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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Is this ok/worth saying something about?

41 replies

Kitsilano · 16/10/2012 16:29

My DD2 has just started reception. Generally very happy, old for the year, confident and seems to be enjoying school. But we have just changed schools (I have an older DD) and I am noticing quite a different in her teacher's attitude and level of engagement compared to the teachers I have experienced at the previous school. It's hard to exactly out my finger on but these are some examples.

Egs

They seem to watch TV every day - perhaps not for long but at least at the end of the day just before home time. Once my DD told me they had watched "almost all" of the Sound of Music

Teacher never greets the kids at the beginning of the day or even notices them coming through the door. As we come into the classroom she sits at a computer with her back to the door, occasionally glancing up

At child level at the front of the class is a "day" board which says "Today is..." with a changeable date, month and day of the week. When I looked this afternoon it hadn't been changed for a week.

They have a board in the classroom with a big label saying "Sound of the Week". Empty.

We had our parents evening (pretty early in the term to be fair) and LITERALLY all she had to say "Your DD has already achieved the milestones for this year so my challenge is going to be to stop her getting bored". That was all.

Am I being precious or would things like this ring slight alarm bells? It's a private school if that makes any difference at all.

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Doodlekitty · 17/10/2012 17:57

We did, yes, carton of milk and some fruit! Surprised me when I started there too

ShipwreckedAndComatose · 17/10/2012 17:58

Doodlekitty...is that really the same as watching almost all of The Sound of Music??

I teach secondary and use clips all the time. there's a difference between using telly for a teaching purpose and what is described here!!

CheerfulYank · 17/10/2012 18:01

I wouldn't be okay with any of that!

mrz · 17/10/2012 18:02

Our Y6 watch Newsround during registration before they go to assembly for knowledge of current affairs

mrz · 17/10/2012 18:02

no snack

Doodlekitty · 17/10/2012 18:02

No ship, it's not, as I stated in my post. But I'm considering that watching the sound of music may have been a one off and the rest of the TV could have been more educational and was curious about this. I thought I was fairly clear that I thought the situation in general was far from ideal.

ShipwreckedAndComatose · 17/10/2012 18:05

Sorry it came across to me as though you were thinking the use of telly described here could be seen in a way that was somehow positive and similar to your use of the news programme.

my mistake!

HanSolo · 17/10/2012 18:13

At my DCs independent school, teachers in reception don't greet on arrival, because the first half an hour every day is when the teacher and TA are engaged in hearing children read.
TV thing is awful though, and seems lazy- they could at least be read to aloud if they want to calm children down ready for going home.

Original poster

Kitsilano · 17/10/2012 19:05

I'm trying to explain the TV thing in the most benign possible light, ie Sound of Music was during a wet playtime and the other TV (which includes Tom and Jerry, Charlie and Lola and Toy Story apparently) is just 5-10 mins at the end of the day. But I do still feel it's pretty lazy teaching.

I sent an email last night to the head of the Lower School asking if I could have a few words but didn't get any reply at all today...which doesn't bode well in itself.

OP posts:

whatinthewhatnow · 17/10/2012 21:27

kits re the parents' evening, just for comparison. We had DS's tonight and the teacher had loads to say. She talked about the formal sort of stuff around his learning but also had lots to say about his personality, the friends he had made and how they played together, how we could help him at home, what he really seemed to like and not like, and she listed to us witter on for ages talking about what we felt about things. It felt to us like she had genuinely taken the time to get to know him.

Good luck talking to the head, I really think you're right to be concerned.

CheerfulYank · 18/10/2012 01:54

A movie every now and then is one thing, for a special party day or if they can't go outside to play due to weather. But it's not on to watch tv every day, IMO.

scootle · 18/10/2012 16:43

Sounds appalling!!!!! DD's teacher ends the day with a story or some kind of carpet-time activity - television is a rubbish way to get kids to calm down
unless they are at home

Like other posters, my dd is met at the door by a smiley teacher, the calendar is correct, there are always activities laid out. DD met her milestones early on, so the teachers worked on extending her. State school. (DD1's reception teacher was nowhere near as good as dd2's, but at least the TAs were available when you came in in the morning).

lljkk · 18/10/2012 16:56

I dunno, I know DC school would often have a story read to them by a TA in last 20 minutes. 25 kids 1 TA one small story book they can't see very well or always hear clearly, I don't see a pedagogical difference between that and watching a 10 minute video.

The other details would bother me more, but not necessarily hugely.

midseasonsale · 19/10/2012 23:04

I like the idea of Y5 watching daily news round in their snack break, it's only short and very educational. I don't like the idea of films being shown in school to reception age children unless it is a very rare class reward

pigleychez · 19/10/2012 23:19

Sounds abit like my DD's reception class. Im not overly impressed with it to be honest.

Teacher is about in the mornings but never greets anyone, always pottering trying to keep out the way. The TA looks like a rabbit in headlights around parents.

DD also mentions watching TV. Peppa, Noddy etc. Im guessing these are wet play etc but was abit surprised to hear about the tv.

Has only had any reading time with a teacher once in the past 6 weeks when the teacher read to her. If she had read my comments in her reading record or listened to DD read she would discover that she is actually a very good reader!

We have parents evening on Monday which should be interesting!

AshieFan · 20/10/2012 12:39

Re: watching tv. This week, the children in my class have watched postman pat and come outside. We were doing the topic people who help us in the community. Come outside was about bin men/women who keep our city clean and you of course know what postman pat was about. They did not all sit there passively, I paused it often and they had to answer questions!

Sometimes, at the end of the school day when there are lots of things to hand out (jumpers, letters, book bags, leaflets, children's work), we will put on a short Cbeebies programme otherwise it would be quite tricky to organise. It's an exception though, not the rule. And yes, we do read to them everyday, before dinner.

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