School laundry service

[Workybloodyworkwork]

Just wanting to check whether I’m being precious here. DD is 16 and is in special school, she has a variety of complex needs. She has moved into the senior school where they are working to lower level qualifications and doing life skills, there’s a focus on employability skills eg hospitality, working in a professional kitchen, hair and beauty.

The school run a commercial laundry service, companies and members of the public pay a fee for washing and ironing. The actual work is done by students under the guise of gaining skills for employment, there’s students aren’t paid for this work.

Am I unreasonable to refuse to have my DD spend an afternoon a week doing other people’s laundry as part of her school curriculum. I have many objections to it, which I’m happy to explain but none of the other parents seem to have an objection. For reference my DD is very able to do her own laundry at home, so it’s not a life skills issue.

Unreasonable - give your head a wobble she’ll learn valuable skills
Reasonable - nope there’s all kinds of things wrong with this

Honestly then whilst I honestly do understand where you’re coming from, I think it would be to her disadvantage if you pulled her out. She will be able to demonstrate work experience, that’s hugely rare.

Both boys and girls, at least they’re not being sexist about it.

I wouldn't assume state schools are always underfunded, the going rate for state special school placement is £20,000 - £50,000 per place. It's unusual for children to be 1:1 in a state special school class, normally 9 ish students and maybe 5 staff (only the class teacher will be paid full time). Of course they have to pay for upkeep of specialist facilities etc, but many end up with quite a lot of reserves. Regardless, unpaid child labour that is not predominantly and demonstrably educational is no way to subsidise schools.

Most people teach their teens to wash clothes - do you do it for any entire afternoon a week and heap in the rest of the family's / neighbour's clothes for your teens, for a whole year?

I think sometimes our collective expectations for our children with SEN are so low.

YANBU, this is absolutely inappropriate and I’d be raising it with the DfE.

Commercial laundries are not like doing the washing at home. My sibling works in one abroad in a ski resort. They take on seasonal staff to assist during peak season. These staff have a great lifestyle - they get paid, accommodation is provided and on their downtime, they have the mountains as a playground.

Just wanted to give a wider perspective for you @Workybloodyworkwork - just because it seems menial, doesn't mean there aren't real life advantages to having that skill. (See also cruise ships and large hotels.)

“In terms of does she want to do it, no she really doesn’t want to do other people’s laundry half a day a week.”

Is it that she doesn’t want to do it, or that you don’t want her to do it? Not only will she be learning skills, she’ll also be learning teamwork, and different aspects of a job. Do they do this throughout the school, or is it part of the curriculum for a year or two? I would insist in getting the lesson plans and outcomes for this - the school must have them - but I don’t think it’s a terrible thing for the pupils to do. In terms of time, you say they spend a morning learning restaurant skills and an afternoon in the laundry - but in schools I’ve worked in, afternoons have always been shorter than mornings.

Laundry and ironing are jobs she could be doing in housekeeping in... hospitality.

I wodner what point you were trying to make, that failed 😅

Yeah, maybe. They should probably do an afternoon of unpaid laundry in mainstream schools too then, or is it just children with special needs who should be allocated quite extensive time training for jobs they have no inclination for and are likely to be minimum wage positions?

There is a big, big difference between doing a chosen NVQ in horticulture and a mandated afternoon a week of laundry.

I think it depends on whether the school is making a profit. A lot of FE colleges have cafés / restaurants run by students and I don't believe the students are paid, it is just part of their course.

Also is it literally washing and ironing or do they have commercial equipment she will learn how to use.

For what it is worth my dad always sent his shirts out to be ironed, the lady that runs the business seems to be able to make a living from ironing.

Just for interest I did a quick search and there is a level 2 NVQ in 'Laundry Operations'.

I think that’s part of my issue, if my DSs mainstream school set aside an afternoon a week for kids to work in their laundry service there would be uproar. But it’s ok for kids with additional support needs? Back to the incredibly low expectations professionals seem to have for kids who need extra support.

I’d also add this is high school, not a FE college on a course that she has chosen - part of her compulsory education. If it was something she had chosen as part of a wider course, or there was the option for kids to choose a different class I’d be more ok with it.

Maybe, as part of the valuable work experience, I should teach her to unionise and exercise her right to withdraw her labour.

I think on the face of that YANBU to object.However on here not long ago DC (not special needs) were a little confused with washing cycles ! I would ask for some more details and explain that you think its not the best use if resources really.Maybe for a term ? If they are not paying the kids it does seem a little like taking advantage of them

It absolutely should be a skill taught to ALL kids doing hospitality. I used to work in a hotel, we would have plenty of people coming and thought the cleaning/making the beds was the easiest job, when in fact it isnt. It does seem badly organised atthis particular school, but it is a really important service. We had as guests laundry washed and pressed really well and really badly, so clearly it is a skill worth teaching.

I completely agree, but not as a mandatory, year long course ONLY on laundry for 10% of your school week.

On the one hand, yes. But on another- if you look at countries where customer service (in general) is considered something to be proud of doing rather than a part time student job- talking of hospitality mostly, as majority of waiters and kitchen staff, housekeeping and reception I worked with were random people who came in and thought the jobs were easy- the standard of service is amazing because people practise and practise and practise and it's not seen as something below them. I have never had restaurant experience like in France (ok, some waiters were French-rude, but incredible at what they were doing), and in places where there is a much bigger emphasis on vocational subjects, this is frequently what happens- a lot of very basic tasks for a period of time.
I did a year of hospitality training in my home country and we did a lot of very basic tasks for a very long time in the school's restaurant for a substantial part of the week (cleaning, peeling potatoes, dishes) before we even got to do the front of the house stuff. We also didnt really see the wages - I guess this is where the problem is, the money should somehow make it back to students via trips/experiences etc, rather than being a school's side income.

I would ask for a conversation with the school. I would want to know what skills this activity is teaching that just having the students do their own laundry could not teach.

Do they work the counter? Are they tracking the orders? Are they tracking inventory of supplies? If they are participating in running the business and not just running the machines and folding, this could be a useful class.

I don't think OP's daughter is even taking hospitality as a choice subject, I think they are just forced to do laundry. It's very different. I don't think there's anything wrong with cleaning for a living but I wouldn't like my disabled children to be told to mop floors and scrub toilets exclusively for an afternoon a week if they hadn't chosen a course where that was relevant or outside of a useful and varied life skills course.

No she isn’t taking hospitality as a choice, if she were, and if the laundry work led to a qualification I’d be less unhappy with it. For those of you with kids in mainstream I guess you’d be happy if one afternoon a week your child was removed from their exam courses to operate the school laundry?