Help me compose a withering one liner to dd's teacher please

[robinpud]

Bear with me.. it's longish
We are in Australia for a year. Dd is in a 5/6 class. When the teacher isn't here and they don't get a casual teacher, the class get split and given a pile of photocopied sheets and told to sit at the back of another classroom. This happened ( again) to dd on Thursday and she spent the day in ds's room. She was given over 23 pages of work to do. She has done a reasonable amount but has not finished it by any stretch. She was also asked to do a guided reading session for ds's class which lasted over an hour.
The class teacher has told the kids that the work must be completed at home and handed in on Monday. This is in addition to a significant amount of homework, already set.
The teacher then intends that the children will swap work on Monday and mark each others'.
Dd is extremely conscientious and I have asked her not to do it. I think there is at least 5 hours of hard work there.
Please help me write a brief, succint note to the teacher explaining that we have instructed dd not to do the work; it galls me greatly that the teacher won't even bother to mark it herself.
Thank you for reading this far!

Hmm it doesn't really seem like a matter for a one-liner! It sounds as if they are just seeing these kids without a teacher as a nuisance, and are giving them as much as they possibly can to do so as to keep them busy and make sure they don't run out of stuff to do.

If you want to be withering maybe something like "DD has spent X hours on this already and needs the reast of her time to do her real homework, sleep eat and go to the toilet so I have told her she has done enough."

But I'm not known for my diplomacy...

This is the way snow leopard so this isn't really any point me trying to buck the system. I just want to highlight the pointlessness of it all in as few words as possible. Actually I want to wring the teacher's neck but am going for non violent direct action instead!

I'd say

'Dear Mrs Teacher,

I am disappointed that DD has again been left teacherless on Thursday and that the school considers it appropriate to cover for this eventuality by giving her a swathe of worksheets to complete while sitting in at the back of another class.

DD, as you know, did not complete the worksheets in class and has been asked to do so over the weekend on top of her normal (not unconsiderable) homework. In the circumstances I am sure that you will understand that we have other plans as to how to spend our time this weekend and consequently DD will not be completing the worksheets at home.

In any event, as a matter of principle, I will not agree to DD being penalised by the loss of her free time, for the inadequate provision of teaching at school. I am alarmed at the volume of worksheets that was expected to be completed during the course of a day and I am concerned that it means that the syllabus is not being covered during normal teaching hours.

I am happy to meet to discuss this matter further, and look forward to hearing from you as to how the issue of cover for teacher absences will be resolved.

Kind regards.

Your sincerely,

Robin'

Not a one liner, but I think it needs more than that!

the dogsbollox- fab!
You have hit the nail on the head with regard to the lack of teaching at school and its detrimental effects on dd's free time. I shall use this - thankyou. I am too to be eloquent. I have already discussed the issue of teacher absence with her already and have the dents in my head to show for it!

My daughter is planning teaching as a career choice. It seems that her current large workload is therefore rather unnecessary in terms of creating a good appreciation of any future work load that she may experience as a teacher. It would appear that not only do children in schools do their own marking but also that photocopying machines cary out vast quantities of a teachers responsibilities.

newlifenewname- some teachers can still teach without the use of a photocopier. They're the best sort and I am sure your dd will be one of them soon!

Noooooooooo that was my suggested one liner! Y'know what I'm saying you should say to the teacher.

My paper is wide, that's all so it is more of three or 4 liner here.

I understand you require dd to complete approximately 5 hours of extra homework this weekend, I'm afraid this amount of work at this age is not achievable and she will be spreading the work over the forthcoming week. If you would like to discuss the matter with me, please do not hesitate to telephone.

Robinpud,
What was the outcome with DD teacher? I think this sort of thing is more prevelant than most people imagine. Hope it got the desired results .