Teacher keeps asking Dd to do jobs

[Nextdoorarebangingagain]

Is this a good, bad or nothing…thing (rubbish sentence, but you get the gist)

Dd is almost 8, bright and hard working, but also chatty with friends in class. She’s been saying recently she’s been doing jobs for the teacher-putting kids work in files, going up to the office or another class.
I asked her if others do jobs and she said no, I asked her if she finishes her work and is then asked to help with jobs (she doesn’t ask to do jobs) she said usually

If you’re a teacher in particular, why do you choose certain children to do jobs (i’m wondering if she’s finishing early and being too chatty and distracting others 😬 or something else)

This has been a daily thing recently

Lazy teachers do this. Ones that can't be arsed to prep extension tasks for brighter kids i bet the teacher uses your kid as a TA too?

She’s probably distracting the others or behaving in a way that the teacher and/or others need a break.Or maybe the teacher really just needs the filing done.

Or she's being given extra responsibility. I was the child the teacher did this with and I loved it

Various reasons.

She’s a bouncy/chatty kid and she needs a movement break in between. Or they might be working on her independence/self esteem, making her feel useful/part of the class more.

She finished her work early and distracting others and the jobs need doing anyway.

She’s actually a responsible kid and if there isn’t another adult available to do such jobs , she’s a good option.

Could be a mix of all of them.

My child is on the ADHD diagnosis pathway and often got chosen to "take this to reception" or whatnot.. the teacher even said in a PT consultation last year she sometimes gave them a note to take to another classroom teacher that just said "just send xxx back to class" 😂

DC is a bit older now and it doesn't happen so much 🤷🏼‍♀️ does it bother her?

In my experience some children get restless and need to move around a bit and they are the ones chosen for this kind of thing.

As a teacher, I would never send a kid to do a job during a lesson. That is learning time. It sounds like the teacher is trying to keep her busy rather than extending her, which I strongly disagree with.

As a teacher , if you ask who wants to do a job, every hand shoots up! They wont be being sent out during "learning time".
We usually pick kids either who we feel have low self esteem or who would benefit from being given responsibility. It is something ofsted look for, it is not staff being 'lazy'!

She says no other children do jobs...I bet they do. I teach this age group with no TA for a lot of the time. Most of my kids do jobs to keep our classroom functioning. I can't leave the room so the children have to act as runners. It's not lazy teaching, it's the realities of 30 small people and one adult needing things done, often unexpectedly.

Some of my children have jobs to boost their self esteem. The boy who fills my water bottle takes enormous pride in being chosen for this.

Some of them need the breaks for sensory reasons.

I will usually mix up who gets the jobs but I do have dependable children who can get certain things done.

As for 'learning time' - we do a lot of learning. We have also built a cooperative classroom culture where we all pitch in to get things done. The kids love it and this in itself is hugely valuable learning.

I would see it as a positive that your daughter is being chosen for jobs OP. But please reinforce any messaging from the school about being chatty in class.

You need to ask the teacher why she is asking DD to do jobs. Is it in her learning time or break times?

Clearly not a teacher...

Teachers assign "tasks" to kids who are off task who need some "fidget time" before they're likely to settle down and focus again.

My DD (Y5) often gets assigned tasks like this when she is talking too much and needs a break from the task.

Chances are all children are getting jobs because no teacher is going to take the chance of the other email complaining their child doesn't get jobs .

Teacher is not being lazy. It's good to teach children responsibility in the classroom. I have helpers to clean the floors the desks, collect and empty recycling bins etc.

When I was at primary school (juniors) in the 80s, our teacher used to send us out for her shopping to the little high street. I kid you not.
Loved it.
She also used to spend the last 20 minutes of every day doing her hair and make up - getting the class to read whatever story book aloud.

Sounds like she is given a job to stop her distracting others, it’s very common for teachers to do this, often it’s because other parents have complained about children distracting theirs.

I my experience they choose kids they think of as responsible for this. When i was in school and the register needed to be returned to the office, the teacher would choose someone she trusted to take the resgister to the office and return straight to class, not someone who would be slow or get distracted or run off. It could be your child finishes work too quickly and she doesn't want your child to get bored while she waits for others to catch up.

Haha the teacher is not doing it because she's lazy, a kid is not ever going to be net-helpful. Have you ever had your 8yo "help" you cook, was that because you were "lazy" or because they needed to be kept busy and actually it would have been way easier to do it yourself?!

Of course there are exceptions etc

This could be because the school have noticed your child settles better if she's had a chance to move around. It's quite common for 'little jobs' to be recommended for children who need help regulating themselves and you mentioned she can be quite chatty so perhaps it helps her settle and concentrate?

this was my daughter, it started in the second week of september of year 2. at our first parents evening we were told how wonderful she was, and that she was a little TA, doing tasks, little errands, “she could be trusted to do xyz” but by the october half term my daughter was responsible for making sure certain children behaved properly, in the class. in the playground. not just helping a class mate with a maths problem, she was responsible for keeping this kid or that kid focused and sitting properly. i tired to talk about it with the teacher. who flat out denied it was happening. yet her class mates corroborated. her behaviour at home deteriorated to the extent that at christmas she wasn’t sleeping at night, was wetting bed, was waking at 2am, and said that she was afraid of the teacher. by february we had moved schools, and our sunny happy child is back.

Most probably because she's trustworthy and capable.

I liken my child to a border collie. If she doesn't have a task, she will find one and it probably won't be the one you wanted, so redirection and focus with a job would actually be incredibly helpful for my child.

She must be bright, knows how to speak to others and has a good attitude. If she was needing extra learning time she wouldn’t be asked. It’s good

Where are all these lazy teachers who can't be arsed please?
Only if you can be bothered to reply, of course.

It’s either that she is distracting the class and needs to be given a job to stop her being silly, or it’s the curse of being a ‘big sensible girl’ and the teacher knows she can trust her to do whatever job needs doing.

My mum is 81 and remembers inwardly groaning when she heard the teacher say ‘I need a big sensible girl to clean the ink wells’ because she knew she was generally always chosen because she was a big sensible girl and would do it properly even though she hated doing it!

"chatty with friends in class"
I'd hazard a guess that by asking your daughter to do these 'jobs' the chattiness decreases and her friends can get on with their work. And all without having to tick your daughter off for never shutting up, or asking her to be quiet.

Bravo that teacher.