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?

💯 this. Unless this school is some kind of Gulag I can't see anything objectionable in this. That teacher sounds a bit deranged btw. No chair ! Wtaf.

What 'obvious connotations'??

I work in a primary school and there are all sorts of problems with this. Firstly, he should be supervised when around kids, not stuck in a corridor by himself. Secondly, if they agree to take on a work experience student then they need to have a plan for what to do with them. Also, playing rock paper scissors, who cares?

The only objection I can see to playing rock paper scissors would be that he might have been distracting the 6 year old from their work, or, if he was stuck in a corridor all day, stopping the 6 year old from going back to their classroom. As a work experience student, he would have been expected to behave with some degree of professionalism rather than as a child himself. But I can't see how that warranted such a damning report.

I do understand not allowing him into the staffroom, especially as a brother of an existing pupil. When I taught and had work experience kids in, they also wouldn't have always been welcome into some staffrooms.

Where I think you have legitimate complaint is with the school not making provision for him and not finding him useful, interesting work to do. I would advocate you complain, but not to the primary school, to the work experience organiser at your son's secondary school. One of my sons had a crappy work experience - not given anything to do, told not to come in for a couple of the days! We said nothing, but it came out in conversation with a teacher a year later during parents' evening and they were horrified and told us we should have let them know immediately as they take work experience very seriously and wouldn't want to use the workplace again if they knew it had treated students so shoddily.

Your poor DS must be gutted. Definitely speak to both schools about the shitty feedback as it sounds like the teacher really doesn’t want go be landed with supervising a kid again so is making sure they don’t send anyone else. As you have your DD at the primary school, I’d speak to the Primary Head about it too.

Will he be doing any more w/e weeks in the future?

My DS (16) has just completed his first work experience week on Transition year and it was great…luckily. They have to do a minimum of 2 separate weeks during the year. (We’re in Ireland)

I would get him to write his own feedback of the school as a potential placement for next year's cohort. Everything you said in your post. It is honestly disgraceful treatment of a child coming in to do work placement. He needs to tell his secondary school organiser how shit they were to him.

There are limits to what they can do due to their age and safeguarding but there is always something they can do apart from sticking worksheets into books which sadly is part of TA/LSA duties.

Work placements need rethinking imo. There should be some framework.

My son was sent to a garage because he had no idea what he wanted to do at 14.

There were soft porn calendars on the walls and the men who worked there refused to use his name, opting instead for ‘Gayboy’.

Granted this was 20 years ago, but still.

Yes, I had a career in the private sector for a decade before teaching. Not that that is a question people ask of those in other sectors (most of my friends have only ever worked in one industry). I don't really understand what the relevance of that is to my post. I've had work experience kids in my classroom and have tried to give them a good week with interesting and varied jobs to do. I still don't think primaries are great placements for children who left them a few years before. None of that is to do with it being a PITA, it's to do with the child's experience.

I was wondering the same!

My apologies. I was attempting to show that the son's experience was not how things should be done.

As others have recommended, the OP should contact the secondary school and express her disappointment. It's important not only for her son but for others who might follow.

In her place, I should want to know why concerns about the son's behaviour were not flagged up to the secondary school in a more timeous manner.

His behaviour doesn't seem terribly problematic to me. I'd want more information if I were her. There's no need to go in all guns blazing. She could frame it as wanting to know exactly what happened so that she could discuss any concerns with her son.

Was the son playing rock paper scissors whilst the teacher was attempting to teach the class? How did he respond when the teacher told him to stop?

What, precisely, did the work experience consist of?

It's true that some youngsters have unrealistic expectations. We had one girl who complained about her work experience at a hairdresser's. It turned out that she'd expected to cut hair, not sweep it up.

I doubt very much that the OP's son expected to teach a class, but it would have been reasonable for him to read to a small group and so on. As I said in a previous post, it is not unusual for senior pupils to support juniors in a secondary school context - sometimes as part of a community service programme, sometimes as part of a work experience programme.

