Work Experience disaster 14 yr old

[Sula1978]

I have a well behaved 14 year old son. Slightly shy, academic, sporty and keen to be a teacher. My son decided to apply for his work experience at the local primary. It's near our house and his sister goes there. He has just done three days there and has been crucified on the feedback.

We explained to him on the first day to politely introduce himself to the head, go to his mentor with any issues, be helpful and most importantly enjoy it. Got there day 1 and no introduction, no induction, no mentor and left in a cupboard on his own for lunch. The teacher clearly did not want him there. She gave him no chair and left him outside the class sticking worksheets in books for 3 days. He went back to his own school today to a letter from the Primary school saying he was caught playing rock, paper, scissors with the 6 year olds and was seen to pretend bowl a cricket ball along the corridor. He had a bad attitude and was a poor communicator. He's so upset as thought he had done well but was called out of class today to explain.

Should I speak to the Primary to ask why he was crucified or leave it?

I don't think the school can complain about him being a bad communicator when they are the ones including non events like rock, paper scissors and pretend bowling in his feedback ! He at least is 14, what's their excuse for the lack of introduction and induction.

Any chance DS, was in fact, a massive PITA 🤷🏽‍♀️

By the same token, he's not a new teacher who should expect an induction and a mentor, as mentioned. He's a kid who was being accommodated and apparently behaved in a way that was found to be unacceptable by adults who teach kids half his age.

Only weird and embarrassing.

That’s what I was wondering. He’s 14, not 24 and a teacher!

He is a visitor to the building. At the very least he should have been told what to do in a fire drill, where the toilets are for him to use, and some basic safeguarding around children. It was also work experience; some time observing the teacher in the class should have been involved.

Sounds dreadful and really poor that the feedback was a surprise. Having said that, I literally wouldn't have a chair to offer someone in my classroom apart from those the children sit on and during the school day I wouldn't expect either of us to sit down much at all. I was never given a chair as a proper student on teaching placements. I can also understand why he wasn't invited into the staffroom. I know it seems unfair but when you work with children all day, you really do need 25 minutes away from children. Understandably, a lot of secondaries don't allow work experience in primary schools and I understand why given it's difficult to make it a useful experience. In another setting, being in a staffroom at age 14 would matter less.

Can someone explain what's wrong with playing laying rock, paper, scissors? Was this during a maths lesson or during playtime?

I wouldn’t contact the primary, but I would contact the secondary. What the primary sent to the secondary is horrible.

he played rock paper scissors with 6 year olds. Seems like he interacted successfully with them.

if he was told to stick worksheets for 3 days, that is just pitiful hosting of work experience. I’d feed that back to the secondary also

and he should have been in the staff room for lunch.

You can't be serious?
Expecting the 14 year old sibling of a current pupil to be given free reign of the staff room ?

Edited to add - that was from Hollowbones's post

My ds was invited to eat in the staff room on his school work experience and he could also leave the school during the break and go outside for lunch.

I agree with all of this.

I would have expected that he be allowed to observe and perhaps to sit in groups with children - at least, that's what happened when we had S6 pupils working with our juniors.

Poor lad - I hope it's not put him off the possibility of teaching in the future, I presume he has an interest. At least I guess it taught him not to be like the teacher he was put with! He sounds rather lovely your son and a natural with the kids given half a chance.

Unfortunately, work experience kind of is doing the shit work. I did mine in a primary school and was stuck scraping gum and play doh out of carpet for days at a time.

The feedback does sound harsh. I don’t see the issue with playing with the kids. Perhaps he did have a bad attitude because he was bored?

Anyway the good thing is he’s not graded on it and it won’t affect his life in any way really.

I would take it as a compliment if that is all they have to complain about. Also who gives a 14 year old a bad report without saying anything to him at the time- weird behaviour from the school. I would use it as a lesson to your son that sometimes people can be difficult and unsupportive for no good reason but it is not necessarily always your fault.

Hopefully this will open his eyes to how despicable some school staff/teachers can be, and he'll rethink his career options and set his sights on something better. That said, you get people that shit on you in every industry...Poor lad, some people suck, hopefully he can keep his chin up.

He went back to his own school today to a letter from the Primary school saying he was caught playing rock, paper, scissors with the 6 year olds and was seen to pretend bowl a cricket ball along the corridor.

I don’t understand what the problem is? Was he doing it in a lesson and causing disruption? Otherwise, what’s wrong with playing/interacting with the kids? All sounds very odd.

He was left on his own sticking things into workbooks for 3 days

And yet he has a bad attitude and is a poor communicator?

Those two statements make absolutely no sense AT ALL when taken as happening at the same time

I would want to find out much mucb more about ^

If I discovered that the primary school is lying or making stuff up, I would lose my shit. But at the moment you only have your sons side of the story

This reminds me of the work experience I did in my old primary school when I was 16. One teacher in particular was really horrible, I remember having to sweep the classroom carpet after the class worked with clay with the most flimsy, soft brush and when I hadn’t cleaned up properly she was really angry at me. It was an awful couple of weeks but did prepare me for the harsh world of being a student nurse and bank HCA where you’re regularly treated like shit.

Exactly, in my work experience we all went down the pub (it was the days of everyone going to the pub at lunch and after work) , or i went out down the high street and got my lunch and came back after lunch hour.
They treated him like a pupil, not as staff. The point of work experience is surely to experience the adult world of work.

Poor lad! I had a shitty time doing work experience in a school too. I think some people really go into the profession so as to be able to throw their weight about.

I hope his next placement is a vast improvemnet.

They're hardly crimes, what a mean lot of people.

You poor lad.
Clearly these people have no idea about supporting, mentoring and TEACHING young people. May not be a popular view, but being a family of educators in various settings (through nursery, primary, secondary, FE and HE!) I truly believe that these people have no place in an educational setting. I support teachers absolutely - I'm married to a primary school teacher in a PRU! - but this is unforgivable, If there were issues whilst he was on placement why was this not addressed through the appropriate channels? Why are they trashing a young person's enthusiasm and self-esteem in this way? Do they realise this kind of thing can stick for a lifetime and hold a child back? Do they know anything at all about teaching??? And as for the secondary school calling him out - were they trained by the Shit Teacher Training that the others went to?
I would be kicking off about this - not because I am That Parent, but because this is clearly out of order and these people should not be put in a position of power and influence over young people. They clearly screwed up by not offering him a proper placement and have tried to detract from that, Despicable in my opition.

To clarify - not teacher bashing...SHIT TEACHER BASHING!!!!

I’ve heard there can be a lot of bullying in the teaching profession, and unfortunately it sounds like your son was given experience of the teaching profession by a bully. Hopefully it won’t put him off. Unfortunately you will come across nasty people during your working life. Unfortunately your son was given an early experience of that.