to beleive that getting a lower mark in a school assessment does not require sanctions?

[OrmRenewed]

Am a bit taken aback by this.

Colleague at work was chatting about his eldest boy at school. He does to the same school as DS1 but is a year behind. He's very bright and has always done well academically. Apparently this year he got a 6c in a science assesment just before Christmas but only a 5a for the last one. Dad insists that must be because he isn't trying hard enough and has taken his laptop away from him and given him a long and angry lecture about working hard (he told me this as if it was a good thing ). Now he hasn't had the child's report yet - on that they give them marks for effort and attitude amongst other things, as well as the final level they have reached. He's just worried his latest level will be too low and the boy will go down a set.

AIBU to think that 'effort' is what should be rewarded or punished, not results, and that he should at least have waited till he'd seen the report and spoken to the teacher to see why this might have happened, instead of assuming the child had just not tried?

What year is he in?

Yr 8.

Then he's doing really well and your colleague needs a rethink.

Point out to him that his son having a laptop will enable him to revise more.

Well exactly. I think he's obsessed with having a clever child and doesn't allow slipups.

Seems a bit mean....how to demoralise your child in one easy step.

Sorry! Yr 7 not 8.

My DS is in yr 8 and his marks are about the same

Sounds ghastly. If he needs to go down a set he needs to go down a set. End of story.

Most likely reason for the lowered mark is that they have introduced some new concept that he hasn't got the hang of yet. Father shows zilch understanding of education if you ask me. Not the way to encourage a lifelong love of learning.

Your colleague sounds thoroughly unpleasant.

Very mean. He should at least wait to see the effort scores on the report before deciding that's the problem. And if effort and attitude are the problem, he should still think about whether he's feeding into that with his own attitude!

Well I tried to explain that to him cory - education isn't just about marks - but he reckons I'm soft because I'm a mother

No, I'm soft on kids when I don't see a reason to be otherwise.

He sounds like the ultimate pushy parent, and a twat!

Well, I'm a university teacher, Orm, and well known to the students as a tough cookie and I still think this is madness!

If you are going to cope with higher education, then you must have the stamina to deal with the inevitable troughs and plateaus which are part of the process, and he is doing his best to undermine that in his son. It seems he is setting him up to be the kind of student who breaks down in his first semester, when he finds he didn't do as well in the first assignment as he'd hoped. The ones who emerge after three years with a First are the ones who did not break down.

I work in primary ed and I think Level 5 is the aim at Year 7 so he really ought to be pleased with 6a. Poor lad. I was never academically good enough for my dad at school and his horrendous pressure (including a ridiculous study timetable after school (6hrs every evening) & weekends (8 hrs per day), ended up with me having a breakdown at 14. He should be encouraging his ds, not demoralising him, it won't pay off in the end.

lazarusb - sounds like this chap . He told me that he was particularly cross as he'd given his son freedom and hadn't been breathing down his neck to do hw and revision. I never even see my son's hw - he does it all in school and is doing really well, no complaints from the teachers about the standard of his work.

Dunno to be honest. Sounds very much like my parents! By far not saying they were right though.

that is so sad.

my parents were never bothered by marks, only by the effort grades, so if i got a c or a d for a grade but a a or b for effort, tehy were pleased.

and thats how i will be. punishing him isnt the right way to go about it at all!

I wrote my thesis on effort grades, and I think they are a Bad Thing. I would be wary of relying on them to give an accurate picture of a child's progress, as they are somewhat arbitrary.

Effort is impossible to accurately measure, and to grade it is absurd. One person cannot possibly know how much effort another is making in any given task. The marks at best are meaningless, at worse they communicate a very negative message- effort grades are often used as 'compensation' for low attainment grades, and teachers can unwittingly communicate the message "However hard you try, you will only ever be average" by giving a low attainment grade paired with a high effort grade; ironically when they are trying to communicate exactly the opposite.

WRT your colleague, he needs to have his belief that punishing poor attainment leads to better results challenged- happy, supported and encouraged children reach their potential. He should also examine NC levels more closely- it may be that the tasks completed in class this term only enabled him to achieve a sub-level lower. If he is concerned, he should be speaking to the teacher directly.

I agree with Tether.

My dc think effort grades are hilarious, "0h look" they say, "I've tried my hardest but apparently I'm still a bit rubbish." They get fantastic effort grades because they are good kids and the teachers like them.

agree with tethersend in everything

I am suspicious of effort grades too; imho they say more about the teacher than they do about the pupil

dd got an A for effort in PE, a subject in which she has not participated for the last 2 years.... now that does take some effort

And I always agree with lovely old cory.

ah hully- you do know I have a crush on you

That is v kind. But I really do always agree with you, I nod along to your posts. So much so that I was very taken aback the other day when there was a teensy weensy thing I didn't agree with. (Can't remember what it was now).

Get a room.

Oh now look, Paggy is jealous.

I still love you most of all Paggy.