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.

they can't do their bit when there is industrial action involved that's the point

What can I say? There is no Union for parents. We love our children, this is where it starts and ends...

moan to the government perhaps they will listen to voters

No, not just a governmental issue. Teachers are public servants. They can a least act legally, with regard to assessments and Statemented support.

it's actually illegal to hire staff to do the job thst a striker would normally do.
closing the schools creates the most inconvenience because it means that loads of kids don't have amywhere to go that day and parents have to take emergency measures

who are schools there for? teachers?

they kind of are there for parents actually - parents being tax payers and citizens who as part of their social contract are entitled to the education of their children.

i hate to tell you but schools are there to do a job, provide a service and are paid to do so. they're not a charidee.

can you imagine if lawyers or supermarkets or doctors or train contractors said, er we're not here for your convenience you know oh but we expect you to 'engage' with us, fundraise for us, make costumes for us and generally be lectured and patronised by us as we tell you what to do in your own homes with your own children and tell you when you can and can't go on holiday etc?

i do think it's time for schools to catch up and get over themselves.

blimey this has gone off topic

and like it or not they ARE there for parents in the sense that society expects us parents to go to work and part of the deal is that they'll take care of and educate our children whilst we do so.

teachers do get paid to do that and are a part of that little thing called society and industry and the economy. no one is asking you to do it for free.

if you think you can find another job that gives you 30k for working 39weeks a year 8.30-3.30 with six months full pay and then six months half pay if you get ill and great maternity pay packages etc then go for it.

I have read most of the thread but I'm only answering your op and I am saying a big fat YANBU. It enrages me, the whole homework at primary thing - pointless, unnecessary, counter-productive. When my dd was at primary I would quite often write a note in her book saying I did not want her to do homework that week, she had too much else going on. The teachers were quietly supportive. She left at level 5 or 6 sats in all subjects (if that is relevant).

thanks mintyy. i think last years teacher was 'quietly supportive' of my resistance to certain elements of homework and my insistence that yes i'd do x, y and z but in my fashion with the books of our choosing etc rather than in the prescriptive fashion. he was new to the school though so not as steeped in the culture i'm guessing.

"if you think you can find another job that gives you 30k for working 39weeks a year 8.30-3.30 with six months full pay and then six months half pay if you get ill and great maternity pay packages etc then go for it."

I work, as you well know is true of most teacher if you hadn't gone off on one, at least 12 hour days during term time, including on Sundays. Of the fabled holidays, I have c. half of what the children have, and I work for the remainder (my husband calls it 'the ultimate compressed hours contract', and he's right - 12 hour days 6 days a week in term time, then a mix of 8 hour days and no work days in the holiday). Oh, and I earn less than 30K. Did you work only 8.30 - 3.30 when you were a teacher? If so, you are the only person i have ever encountered who did so....

I had my children before starting teaching, and have been lucky enough not to be ill though tbh my old private sector company -yes, I have worked in both sectors (longer in private than public - have you?) so i know that of which I speak - had very similar T&C to teaching and a better pension.

It's difficult, really. I am in sympathy of some of your points - primary homework has been shown to have almost zero impact on attainment, but that is true of the type 'you would like' as well as the ones 'you hate', and I agree about inclusion. But then you go off on one and you lose that sympathy.

(Sorry, I meant T&C around maternity and sick pay, not all T&C. Many of the latter in the private sector were significantly better, and there was a totally different culture around what was expected to be done without remuneration - I routinely buy equipment and resources for my classroom, so that children can learn, for example. That would be laughed at in my old company.)

My daughter is also 6 years old. Last week they had exactly the same homework (menu ideas and number bonds 1-20). She finished her home work very fast and I am sure all other children did it. She has to read a chosen book every day (they are 30-50! pages long, white reader). All the white level readers read it for the next day, obviously the purple, red etc readers have shorter reading books.

Like other parents mentioned this is the level expected from a 6 years old.

i know it sounds awful and dismissive but the thing is lots of people really do work 12hr shifts (and literal, have to be there, not in the comfort of your own home doing some planning/marking/etc) for way less money, for way more weeks a year, without the benefits etc.

i believe there's a half way point between thinking 'teachers don't know their born' and 'teachers are the hardest working martyrs in the country'.

i'm sorry i lose all sympathy with you on things you agree with when i say things you disagree with. that's a shame but probably very common i guess.

anita - the level expected from a six year old is to read fifty page books on a nightly basis? are you living in north korea?

anita Have a gold star to put on your 'Good Parent' chart. Maybe if you collect enough you might get to go to the front and get clapped at an award assembly!

And the reading books,wow. My child could read at 2.5 years and would easily have read white banded books, but was not 'allowed' until y4. Was answering inferential questions too. Alas not for the TAs, or so they said. Head, brick wall, bang, bang!

Swallowed, I know that (and have done exactly those 12 hour shifts in the past).

However, to lie and say that teachers work 8.30 to 3.30 doesn't help your case. You KNOW that isn't true, so you add nothing whatever to your argument. To say 'many people work harder than teachers' is obviously true. To say 'teachers work 8.30-3.30' is a lie. To attempt to support your point of view with a lie weakens it, it does not strengthen it - though I do know you have reached the irrational 'I hate the way you sleep lying down' stage about your DS's school, and, having been there, it's enough to send even the sanest mum somewhat doolally!

(I presume you mean that you are sorry you lose all sympathy 'from' me?)

Erm, my kid is off the reading scheme entirely and happily reading quite complex texts alone and wouldn't be expected to read fifty pages a night. And she's in year 2 so probably a full year older than most Y1s (September birthday). Sometimes she gets into a story and wants to read a few chapters but even that isn't necessarily fifty pages and it is certainly more than expected! Most kids in her Y2 class are still reading books with much fewer than fifty pages in the whole book and are not behind in any way.

swallowed Believe it or not you are not alone in this,

i believe there's a half way point between thinking 'teachers don't know their born' and 'teachers are the hardest working martyrs in the country'.

Some you think who might oppose you, don't. Read between the lines ion the other thread. I won't go there again but let me tell you this, there are attitudes and practices out there that would make you hair curl!

Anyway Friday song,

m.youtube.com/watch?v=cjOd7ftRLJY

ooh did you just put red pen on my post for me teacher? thanks for that.

fifty pages a night is hilarious.

you only have to be at work during those times. very many people work longer hours than that and take some work home too. i'm afraid i don't buy the whole martyr trip.

reality in context is that you do work short hours, you do have long holidays, you are well paid and you have less expenses due to not needing childcare in the holidays to the extent most people do.

it's terribly unfashionable it seems to say, 'yay i'm lucky, i have it good'. instead there's a competition to prove how hard up you are.

see i'm in a can't win situation here because if i say er actually no i never worked twelve hour days as a teacher and no way did i spend half my holidays working you get to say ooh you must have been a bad teacher. i'm meant to collude in the mythology of the epic, worse than anyone workload to prove my worth.

thing is i wasn't a bad teacher, i got excellent results, was always marked well in observations including by ofsted and my lessons worked well and i can honestly i never did a twelve hour day and yes indeed most days i worked only the school day plus half an hour at the end to finish off a few bits and tidy up ready for the next day.

the teachers i observed working twelve hours a day and all holiday long seemed to me to be in the wrong profession as they clearly weren't managing their workload or time management effectively.

lovely friday song bramble - i sat next to jarvis at a concert once.

I mean Saturday song if course. Cheers .