I suspect that the primary school concerned didn't really know what to do with the OP's son and that there needs to be a conversation between the primary school and the secondary.

It might be that there will be a work experience window made available at a later date. I would hope that the OP's son might be given a second chance.

And me!

Please whoever said this about connotations, please share, I am bursting with curiosity and google did nothing to enlighten me.

Why possibly could rock paper scissors be seen as inappropriate? Unless Op's som played it during an actual lesson distracting the children?

In my view primaries are great paces for placements while very few other workplaces are. At least students can help with teaching, setting up, tidying, planning lessons, PE and lunch clubs. My son had a great time, he was respected by the class teacher, he tried to be his most professional self including dressing appropriately and speaking properly. He was responsible for helping a boy with SEN with his numbers and reading and the children adored him. Very few workplaces now take on under 16s. He received some gorgeous thank you cards from the little ones too. It's not clear what's happened but before giving Op' son a bad review, he should have been guided and appraised by the school and been given a chance to succeed. It looks like he was set up to fail. File it under experience OP but do give the correct feedback about the school, not to retaliate but to help affect change.

Part of the work experience is to have an induction, there is usually paperwork to fill in etc. Including time for feedback during placement. The primary placement didn't do what they were supposed to be doing and should know better imo. Even the criticisms seem bizarre. Given the tasks he was given to do, and the location, it sounds like the teacher didn't want him there- and that other staff should've noticed his treatment while he was there. He also should've had a visit from a member if staff at his secondary school. All very strange.

Poor

He sounds like a lovely lad who was largely ignored by the teacher and so used his own initiative to interact with the kids. What a shame. Sounds like a bad school. Maybe see if he can get work experience somewhere better.

Poor lad, how utterly demoralising for him. Hopefully it will not undermine his career plans. I think he should discuss this with his careers teacher.

That's a very good point.

At our school, a member of the pastoral team would go out to the place of work to check how things were going.

What on earth is wrong with playing rock paper scissors with children? Professional? He's a child who should have been given productive things to do.

It's so lovely he has his heart set on a profession so young and sought out a relevant work experience. Awful response from the school

I also want to know what the rock paper scissors 'connotations' are

At I said in my subsequent post i would be more concerned about the comments around bad attitude and poor communication, but people seem to be focussing on the games

Is this for real?? I would most definitely go to the primary school and take someone with you as witness as well.
Take the concerns as a list and get each one answered one at a time.
If ‘bad’ behaviour is not typical for your son then say so and get it, if you can, in writing from his form tutor who should know him well.
No induction, no formal introduction, being put in a cupboard to eat lunch? All should be called into question and school should be shamed for it.
He should have been included as part of each class, even sticking things into books could be done at the back of the classroom.
Dont let it out him off - he should like he could be a great teacher the way he interacts with the students.

I'd arrange a meeting with his school and explain everything you have here if for nothing else then they don't send any other kids there

Schools don't generally allow WE students in the staff room. At my previous school, they ate in the hall with the children and then were expected to join in with play.

God that sounds rubbish. I'm a primary school teacher, and yes sometimes we get work experience Year 10s to glue things in, and move chairs around etc, but we also balance that with getting them to interact with the children- reading, helping them with their work etc. Last year the HT did complain directly to the secondary school about the conduct of Y10s but they were terrible- belittling children, being rude to adults, disappearing off site etc. As for playing rock paper scissors with the children, I'm going to own up to having an arm wrestle with one of the work experience y10s whilst the class cheered us on! It was on the Friday afternoon just before hometime of the half term.....and I had taught both her and her siblings and the parents thought I was a good teacher. Although not something I'd do in an interview lesson!
Seriously, ask your son about his behaviour etc when he was there, but I would take this up with the primary.

Oh and we allow them into the staff room but they tend to eat lunch in the classroom while our children are on the playground.