can't be 'polite' and good any longer....

[swallowedAfly]

ds goes to a village primary with all the subsequent over-reliance on parents wealth, education, time, etc. re: assuming sahms are the norm, money is plentiful for fanciful trips and activities, we all know how to sew up costumes at the drop of a hat etc.

that's fine. i chose to live here. however....

homework is way over the top in terms of quantity and right from day one of school. one part of homework (there is loads) is the 'learning log' which is pretended to be something children could do indepndently and consolidates learning. except in reality it is not, by a long shot.

i've put up with it and put up with and felt enslaven to doing it until today when i've had enough. this week for ds (6yo and one of the most able in his year) it says, "show me what you've learned about number bonds up to 20 and what patterns you can see". then there's a blank page.

i don't know why (because this is far from the worst that's come home) but today i've had enough and found myself writing on the page that i have no idea what the learning objective is, what outcomes they're hoping for or how the hell they see this as differentiated. i've also asked how they think a parent with numeracy or literacy problems would tackle this task and whether they would actually set this as a task in class to 6yos and expect a meaningful outcome.

there is no context, no structure, no literacy support, no prompts nothing. same as ever. sometimes the tasks don't even relate to anything they've been learning.

am i totally unreasonable or would you after a year or so be fed up too? i am (if it's not obvious) an ex teacher and i know what education is supposed to be about and this is not it. homework should be meaningful. how could a 6yo read that question and face a blank page and do something a teacher could look at and assess to see what they've learnt? they couldn't.

on top of this learning log (given on a friday and expected in by tuesday) daily reading and signing of reading book is expected plus other bits and bobs. he's 6! he's been getting this since 5 at a point where some kids couldn't even write let alone face a blank page and an open ended task and produce something yet they'd get in trouble if they didn't. this is just a test of parents surely? and an unfair one given it assumes knowledge and literacy that some parents won't have?

sorry for long random rant but help! i'm not playing this game anymore and i'm ready to speak up. it's a joke.

in that case why was there that big fuss about how all teachers should have at least a second class degree, as though that was something innovative?

wow i missed loads - been off on training courses for the last couple of days.

this isn't really about 'teachers knowing what they're doing or not' because the teacher isn't actually setting this homework for the children let alone the specific child. every child in the year gets the same task sticker stuck in their book on the same day, week in week out. so at some point someone has decided the homework for every year group ever to vaguely correspond with the curriculum without modification at all for different groups and where they're actually at with the curriculum (re: what they've 'got' and where they're struggling) let alone modification for children of different ability levels or sen.

some people seem to be struggling to believe me on the above - i don't blame them as i struggle to believe that's an acceptable practice myself.

i think what i am going to do is ask for an appointment with his classroom teacher this year (who thank god seems quite normal from the odd second i've seen her) and explain my concerns about the homework and that i'm not going to do it anymore. instead i'm going to set what i think is appropriate each week re: ds has issues with his handwriting (he's a typical 6yo boy whose fine motor skills aren't in yet) so we can practice handwriting in a book with lines to guide him - remember those? or i may choose to set some maths sums or a practical task that requires use of numbers. i'm going to focus on skills and advancing his key skills.

i will say that she is welcome to write in the home/school book (if we actually had seen one yet this year) about areas she thinks he personally could benefit from working on and i'll address those but i won't be doing generically set homework tasks that are not set to address his level and needs.

i shall be calm and reasonable but clear.

i've had to go on and on about the distinction between asking for a contribution and demanding payment for timetabled activities btw - they probably hate me for it. ds was on free school dinners in reception till i went back to work yet i was still being badgered endlessly for money and told i had to pay it.

it is absolutely not legal to badger parents for money for timetabled activities

i think they know that now burberry - they were damned reluctant to admit it though and were utterly convinced that all they had to do was mention the word 'voluntary' to cover their arses then they could resume hounding you to death and telling you you had to pay.

haha you should have shown them the OED definition of 'voluntary'

it was a bit like that burb - i kid ye not.

