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 think the issue is that someone senior agreed to having a work experience student and then dumped him on a classroom teacher without any consultation or framework for managing work experience students. Poor practice. A shame for your son.

Professionally? He’s a 14 year old boy.

It sounds as though he had a rotten deal, and I speak as a ex-teacher. What was wrong with playing that little game with the children? At that age they’d see him as a big brother figure, not a teacher, so pretending he should have assumed the gravitas of a professional teacher is ridiculous.

I’ve experienced and heard of situations like this where things have clearly not been communicated to relevant staff. Someone in the office has agreed to the placement but the teacher concerned either didn’t get the memo or is not on board with it for reasons of their own. Not acceptable or professional behaviour on the school’s part!

My sympathy is with your son.

Same.

you’d only do that if the child was really really bad. I can’t imagine someone as keen as your son being really bad. I would be a bit worried about the school tbh. How have you found it up to now?

And what do they mean by bad attitude? You should ask them to be more specific.

They sound like mean arseholes..

As said it sounds as though he was given to a teacher who wasn't prepared / didn't want him so they gave him the equivalent of filing.

I'd say that was great he was interacting with the kids. I'd be more than happy if a teenager did this with my kids. The school sounds very petty.

Unless your son has a track record of poor behaviour this sounds like the primary school didn't want him. I'd have a phone call with the work experience person at secondary school and give your son's side of the story. Find him another experience which will hopefully be more positive.

Rock, paper, scissors? Hardly a drugs deal 😅

Seems odd feedback from the school? Something doesn’t add up here.

I’d complain. What’s wrong with playing rock, paper, scissors? Or pretending to bowl a ball?
sounds shit. I’d also been sharing his side with his school so they are aware should they want to send other pupils in future.

What a shame for your son! Nothing wrong with rock, paper, scissors (at least he was trying to engage with the children) and bowling an imaginary cricket ball.

If they did no induction they laid out no expectations which is useless for a child on their first experience of a professional work environment. They then offered no feedback whilst there so how was he ever meant to do well. Sending a letter after is underhand and mean without offering feedback at the time.

I would follow it up so the school can get it right for any other work placements. I’m very against letters or feedback being sent for the first time after an experience has finished. Both sides should have the opportunity to feedback and speak and then modify behaviours.
I hope it’s not dampened your son’s ambitions too much!

He’s 14 not 34! He probably felt lost poor boy.

And what do you mean by did he do those things? Rock, paper, scissors? Bowling an imaginary ball? Quelle horreur! It’s a primary school with young kids, they probably liked the lad.

I’m 38 and I would play rock, paper, scissors with kids, school sound utterly batshit.

The teacher needs to be investigated to prevent another child suffering as your DS did. The placement sounds wholly unsuitable. I would contact the Head Teacher with your concerns.

The OP has not responded as to whether or not the report accurately portrays some of what happened, so I will not venture any opinion on that.

If a school cannot support a child on work experience, or they have concerns about confidentiality being accidentally breached given a sibling still being at the school, that is a legitimate reason for not offering or accepting a request for work experience.

why on earth would playing rock paper scissors or pretending to bowl a ball down the corridor to primary age kids be bad behaviour? He wasn’t swearing or being inappropriate. By the sounds of it he was trying to engage with them in a fun way

Me too! I’m staggered by anyone agreeing this is an issue

He shouldn't be in the staff room for reasons of confidentiality. Teachers may well be discussing other children.

That’s crazy. A fourteen year old is a child and was playing with other children - surely that’s a positive. As a member of staff I am also encouraged to play with the children at break and lunchtime.

i have noticed that many young people lack communication skills nowadays and my instinct is maybe that was the crux of the problem. His shyness exacerbated the communication problem and thus he spent three days with his head down, probably saying very little and was then given small jobs to keep him busy and out the way.

Unless he was playing at an inappropriate time and distracting the children from their work.

