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.

Particularly cruel to do this to children who have spent the past couple of years having all sorts of fun things cancelled for real left right and centre. Absolutely unacceptable and I would be fuming.

I think the ideas good. It's important for people to write persuasive letters to they're MPs and 'leaders'.

Perhaps ask the school to get the kids to find a real cause they are worried about (rubbished dumped in local stream, need more park benches etc) and write a real letter to their real MP.

As a teacher, I read your thread title and was ready to jump in and say “Please don’t message a stressed out teacher at this time of year!”. Then I read your post and I’m gobsmacked. Totally bonkers idea and I’d be surprised if SLT had agreed to this lesson plan..!

My Ds is a teacher, he has told me that over the last couple of years they have had to deal with a huge amount of anxiety among the children, lockdown caused so much damage. He's done a lot of one to one work with pupils on how to cope with anxiety.
writing persuasive letters - fine. Lying to kids in a way that anyone with half a brain would know would upset them is imbecilic.

I think it is a good exercise. Learning to argue one's case calmly and persuasively, rather than reacting to a situation with pure emotion, is a very valuable life skill.
Bravo to that teacher!

Coercive and emotional abuse. Report her.

Is this the second thread on this exact homework? I’m sure I saw one yesterday, with more responses from the OP on it. I’m just hoping I haven’t lost my last marble!

That is so out of order for a school. All the work those kids have done and they get told it's not going ahead for what a bit of homework to write a begging letter. It's nothing shirt of absuive what if some of them kids are on the autistic spectrum. My son would probably be relieved because he hates preforming so I can imagine the idea of turning up and finding it is going ahead just too much for him.

Absolutely. These children were 7-8 when they were told that they were breaking up early for Easter, and many didn't get to set foot back in school for nearly 6 months.
After Christmas when they were 8-9, they either did a day back at school or were at bedtime (or in bed) preparing to go back to school the next morning and that was removed from them for another two months again with pretty much no notice.

Dishonesty of this nature, especially in recent times is an appalling misjudgment of the teaching team.

Even without that context, it would always be a risky strategy for upsetting some members of the class who struggle with distinguishing reality and fiction due to SNs, maturity or difficult past experiences.

As a teacher, I usually roll my eyes at threads that begin like this.. however I actually completely agree with you. I've taught yr 6 quite a few times and So much effort goes into these productions that I can't even imagine doing this. What was she/he thinking?
On a side note, teachers are encouraged to create scenarios where children can 'write for a purpose' to make the work more engaging and relevant which I'd imagine is what she was trying to achieve but this is not the way to do it. Very very bizzare. Poor kids.

Who the hell does this. Stupid idea.

YANBU Not at all! I would be furious if my kids' schools had pulled this sort of stunt. I would not just message the teacher but complain to the head and governors. I've never heard anything like it.

I would tell ds, then pretend I hadn't seen the entire message and get him off writing the stupid letter.

So this! It’s awful OP I’d have done the same as you, YANBU. That task could easily have been set as a hypothetical piece of work done in school time as well.

I wonder if there was a child in that class who was building up to trusting the teacher enough to disclose abuse?

They wouldn't trust the teacher after this.

If a parent intentionally emotionally distressed a child 'so they knew how it felt' I suspect they'd be accused of abuse.
The school is just as capable of causing significant emotional harm as anyone else & for some children, that breaking of trust would be enough to do it.

YANBU, what a totally stupid idea!

jesus!

What?

I'm confused. How can they complete homework for tomorrow when the play is in the morning? What if parents haven't seen the message because they're at work and don't get a chance to tell their child before the following day because they've gone to bed? Or what if they didn't bother reading the message and just took what their child said and don't show up tomorrow for the play now. This is clearly something they've all worked weeks on and put in effort so its definitely really mean. What a really strange and not well thought out idea!! I can imagine this will cause chaos.

I see this was yesterday so how did it turn out in the end?

My parents never lied to us. We were not told that fairy stories of any kind were true. Just that they were stories.Do you think year 6 kids believe dragons exist if they read The Hobbit?

I’d be very impressed at a 6 year old reading the hobbit. While I get your point, there is a slight difference. Parents who tell their children that Santa is real, usually follow it up with presents from Santa on xmas day. Whereas, a child who has read the hobbit aren’t going to find a dragons egg in their kitchen cupboard so to speak.
My question was just that… a curious question.

Indeed. I work for a network of schools. I had a conversation with one of our headteachers today who has fifteen staff absent due to illness and is doing a daily Sudoku to work out if she can safely open to all classes, plus six confirmed cases of scarlet fever amongst the children and Public Health England on the phone every day. The idea that this headteacher should have to drop all this to make themselves immediately available to take an evening call for a parental complaint, however justified, is actual madness.

I work in a primary school and can never imagine this happening here.

I agree with others that it's a misguided idea. The children have every right to be upset.

Plus in my experience Chinese whispers start on parents WhatsApp groups and before you know it, word will be out that the play is actually cancelled, rather than it being part of some elaborate homework hoax, parents will have rearranged work and childcare to attend the play and if they've misunderstood, be quite rightly feel annoyed, leading to a number of calls to school. Plus they have an upset child to deal with as well.

Terrible idea.

Personally don't see the big deal. I would just have motivated my child to write a strongly worded letter and leave it at that.

They'll get over it once they find out it's not cancelled.