to resent the unnecessary additional tasks schools drop on us?

[elliott]

Ds2 has just started in reception. Today I got a note in his bag saying 'Please bring in a 'word tin' for ds2 - a pencil tin is ideal'.

Now, WHY do they need a pencil tin ffs? Do they think we have these things just hanging round the house? Or do they not think twice about expecting that we find time for a special trip to the shops to source one of these things (I have no idea where I might buy said 'pencil tin')? Do they think we have nothing better to do?

Honestly, wouldn't an envelope do?

[Bridie3]

My son still spells their and there interchangeably. You see what happens when you disregard these requests from school.

He's in year seven, apparently quite bright, but still can't differentiate them.

[AbbeyA]

Anyone learns better if it is fun and interesting.

[IfYouDidntLaughYoudCry]

I'm amazed to hear about some of these requests.

Does anyone think that there is too much emphasis on making it all fun and interesting? I know I covered a lot of the topics mentioned at primary school but my mum didn't have to go to the trouble some of you guys are. Does it really enhance learning that much? My education was good as it was. Fun but not OTT. Don't know much about it as don't have children but sounds like things have changed!

[ilovecake]

My DD's word tin was an old baccy tin supplied by the school (no labelling or smell) however very obviously a baccy tin. I thought that was quite funny really - all these 5 year olds coming out of school excitedly shaking thier baccy tins! They've probably been recycled through the reception classes for the last 20 years. Probably a cough sweet tin from the chemist would do the job if you don't have a stationers nearby.

[SaintRiven]

yeah, expensive trips. My boys don't go, we just don't have that sort of money. Heck, we can't stump up for day trips.
Thankfully we missed most of the emotional blackmail years through home educating. The boys went to school at 13 and don't fall for the 'all your mates have a sticker' type thing. And dd2, 4, is too blind to notice this sort of thing. Plus she is taken to school in a taxi so I never get to be there and I wouldn't let her go on trips anyhow.

[Romy7]

eh? bamboo - the nspcc has nowt to do with the pencil tin. but 3 kids at different schools turning up with a 'give us £25 or your kid doesn't get a sticker like all her mates' in a fortnight gripped me. no issue with pencil tins or other school equipment here, but strong arm tactics by the nspcc you can keep, thanks. only £150 for the primary 2 day trip this year, but the point is that kids do get something out of trips, allegedly. 'voluntary' charitable donations by emotional blackmail are entirely another kettle of fish.
and yeeees, i do lots for charity thanks, but not when it's demanded under the pretext that your child will be a social outcast if you don't cough up the cash.
we do jeans for genes (friday, must remember lol), and all the other stuff, no issue. what's a pound between friends?

[FairLadyRantALot]

btw. to those that moan about teh expenses...be glad you don't live in Germany, because there you will have to buy all the books that are needed for all the subjects...and whilst those on benefits will possibly get them for free, and there is also a chance to get them 2. hand....but it still is expensive....

[stitch]

bamboo, my kids school has only once, in the seven years i have been there, done something for any other charity. and that was jeans for genes day. which the head then subsequently banned, because it looked too much like a mufti day, and he wasnt benefiting from it.

[stitch]

i'm actually very angry at myself right now. ds is having lots of problems with his numeracy right now, i have inf act started another thread about his , and i , whilst supposedly helping him, lost my temper at him....
so, to summarise, if the school cant manage to teach him how to add and subtract in the four years he has been going there, then wtf have tehy been doing? we do reading every day. we do speellings every week. we do times table sin the car. we do95% of the extra activities suggested by the school. i organised the bloody summerfayre and raised seven thousand pounds for the school. but they havent taught hi how to add , subtract, let alone morecomplicated stuff like divide..... all the pencil tins in the world arent going to help him, are thy?

[bamboostalks]

There are a lot of miserable people on this thread, as if schools invite NSPCC in so they can chase money. They are hounded to death by charities and do the best job they can. They have very tight budgets and so yes parents are asked to help and contribute by supplying a small tin. Wait till you get to secondary school and it is £500 for a 4 day trip.