Headlines, I imagine, Burberry. My training provider wouldn't accept a candidate with a third class degree onto a PGCE in a shortage subject, so in primary where there are loads of applicants I imagine it would be a big disadvantage, unless you had a masters or loads of relevant experience to make up for it.

Interesting analysis of figures here fullfact.org/factchecks/teaching_degree_qualification_standards_CEER-2919 although it doesn't mention primary teachers specifically. However it does suggest that proportions of lower degrees are likely to be higher in shortage subjects. Primary definitely isn't suffering a shortage!

i know - one year 4 teacher used the 'public humiliation' technique for children whose parents had not brought in the £2 demanded for a timetabled history lesson
tbh i am so disillusioned with state ed i am just counting down the days til GCSE

£2 is at least a small amount - they've asked for up to £15 for onsite, timetabled activities here. baffling.

shocking !!! 15 quid!!
did you pay?

I suspect that teachers know exactly what they are doing but this is not shared with parents.

Things have come to something of a head with DS2 following the specialist nurses observations two weeks ago that both DS2 and the CT are struggling and that he needs more support, specifically 1:1 as he stops working the second the CT or TA turns away. The CT and SENCO are desperately running around trying to prove that DS2 is fine now, after only a couple of weeks and no additional support apart from the use of stickers. Seriously? If stickers were all that was needed why didn't they do this 3 years ago instead of spending thousands on visits from SALT, OT, EP, specialist teachers etc?

For example, inference is assessed as on the 4th percentile and so he is supposed to be supported to make progress on this area. Instead, it is not an IEP target but a reading target for the term - which yesterday he apparently passed. The target of inference can now be highlighted on the APP grid. Whereas the unmet targets previously matched assessment, the school data has now been re-adjusted to indicate that teachers do not share the same concerns and that the assessment must be wrong as a child with those difficulties would not have met the target.

I do not get the whole Disney/Pixar thing - are they now sponsoring primary schools?? Last year DS2 did Madagascar. This year they are doing Up! This involves watching the film mainly (whilst at school). Homework is therefore creating a map of the local area. Except that the homework does not explicitly say what the child is expected to do. 'Can you create a map of your local area'? Has the teacher never met a literal child? 'Yes' or 'no' - job done ('she never said you have to actually make a map').

But why can't watching the film be homework and map making done in school?

no i did not burberry. it was for a fossil expert to come in with some fossils and for them to make a clay fossil of their own. 2 reception classes covered by this at 15ph meant £900 was being charged for this. not a chance.

keepon - i agree - funny how the school wanted the fun bit whilst you were expected to do the actual make them sit down and work bit. all too familiar sadly.

it's like teachers know obviously that children can't produce much output at that age so don't ask for it in class as it would be hell to try and get it out of them yet happily send home tasks they would never undertake in class.

it's like teachers know obviously that children can't produce much output at that age so don't ask for it in class as it would be hell to try and get it out of them yet happily send home tasks they would never undertake in class.

I totally agree. They are trained teachers and can barely get more than a few written words in class but pretend that when DS2 is home he can magically work independently and produce masses of neatly written work (preferably with pop-ups ffs).

The last four weeks DS2 has spent working on his own Up! inspired story in literacy. This is not war and peace. This is how long it takes them to get him to write, and then rewrite, and then rewrite in best, and then rewrite as 'evidence of progress', a couple of sentences.

Thing is mine can now do it at home... independently after explanation.....actually saves stuff to do at home of ongoing pieces of work that they get chance to do some of it in school as well.

'I wanted you to go through it with me', can be heard in our house.

I guess I've been teaching some of the stuff haven't I?

Topsy-turvey world.

^can be an awful lot to do though...You need balance.

I am a 'lapsed' primary teacher. My dd is now in Y1, is very able and I don't enforce homework at all. I don't even hear her read her reading book unless she asks. At the age of 5, I'd rather she were grubbing around looking for caterpillars, dancing to her favourite tune, playing with her baby sister, watching some television (gasp), 'helping' me cook, reading or drawing etc than doing homework for the sake of it - to comply with some ridiculous Ofsted demand.

So, I don't enforce it and wait quietly in the wings for my dd's class teacher to broach the subject with me if she wishes. At that point, I'd calmly explain my pov.

