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.

^ my last post refers to the link between children's attainment and that of their parents.

Cross posts.

The other problem with outsourcing and expecting parents to pick up the slack is that we will never narrow the divide between state and private if we don't deliver a complete education to state educated children in the school day - can you imagine the private school that tells parents their child won't be properly educated unless the parents do a load of homework with them?

I don't think it's a state/private school thing, actually. It's a good school/bad school thing. I was educated privately from the age of 11 and my excellent private school encouraged children and parents to tell the school if any homework task was taking longer than twenty minutes as this would indicate that more support was needed. We were explicitly told never to spend more than twenty minutes on anything we'd been asked to do and to tell a teacher if it had been unachievable in that time.

I would love to sit the Ofsted inspectors who want more open end and creative HW in the tiny stuffy SN cupboard* for a day and get them to help selected pupils do these sorts of open ended tasks.

They can have my dyslexic DD1 who will talk the leg of a donkey, but write nothing and DD2 in one of her take everything literally and refuse to do anything in case it's wrong moods for starters.

Children need direction and they need scaffolding, only very very bright and confident DCs and very low ability DC who are used to writing things in a haze of confusion don't panic at the sight of a blank sheet of paper.

*the One to one TAs room was an old cleaners cupboard, it was still used to store piles of junk, but it had a window and a door for privacy.

It was therefore better than being stared at in a very dark corner of the cloak room.

StarBall Scaffolding. That is the only reason I am actually thankful for this kind of homework. It gives me the opportunity to help my DC provide their own structure for more open ended question, tasks. Find the questions inside the question so to speak I don't think they actively teach enough of this kind of skill.

'*the One to one TAs room was an old cleaners cupboard, it was still used to store piles of junk, but it had a window and a door for privacy.'

What on earth was the 1:1 room FOR? I hope the child was never expected to go in there away from the classroom?

"how does the teacher differentiate whether little billy is really bright or just has an educated mummy able to sit down with him for an hour after school every day and dictate his work?"

The way education works is to differentiate between kids whose parents give a shit and kids whose parents don't. Depressing and wrong but true.

Actually a lot of the homework received since starting primary does seem to be less about reinforcement and more about learning what is fairly new content. Or maybe my DC weren't entirely paying attention.....this is why I ensure it is done. Don't want them to be at a disadvantage. Hate the thought of DC staying in a break too!

Homework is designed to find out which parents enjoy making mouse houses with their children. Apparently.

It is annoying when they are left to do so much independently and fun in school. Independent reading at school versus parent has to hear them read at home. Calculations at school versus written multi maths problems / at home. Fun Friday and fancy dress at school versus handwriting practice at home. Designing games at home to play them in school.

^ I think parents have been had, haven't they?

Not me. I now refuse to do homework with my children on the basis that it destroys our relationship.

I made this vow after a particularly distressing time trying to make Elmer the Fecking Elephant out of a Milk Bottle Carton.

But that's my point Herisson - a private school (and good state schools) will take the responsibility for ensuring they provide the support and teach the children irrespective of parental input - that's what parents pay them to do. State schools should do the same - or they disadvantage the very children who need it most.

I don't want teachers wasting time setting and marking homework - I want them to teach my child!

parents have been had. school wants to do the fun stuff and claims they can't teach handwriting or timestables because it's too dull for kids to sit still and learn in that fashion yet sends home homework that is ridiculously sit, still and write for eons.

boffin - not sure how much i want to fight this.

i've hidden the learning log because i wrote so much on the page about how i couldn't see the point of the task, it was inaccessible for even an able child at 6, i couldn't see what the objective was or what outcome they were after or how it assessed anything other than my ability to teach my child, asked how a child with parents with literacy/numeracy issues would access the task etc etc.

may just bin the book and send in a letter saying we won't be doing it anymore and if they want to know why i'm happy to come and explain

i am so relieved that other parents feel the same way and others, including teachers, can see how stupid this task was. i promise it is fairly typical (though not the worst by far) and i swear this is a printed label that goes on the book of every single child in that year group on that week each year. and yes if they don't hand it in they get punished by losing a break time.

an interesting one lately was the news that children who were late to school would be made to wear a late sticker all day. wtf? how does a 5 or 6yo have control over getting to school? they are using the shame of the child to try and get to the parent. not on.

oh and i didn't pay the voluntary payment for some half arsed activity they decided to do in school at a ridiculous price and ds actually came out of school with a sticker stuck to his jumper saying i hadn't paid! i kid ye not!

I'd make a formal complaint about the stickers.

I think if people are finding their children are being plastered with stigma stickers, or even other people's children, it would be perfectly reasonable to voice an objection. This is terrible educational practice, absolutely terrible. It's a complete misreading of the Ofsted attendance drive, in the case of lateness, for example.

Swallowed, I think you should get yourself onto the Governing Body. Assuming you will be using the school for some years to come. Some of these things you describe horrify me.!

I think what has happened, as a result or arguing over 'standards' is a blame culture. Blame the government, blame the LAs, blame the SMTs, teacher, blame the parent or worse of all blame the child....with the resulting punitive measures. Then you get the resulting evasive / defensive actions in order to avoid accountability.

It's nothing new, Ancient. You get this where you get poor leadership and management.

i think it's the cocoon effect of being a village primary tbh. it's like going back in time. there is also a worrying 'girls are nice and boys are naughty' kind of ha, ha culture that makes my teeth itch.

likewise things like sending home a letter saying on date x we're going to see father christmas and that'll be £15 please and the children have already been told and are all excited. no thought that you might be a jehovah's witness who doesn't celebrate christmas at all etc.

likewise the little notes saying your child needs costume x by friday just use an old sheet and sew it into a tunic and stitch tinsel to the top and bottom. those leave me speechless - the assumption i can sew and that i have the time around working and everything else to do a bit of dressmaking at the drop of the hat irks me.

i think schools with very easy intakes have a tendency to be complacent tbh and rest on their laurels knowing the majority of the kids will come into school already knowing their phonics and numbers for example. what i feel for in this schools is those children who haven't got all that because the school can sort of let them drift knowing it won't effect their results that much and as it's just a few they can see it as the normal range of ability rather than a group who aren't getting taught at home and the school relies on that happening.

anyway.

i did make a complaint about the 'you haven't paid yet' sticker btw - they seemed to think i was massively over reading it whilst i was saying, you literally labelled a child.

they're just... behind the times i think.

I think there is a lot in that. I pulled mine out a village primary because the attitudes were so sleepy and the teachers were coasting so much - many if them seemed to take astronomical levels of sick leave too, so my kids spent loads of time colouring in worksheets given to them by supply teachers. I was amazed Ofsted gave it a 'good' tbh. I know some parents had complained in writing (including us) but Ofsted decided to ignore the complaints, in its wisdom. They shredded them immediately after the inspection so the complaints couldn't be revealed under FOI. All rather inept, I felt.

I should add we sent them to a more urban primary up the road, and the difference in children's progress and staff sick leave uptake was staggering. But there was a much more able head there, and she was well regarded by the other heads - a good sign.