would imagine that the head would have more pressing matters to deal with. Teachers aren’t robots and do misjudge situations or make decisions, without thinking it through properly. The teacher was most likely thinking that they would get some great writing from it because of how strongly the children would feel about having the play cancelled.
It’s great that you don’t lie to your children. Out of curiosity, does that mean they’ve always known the truth about Santa and the tooth fairy?

And I said this particular scenario would have been run past the head.

The really stupid thing is that these kids write these sorts of letters every year without learning how to do it properly so you then spend Secondary teaching them how do it, but by then their all sick of writing the stupid things. This was an awful topic and I'm dismayed the teacher thought it was a good idea as it was guaranteed to cause upset or relief in students. I'm not sure which is worse, the relief that the School Play is happening or the horror that it was a joke and you still have to do it. They could easily have said future productions. OR how about the state of the school toilets, extending the school day, abolishing morning playtime, why we need school uniform, why Y6s need mobile phones (much more controversial 😂), why kids should walk to school, why Tesco's should remove the ban on Students (this actually happened) etc...

Poor judgement from the teacher. You have to be so careful what you say to children. They don’t have the experience to recognise something isn’t true and simply a device.

Examples of good and bad judgement at my daughter’s school…

Practising a whole-school lockdown in case an intruder enters the school:

Good judgement - Reception teacher: ‘Hey, children! The Head is playing hide-and-seek with us. We need to hide under the tables and hope she doesn’t find us…’

Bad judgement - Year 1 teacher: ‘Quick, children! There’s a wolf loose in the school and we need to hide under the tables. Be quiet else we’ll be eaten.’

My poor daughter was in the Year 1 class. Nightmares for weeks.

Unnecessarily cruel - what a stupid, thoughtless thing to do. I wouldn’t let my DC take part and I’d be telling the teacher and Head my feelings. It’s completely unnecessary to pull a stunt like that in order to practise persuasive writing. It’s particularly cruel at this time of year and after the last few crap COVID years with everything cancelled and children stressed.

I’ll be interested to know the outcome of this if OP comes back. The teacher has fucked up and a complaint would be warranted.

However I am absolutely fascinated by the batshit posters on this thread who have (presumably) reached adulthood genuinely thinking they can compel a headteacher to drop everything to take an evening call, or ‘call for’ and achieve the sacking of a teacher with a single complaint.

Perhaps your child can write a persuasive argument about why the teacher is BU?

Oh, I'm horrible? But the adult in a position of trust who lied to kids in their care for a homework assignment the night before their show they had put time and effort into is to be pitied? Ok so. How do you suppose the children in the class will completely trust this teacher again? Using small kids to do a mandatory homework assignment to plead with an authoritative figure like a head teacher to allow them to continue their Christmas show and ask parents to go along with the lie is very, very wrong @blondie185.