I had a work experience student who complained of not being allowed to talk to the children. She was actively encouraged to talk to the children in my Reception class but spent all playtime calling older children who she knew over to the fence and talking to them instead. She complained if being used as a skivvy because she was asked to wash paint pots and tidy up - jobs that I, as a teacher, would do otherwise.

On the face of it, this school doesn't sound very welcoming but I think I'd want to know more about what actually happened. Work experience students weren't allowed in the staff room at my school as confidential matters were discussed there.

You can't have children in the staffroom where confidential things might be discussed He should have been told where he could eat though, and sometimes staffroom may choose to eat with them.

Was he doing these things at an inappropriate time, undermining the teacher? Do they say no mucking around / playing in corridors?
I think it’s somewhat unlikely the school would give him negative feedback for the sake of it. I assume they’ve taken a lot of kids from your son’s school over the years and I’m sure your head would have said it was a consistent issue when they called him out.

Also, they put him in a cupboard for lunch? What with the spare glue sticks etc? I’m not sure everything is adding up here / your son is being entirely truthful

The induction should be mandatory as it includes what to do in the event of an emergency so the school are negligent on that part and in your position I would be following this up regardless.

That's what I was thinking! If you are bored what are you meant to do?? Especially as the teacher kept him outside the classroom if it is anything like our primary it could be a hall surrounded by other classrooms with many classes returning from trips, PE, music lessons, talks, assemblies etc and your DS was just friendy with the other kids! You should definitely tell your secondary that DS didn't learn anything useful as he wasn't allowed to participate and that's not work experience! That's terrible!

DS2 had the opposite experience recently. There was a trainee TA who was constantly on her phone and gave no help to the children at all even when they asked her! DS was going around helping the children with any questions and the teacher would also ask him and not bother with the TA! Another time he had everything marked as "Satisfactory" including he hadn't shown initiative even though he was constantly told what to do and had no such opportunities even though he wanted to leave a goodbye card and National Geographic magazines which he didn't have the chance.

Ah what a shame for him. Sounds like he was doing great. What small nothingy things for them to pick fault with. Can you help him look around for something else - volunteering, a Saturday job so he can regain some confidence? I know it's not that easy. I remember helping my DS look for something for his D of E and it was near impossible.

I'm a teacher, and when work experience students come to my primary school they are given a brief induction chat with the head plus written guidance explaining what the expectations are, where they are and are not allowed to go, what they are and are not allowed to do etc. The safeguarding lead is also involved obviously. The students are not allowed to eat in the staff room but eat in the library just next door with a member of staff and are certainly allowed in to make hot drinks, use the microwave etc. We as the teachers also have written guidance from the secondary school they've come from setting out the types of activities that would be appropriate for them to get involved in, times of arrival, dress code etc. It sounds like the placement school weren't prepared to accommodate a work experience student. I would contact your DS's school to discuss this.

He must have done something other than stick sheets in because there isn't a chance that would fill more than about hour a day. Logically, if sticking in sheets was a 9-3.30 job (or 8-5 or whatever hours he did) how would teachers ever achieve anything at all?

Regarding the cupboard, school buildings are often not fit for purpose. We used to have meetings with parents and our planning time in offices that were built as resource cupboards. There just aren't enough spaces.

If your DD is at the school, do you know the teacher? Was your son at the same school? I'm wondering if your son was 'stuck' with a teacher he previously hadn't 'gelled' with.

Did you see a copy of the report? Or just what your son fed back? It could be his interpretation was more negative than the wording of the report?

The take away here for your son is 1) perception is reality in the workplace (and elsewhere) 2) sometimes you have to do repetitive tasks- and you should complete these even if boring (even if tempted to bowl balls down the corridor) 3) if you have completed a task, tell the person who gave the task and ask what else you can help with or suggest to help with X (harder for a shy kid) 4) not everyone is going to like you at work (and that's fine)- but always be polite

I'd also try and get another stint at work experience.

The teacher left him outside the class for 3 days sticking worksheets in books. Eveyone would have gone crazy.