Shitty message from teacher on Google Classroom.

[Tibola]

Congratulating the 10 kids who completed the assignment and giving their names. And then in block caps:

FOR ALL THOSE WHO DID NOT COMPLETE THIS I WILL NOT BE GOING BACK OVER THIS IN CLASS 👍

Rude much?!! And no, their school isn’t open for key workers before anyone jumps on me and says how busy she must be

Year 10 is old enough to be doing the work themselves. If they arent bothering then they should be getting a telling. This isnt a holiday. They should consider their time at home from 9 till 3.30 as school. If they're not doing the work then there really is no excuse.

My husband is a science teacher and trying to get the kids to do the work is difficult, especially low ability sets, year 10 being the worst offenders. He’s setting the work, short of going around to their house and making them do it I think a message on google classrooms is about the best he and other teachers can do at the moment. By high school you don’t need mummy to sit down with you and do the work, my parents never helped with my high school work, so the excuse that parents are working doesn’t really wash does it. It’s true they probably won’t have time to redo the next 3 months work, it’s not a lie. My husband’s school have also provided laptops where children don’t have them so everyone can access the work, some kids just don’t care I guess.

It's a reminder that they need to get it done, and it's the truth

That’s dreadful. I’m shocked that a teacher would send that message

FFS. She set work with a deadline. She will be under pressure to mark that work. She has sat down to mark it and a number haven’t bothered. Now she’s supposed to set more work for next week and doesn’t have a clue if the people who haven’t done the work are in the same place. She could have needed to do some additional learning tasks to fill,gaps bit she’s not sure. If this thing is going to work, everyone needs to pull their weight.

I think it's awful.

Will not be going over in class-well fair enough.

So presumably the teacher is contactable to answer any queries?

And why name anyone?

Awful parents was one of the reasons I left

Awful parents - I guess you can understand that in the middle of a pandemic, with people losing their jobs and livelihoods, with daily reporting of deaths, social isolation etc - why some pupils might be struggling to focus on their daily school work?

Teacher is also covering their own arse to show that they reminded them

I think it could have been worded a bit more diplomatically, but the teacher is clearly frustrated that a lot of kids aren't doing the work set, and you can understand why.

Year 10 is predominantly 14 / 15 year olds who should be able to do work set without needing to be home-schooled by parents, so whether parents are working or not is irrelevant. There may be the odd kid that struggles to do the work set due to lack of computer access etc, but I assume it's a class of 30 normally so if only 10 kids have done the work then 20 kids haven't, then I find it hard to believe 20 kids in this day and age don't have access to a computer. Even if they don't have access to a computer or are struggling to engage in the work for another reason (like they don't understand it), at 14/15 years of age they are old enough to take the responsibility to contact the teacher and ask for help or ask for some work to be set on paper.

The teacher is trying to be clear with the kids that this work isn't going to be covered again so failure to do it isn't going to be great as they are working towards their GCSEs.

@chocoholico

Have you thought that the tèacher may also be WFH with very young children?

I have to admit I am stunned by some of the responses on here.

Life isn't normal at the moment.
People are doing the best they can under a time of stress that we have never seen before.

It's like some people have no understanding of the situation.

Not rude at all, clearly trying to make a point from the start, and it seems to work, you have noticed - and are moaning about it.
chances are, others will have noticed too.

Teachers can't win, without the warning, parents would complain that they had not been told their little darlings needed to do the work.

Are teachers really saying that this is the students’ only chance to access certain aspects of the curriculum, and if they didn’t manage for whatever reason then tough, you’re on your own, not my problem mate?

You make it sound like teachers are the ones who decide the national exam system. If the government goes ahead with GCSEs next year as normal then we have no choice. It’s really not simple to adjust the system. You can’t just reduce the amount of content or number of papers to be taught, because schools have all taught different bits already. This is going to further disadvantage the disadvantaged. We’ll do the best we can but if exams go ahead next year then those who have done a lot of home learning will have a huge advantage compared to those that haven’t done any. I would be wrong for teachers to say “don’t worry if you can’t do any work at home, we’ll go over it all later” knowing that is a promise they likely won’t be able to keep.

I think that's fine for a year 10. They need to be getting on with it.

I don't see how this is rude.

If they're year 10 they should be responsible enough to do the work themselves.

I think the capslock and thumbs up isn't ideal, but I can understand the sentiment. With my Y10s, we will be doing new content next term, and realistically, when we go back to school, there won't be time to teach a whole term's worth of content again in full before GCSEs. We'll do some revision, obviously, but not re-teach all of it.

For other science teachers on this thread, we are doing AQA Chemistry of the atmosphere, and Ecology units for all students at home (not sure what we will do for physics) as these are the ones we think will be easiest for students to do more independently, and can be done without lab work.

chomalungma
we are in the same situation, so you might find that we do understand very well. As everybody is struggling to cope, reorganise (and find food or money to eat), don't expect too much sympathy from others who have to manage...

My daughters teacher set up a zoom all class meeting which went ahead successfully. I emailed to thank her and politely asked when the teacher for my son (same primary school the year below) might be setting up zoom for him too. She blasted back that it was not an all school policy to do zoom meetings which really upset me. I was just trying to find out if both of my kids could enjoy contact with their friends. I know it is an evolving situation so maybe the headteacher has not decided yet but it was not helpful at all. Am I being unreasonable to think that?

I don’t understand. Did the teacher put the capitalised message up and the message in quotations in your next post?

Tbh I’d cut the teacher some slack. They were give 5 mins to prepare a lesson. You don’t know what their home life and pressures are like at all. Don’t be that parent and complain.

As for those not having access to the internet or a computer, they will have flagged this up to the teachers. Any vulnerable children will be allowed to attend school. Eg a girl at dds school has no internet access, therefore she is at school. Plenty more, I’m sure.

I got an email about the lack of maths my DD has managed to complete this week. She’s trying but she’s been given 4 English essays as well as test after test in science and history etc. I think it’s more work then they’ve ever had and they need to be cut some slack it’s the first week and then need to adjust .

If there are circumstances where they couldn't do the work presumably they would have contacted the teacher and explained, no?

Not necessarily, some people don't feel comfortable explaining their situations. This teacher wouldn't make me feel comfortable going to them, not with those kinds of emails. In these times, as an adult, you take time in communications with children.

Plus it's only week one. If only a third of class did the work, I don't think the problem is necessarily the two thirds that didn't manage it.

@diddl

Why name anyone?

To say well done to the kids who did the work.

It isn't all about the ones who didn't and nor should it be.

I would be wrong for teachers to say “don’t worry if you can’t do any work at home, we’ll go over it all later” knowing that is a promise they likely won’t be able to keep.

Exactly.

@Bubblebu how is that teacher supposed to know what another is doing ? They have enough to sort with their own class

Some parents finally realising it's not the teacher or the school. Haha!

I think it’s fine, they’re old enough to manage their time and workload and if it were my child I’d be giving them a bollocking for not doing it.