Bit annoyed with teacher over spellings

[MrsCampbellBlack]

I know its trivial and I probably need to be told to get a grip but I was a bit surprised by what happened at pick up earlier.

Yr4 child has spelling test tomorrow - so I always check when he comes out of school on a wednesday that he has his spellings so we can double check he knows them tonight.

So he comes out without them - I send him back in to get them from his desk. He comes out and tells me he's not allowed to get them.

I assume he's got the wrong end of the stick so go down to his classroom - his teacher is at the door and I ask if I could get his spellings. Teacher says 'I've already told him its not a good time he should have asked earlier so he'll just have to try his best'.

I said ok and walked away but am a bit annoyed.

I know DS should be more organised but really would it have been so hard to grab his spellings from his desk?

Go on tell me she is absolutely right and I'm being totally precious I can take it

Will add that spellings not his forte so he really does need to practice them a lot.

Oh and should add the school pride themselves on parents being able to have chats with teachers at pick up so I wasn't breaking any rules.

No parents. She was just letting children go to either their parents or after school clubs.

If he was only given one night to learn the spellings then YANBU.

If he has had all week to learn them, then YAB a bit less R.

The teacher said "it's not a good time" so perhaps it wasn't a good time and it wasn't possible for him to go back in the classroom at that time (meeting?)

Could you contact the parent of another child in his class and get them to tell you the spellings?

If she wasn't having a meeting then I think she was being unreasonable.

He has had all week - so yes I agree he should be more organised but its just I like to test him the night before - quite a bit of homework the other nights. But I have told him again he needs to bring them home earlier.

No meetings or anything - its literally the other children being let out of the classroom so were still quite a few children still in the classroom.

I often get emails from other parents requesting the list of spellings the night before the spelling test, so your son is obviously not the only one to do this.

Next time, I'd recommend getting him to copy the spellings into a notebook at home on the first evening he is given the list. This will help him to learn them and also means you have the list at home in case he leaves the list at school on subsequent evenings.

I do know its not a massive deal but I was just quite surprised by her attitude I guess. Oh well perhaps it will teach him a lesson to be more organised.

Good idea threebeeonegee.

Thanks everyone for responding

Wish it wasn't parent's evening tomorrow now though - she'll have me down as 'one of those parents'

It's a shame she is putting a child off practicing spellings because he forgot to take it earlier
I guess she is perfect in every single way......

MrsCampbellBlack so you know that she didn't have someone waiting to speak to her?

I'm going to assume she was having a bad day and I caught her at a bad time.

Even if there was someone waiting, how long would it take for the child to get it? 5 seconds?

and then we would have a thread from a parent who was kept waiting by a teacher who let a pupil into the room

look I am not anti-teacher. My middle child has the most wonderful teacher and my eldest's teacher last year was amazing.

This is perhaps the problem to be honest. We've gone from the most wonderful teacher to the not so wonderful teacher.

OP, I think you would come across as the supportive parent who is interested in helping her child learn his spellings...

I would assume there was a genuine reason why it was not a good time.

Agree also that it is a good idea to get your ds to write down the spellings at home when he first gets them. It's a good way of practising them too.

I really don't think there was a good reason - I suspect she'd had a bad day. But the structure of the end of day is that children are either signed out to parents or they go onto the playground until the after-school clubs start.

But yes he does need to be more organised.

In many schools Wednesday is staff meeting/ key stage meeting/ dept meeting day. It's certainly been the case in both schools I've worked in.
She may have been trying to hurry the remaining children out to make it to a meeting on time.

I get that but its really not the case here. Their day ends at 3.30pm but they're lucky to be out by 3.40pm and late care doesn't commence until 4pm and no meetins would occur till then at the earliest as the head of that section is on playground duty till 4pm each day.

I don't think she had a good reason other than she'd had a bad day and wanted to teach DS to be more organised which I guess is fair enough.

I must be a nice teacher. Can't see any reason for a child not to be allowed back to get something quickly from tray - other parents would have to wait and there's always a gap before meetings. Can personally see no reason not to keep on side with parents re learning spellings.

You don't know the reason only that she told both you and your son that it wasn't a good time ... surely that should tell you something.

Really your DS was at fault here.

He should have taken his spellings home when he was given them, not the night before the test.

Give the teacher a break. You don't know what she may have been dealing with.

I think you must be a very nice or sensible teacher Goingmadinthecountry