DS punished for teachers mistake

[babynot]

DS's(8) class were given a new work book at school last week with with printed labels on the front.
Imagine his name is something like Tommy but this book said Tom which he is never called and hates.

He told the teacher his name was wrong on the label and was told not to worry about it, he didnt ask and so wasn't told not to correct it but decided to scribble out ‘Tom’ and write ‘Tommy’ below. It looks fine, obviously not as neat as it would printed but you can clearly read what it says.

Teacher has left a note saying he needs to rewrite his work into a new book which has been sent home because he vandalised the first one. Its only a few pages of work but will take him at least 20 minutes to do

AIBU to think this is unfair and it’s not his fault they put the wrong name?

Did they put the right name on the second book?

My son would have done the same tbh at one point he hated being called a variation of his name

No, ask the teacher to print a label with the correct name to stick over the first book.

Agree. This.

This. And no wonder so many teachers complain of stress when they get het up over a child writing their name correctly. Why on earth punish a child over that. I find Britain a very strange country since I returned.

I'm a teacher and I would fight this one. It's not for the teacher to tell anybody to not worry about their name not being right.

It is an unrealistic punishment because everybody knows that a new sticker could just have been stuck on the book he already had.

I'm sure the teacher would not like it if you called her Miss Smi instead of Miss Smith but I would definitely be going to talk to her or him about this.

His name is correct on the new book

Agree. This is not okay of the teacher. If you get someone’s name wrong you apologise, you don’t double down and punish them for insisting on the right name. I am not someone who complains to school but I would 100% go to bat for my child on this.

I would reply very politely objecting to the use of the use of the word “vandalism” to characterise his correction of her error. I’d suggest it would be more efficient for her to replace the sticker.

I’m all for supporting teachers and the school but I think names are very important and it’s polite to spell and pronounce them as the person prefers.

Yes, this.

If for some unknown reason this won’t work, could you cut out the page of work your DC has done and paste it onto the first page of the new workbook?

Or cut out/steam off the corrected sticker and stick it on the new book?

On the first book he’d crossed out the name on the label and written his name underneath on the actual book.
In my opinion it would be fine to just stick a new label over either but it would still leave it looking messy

Copy it out for him and write a note explaining you’ve done this as you didn’t want him missing his free time at home for her mistake. Suggest next time printing a correct sticker and sticking it over the previous one would be better. Leave your mobile number if she’d like to discuss further.

Copying it all out is not the answer here and a better solution should be found.

However, I do want to say that it won't be the teacher that is behind this. There will be a member of SLT, or perhaps the whole team, who will be on at the teachers about this sort of thing and blame the teacher saying that he/she hasn't promoted an attitude of care and pride in the children of the class. The teacher will just be acting to avoid being the target of toxic leadership.

Copy it out for him and write a note explaining you’ve done this as you didn’t want him missing his free time at home for her mistake.

Yes I'm tempted just to do this as I'm not happy making DS do it.

I had to double check how old he was. Your child is 8 for goodness sake no way should anyone be expecting him to copy his work into a new book and I would be very unimpressed with the use of the word vandalised!

Tell her he will not be redoing the work and she can print a larger sticker if she's that bothered about it looking as neat.

I agree with this! The teacher will also know it is ridiculous, if you email back saying no that will give them the ability to forward it on and make it someone else’s ridiculous problem and not there’s.

He was told not to correct it, but he did. Not ‘vandalism!, but he ignored/disobeyed an instruction.

Cut the pages out of the old book and stick them in the new one?

You're misreading. He was told not to worry about it. No one said he couldn't correct it.

Asrgh! I misread! He wasn’t told not to change it!

I'd be more pissed off they've wasted a book, as opposed to just printing a new label. Seems so wasteful.

Former secondary HoD here. I agree. If a member of my staff had done this, I'd be having a word with them in private.

Me too.

I would say this to the teacher and ask them to put a sticky label over it instead.

I'd tell the teacher straight that he's not doing it and under no circumstances is he to miss any play time etc in order to do it at school.

With all the shit teachers have to deal with I seriously don't understand why she's choosing to create problems where they don't exist.

l’d carefully remove the one from the vandalised booked and stick them in the other.

However my worry would be they would make him to it tomorrow during his lunch break.