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.

'It's too dangerous to get to school for the teachers'. static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/2/3/1233672754192/Winter-weather-001.jpg

I know, NewName. But I didn't think that idea would wash with Fresh (as she probably doesn't think that my care for my pupils should over-ride her need to work).

When the snow hit here at midday one year the result was about 6 or more prangs on the local roads. You cannot get to the school or away from it without travelling on hills. The Council hadn't gritted effectively, I think at that stage they were still "saving money" by classifying school routes as non-essential. Last year they gritted and ploughed school routes and I don't think schools were shut for more than 1 day (much to my children's disappointment).

In the worst of the snow storms only "essential" employees were asked to travel. So in the town centre, yes people did walk to work, but others worked from home where possible. School is not essential, although I know in their emergency planning they are asked to consider, the knock on effect of lack of their "childcare" role.

I have also known parents not send their children back to school on the first day it has re-opened, even though they live in the same rd as the school, and children from the villages have been there just fine.

As I tell my children we never got a day off school for snow, but I was regularly sent home early because of fog!

Have a good evening teacher and mrz . I'd better do some work now I think I'm well enough to go to work tomorrow. (unless I snows overnight )

I worked in a school that never shut for snow. Once we were the only school in the area still open. The place was a hazard, teachers struggling in hours late etc.

Most of the kids didn't turn up. Parents only too eager to keep them at home for a snow day, and the bus companies weren't running. Utter farce, no teaching went on.

And someone (not anyone at the school) was killed on the road home that evening.

sorry - still trying to catch up but it is a complete LIE to say teachers lose a day's pay for snow days. they don't.

we do, for not making it into work because teachers somehow miraculously have a harder time getting to work and a lesser responsibility to do so so the rest of us suffer but they still get paid.

and as others say if EVERY other business in the local area has managed to open on time, keeep running, expect it's staff in and ensure customer service on the day that 1.4 inch of snow falls WHY would a school not?

noble fair play and if EVERY business and public service had closed that day then the school should have too. if it's genuinely unsafe it's unsafe for all of us right? or just for teachers and schools?

Sorry swallowedAfly but teachers definitely DO lose a day's pay if they don't get into school due to snow!

It is NOT a lie to say teachers lose a days pay if they don't get into work. If the school is open and you don't get in you aren't paid.

If my school is open I am expected to get there. If I can't I should go to the nearest school in my authority to where I stay. If i don't do either I will not be paid. That is not a lie but has been policy since the awful winter we had here 6 years ago. My problem is I don't live and work in the same local authority which causes all sorts of problems.

we'll have to agree disagree - sure if the school is open and everyone else makes it in you might lose pay but the reality is the school tends to close down at the drop of a hat (or ten snowflakes) anyway and therefore no one loses pay.

to a non teacher the way it had been stated gave them the impression that if the school closed teachers didn't get paid. that isn't the case.

indy - curious as to where you work as i haven't heard of that policy for decades.

Am a bit surprised so many teachers live so far away from the school they work at - my contract stipulates that it should take me no longer than half an hour by public transport to get to the university.

I don't to be fair but then I can't use distance from work as a reason not to make it in for lectures - especially as most/all of my students will live within walking distance.

s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/64/47/1644766_2582bcec.jpg

10 snowflakes?

We will have to disagree swallowedAfly because my LEA doesn't pay you for snow days
and like indy I've been required to report to my nearest school as I said earlier in this thread

There is no public transport where I work. Well, not strictly true, a bus runs ( in the wrong direction) every Tuesday morning and returns Tuesday lunchtime.

myth - likewise - living far away is a choice, applying for a job too far from you to make it to unless conditions are ideal, etc is a choice that you take the fall out for not the employer, let alone the poor customer.

And I have had on several occasions to take my children with me - lucky I guess that I can. Bored them rigid!

Nor do I think mrz, indy and I all work for the same authority, so the policy must be rather more widespread, and recent, than you seem to think.

Myth, it used to be rare but the scarcity of primary jobs recently have made it more common.

teachers even get days off to go to interviews costing school the price of a supply teacher's (plus the meant to be there teacher's) salary, tax, ni etc. re: more than doubly the costs for teaching classes that day.

would love to see the face of my boss if i said 'i won't be here on monday because i'm going to an interview - get someone else to do my work and i expect to still be paid'

why can't you just acknolwedge that actually, yes, in the context of modern times, contracts, pay, conditions etc you're not doing too badly at all?

it was part of why teachers were so hard to work with - the whole poor me, so hard done by, the whole world resting on my shoulders, blah blah blah negativity ingratitude culture was wearying.

i work 14hrs a day - do you? think you better get yourself on a time management course love because that's not right.

Let's just admit it. This has been a teacher bashing thread from word go.

And the reason for that is because we can't take a day's holiday to do so!

Nor can we build up flexi-time. And interviews are held in term time because the children need to be there. So we are rather limited in our options!

It doesn't say I HAVE to travel by public transport (I don't) spaniel eyes only that's how they measure distance from work.

Impressed by your skeleton public bus service! I thought ours was bad. Our school bus service is brilliant though I have to say. And sometimes the kids are sent home because the buses dictate the leaving time in snow or floods which is fair enough.