[Janni]

Just saw that Janeite said the same as me!

[Janni]

What about a tupperware box? Have you got any of those? That's what I would do. Or a margarine tub or something. You can get your DS to draw a picture to stick on the lid if you want to make it more personal.

[nooka]

Ah well as I don't often attend the playground I may be unaware that I am breaking all the unwritten rules! But as working parents it just wouldn't be possible for us to do school helping type stuff on anything other than a very occasional basis. It does sound as if you are very angry with your school though - would a change be possible?

[stitch]

ss, if only it was. .. home schooling is really the only option, but i dont have the patience required for that.

[ruddynorah]

have you got a tampon box?

give him that if you can't be naffed picking up a pencil tin next time you go to the supermarket.

[Simplysally]

I think I'd change schools if that was practicable Stitch.

[stitch]

oh and the looks and comments,i got from the other parents when i didnt attend sprots day,

[stitch]

nooka, your school sounds like heaven. inmy kids school, the word voluntary is rather like breathing being voluntary. you dont have to breath if you dont want to, but you wont be able to survive for very long if you dont.
i once made a stand about the constant 'voluntary contributions' towards trips, and firemen visits etc. i thought it best to make a stand over a tiny amount, £2, so it would be obvious it wasnt about the ability pay, but the principle of the thing. after all, with three children, 2, 9, 15, 20 quid soon add up to over a hundred a year.
i was HOUNDED. mercilessly. eventually i had to give in, or never show my face in the playground again.

[Simplysally]

I can remember trawling Tescos at 10pm for black tights for dd (after the sheep costume debacle) .

Luckily they served as school tights afterwards....

[nooka]

I have never been told I had to come for sports day (and I never have), nor to do reading or to help the children change before swimming, or to set up a direct debit (for what?) The fayres, discos and stuff are all voluntary too aren't they?

My children have always had a backpack, into which goes the bookbag (for homework), lunch box, drinking bottle and anything else they need. As far as I am aware that's what everyone else does too.

Now we have to supply and pay for everything we are more aware of the vast amount of stuff the children go through at school (we had to supply 60 pencils for example).

My main complaint is too short notice, and the assumption that the requests are simple and easy to fulfill, which often they aren't, but I am sure the teachers aren't deliberately trying to annoy me!

[stitch]

both bottles usually come back with about ten ml missing from each. dd does not guzzle her water.

[Simplysally]

I imagine the separate bottles for water/lunch drinks is so that they have something to drink at lunchtime instead of having guzzled it break or whenever. My dd isn't allowed to access her lunchbox at playtime either.

[stitch]

i wouldnt mind gettin the tin if i thought it was benefiting him in some way. but after seven years of experience with the school, i know it will be completely uselsess to him. he will gain nothing, absolutely nothing from it. but the school will be able to show ofsted that they get the parents involved so much.....
agian, i wouldnt mind the drama so much but i know the parts will go to the kids who are the biggest bullies, or rather, the kids with the biggest bullies for parents.

[hatwoman]

I remember being told dd1 needed white tights for a costume of some sort. being obedient and not working that day I trotted off to town (am fortunate it's only a 10 minute walk) even though dd1 was poorly. she threw up. in Next. all over the place. The fact that I had thought this might happen and was armed with a (ahem) tin (bigger than a word tin) clearly made all the other customers think I was incredibly negligent - I had knowingly taken a sick child to the shops. tut tut.

half the kids didn;t have white tights. from then on I stopped making special trips. I make do.

[stitch]

schools in th euk are meant to TEACH them the basics of literacy and numeracy. something they seem to be failing at spectacularlyl.
dc go to a school that ofsted calls outstanding. the only children who have done well out of it are those who are bright neough to get into the grammar schools of their own accord, or those that are tutored tow ithin an inch of their lives. there are no sports acheivemetns. nothing good happens academically unless the parents teach the kids at home. etc etc etc.
i speak only from the experience of dc school, but as i said, ofsted think it is wonderful