As an aside, my dd is a fluent, confident reader, writer and mathematician who needs a bloody rest when she gets home and at the weekend.

Don't be too harsh on the teacher who is compelled to set this silliness for the class though. Most teachers, in my experience, have the best interests of the children at heart. It's just that they are pushed and pulled in all directions by an out of touch government, Draconian inspection teams and, sadly by frequently stressed and often evidence-hungry senior management teams...

i agree elastic. as i said i think this is a school wide top down thing rather than anything to do with the classroom teacher.

out of interest do you get little 'no home reading recorded!' statements in your child's reading record book all the time? we do. it all feels very punitive and about telling off parents.

can't remember who wrote about this culture of parents have to do x, y and z to be seen as decent but it was spot on i think, at least ime here.

Well, I've been on the interview panel for a few teacher vacancies and realised doing that that I had unrealistic expectations. I was actually rather disappointed by the number of spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes in so many of the applications, including many applicants apparently not even capable of ensuring they had spelt the name of the school correctly.

here's a thought as well and i'm sorry if it offends anyone but actually for some children learning to read and extending their reading is pretty straightforward and once they've got the basics they're away really. in ds's case it really isn't necessary for him to read dreary little books to me every day - he can read and whilst yes there's a constant process of approaching more complex words he can basically figure out what most words are now and that will organically continue over time and through a desire to know what things say and asking when stuck and remembering that anomaly for next time itms.

i totally appreciate reading is a much harder matter for some children and needs a hell of a lot of support. but if it's easy for your child it really is hard to build up much anxiety about level book they're on or how many times they've read some shite story this week. i gauge more on how much the little bugger can read over my shoulder whilst i'm posting on mumsnet tbh gone are the days where you can assume they're not reading it out of the corner of their eye whilst chatting to you.

so actually even the reading books become a bit of a nonsense and waste of time and frankly just serve to stunt his interest in reading because the books are so dull and the making it a task that must be done takes the joy out.

the punitive 'NO HOME READING RECORDED!!' statements just kind of piss me off because it's like yeah, he can read and he read the book the first day it was given why on earth would we want to read it again in order to please your little tick box when it was dull as ditch water the first time.

at this point they could give ds a proper book - as in a little child's novel rather than a 'reader' that he might actually be interested in the story and read to know what happens next rather than to tick a box. we'd happily read a few chapters a week of said book and i'd happily teach him the words that were out of his current range. he'd be learning to love reading and learning reading is worthwhile even when tricky because you get to know what happens next in this exciting story with characters you care about.

actually i guess that's what i'll do then - tell them this term ds is going to read the faraway tree to me for example. let me know if you want to hear my thoughts on how his reading is progressing. i'm done with those daft bloody jimmy found a kite, the wind blew and the kite flew away, jimmy was sad, jimmy found the kite and was happy again type drudgeries.

The home/school book is used to send messages to me such as 'listen to DS read' or the implicit 'his target is x,z,y times table and he will be tested this week'. Teaching is done at home and testing is done at school. I only have experience of teaching self-motivated undergrads. I don't know how to instil a life-long love of learning in a 7 year old. I'm pretty sure homework battles would scar him for life though.

'No home reading recorded' would really piss me off tbh and I think I'd ignore (whilst fuming inwardly) until I was confronted at parent's evening or similar and then I'd speak my mind. The school sounds very full on.

Sadly it seems that many teachers have forgotten that some things are 'guidelines' as opposed to 'statutory requirements'.

In my bleaker moments, I fear for my kids who go to school under these circumstances but I really hope they'll have the strength of character to come out well rounded and able to question everything...

If I ever get 'No home reading recorded', I'll write back saying that when they've taught her to write she'll be able record her reading innit.

You need to hope your school does not buy into the Accelerated Reading Programme then swallowed:

www.renlearn.com/ar/

We have has angst over quiz scores and the seemingly punitive measure of having to go down a level if they have not received an adequate score. Yet tests are not always done as soon as a book is finished and for some reason they cannot take the book in with them.