Do primary school teachers still meke children do this at teh start of a new term

[queenofthemountain]

write about
'what I did in the holidays

DD has been asked to keep a diary over the summer holidays, she's meant to write at least one sentence each day and draw a picture/stick something in (although I've been collecting leaflets and stuff everywhere we go and leaving it all til days like today where its raining and we're stuck indoors to get her to write up a few days at a time). They also have diaries at school which they write in every monday.

Apple! I don't ask horrible personal things - just about where they stayed, what they ate, what they did! I wouldn't have a conversation about these things with the parents and it's fun talking to the children about holidays and silly things that happened. Sorry for causing offence.

Yes, but this is primary school, not secondary - and it's in a classroom, in front of everyone, so no escape or 'hide' option

I just don't see the problem. But both mine will be at secondary in September so Year 4 seems an age ago, I just remember them enjoying it. They didn't do it at Middle School so it's been a while.

The problem is that it can be humiliating and it's unnecessary. There are so many other things that schools could do to reintroduce them to writing after the summer break other than "where I went on my holidays". Why not just get them to write "a summary of my parent's finances this year" and be done with?

From what I saw it was very much 'What I did during the holidays' and not 'where I went on holiday'. I remember DS2 taking tickets from the local steam railway and leaflets from where we went fruit picking etc.

Yes, they do it after most holidays and also share circle time news after a weekend. The children talk about things anyway and primary children like to share news.

I wonder if any teacher would use it for a lesson in front of ofsted?

Would Ofsted not like that?

This thread seems to have changed the perfectly natural 'what did you do?' to 'where did you go?' Very different questions.
There is no reason at all that I wouldn't do the recount described above for OFSTED.

What did you do v. where did you go isn't going change things, regardless of how you package it. If you went to sailing round Antibes you're not really going to write about the supermarket trip, for example. Children tend to associate what I did with where I did it.

I can see it's the easiest option though - write about your summer holidays (or in our case, send us a postcard from your holidays, or take a photograph of you reading in an unusual location ) and that will tick that literacy box.

At your school it does sound as if it has been done badly-send a postcard from your holiday destination.
At our school we would never assume that all children go away (because they don't!). It is not to be completed over the holidays indeed the OP was asking whether it is still done at the start of term. As you can see from the responses, some teachers don't, some do.
'It will tick that literacy box' -again, I don't work with any teachers that think like this. I plan activities to suit the needs of my class, that engages them and ensures progress.

The short recount of one thing they have done during their holiday is a simple, non threatening activity that settles them in, that's all.

It sounds as if you have been quite unlucky in your child's school if you think teachers are trying to embarrass the children or learn about family finances(!) or just go for the easiest option each time. If you are really dealing with people like that then I understand your concern.

Oh, don't get me wrong - they did say that the postcard could be from our town, which was big of them . To be fair though, I'm just not a fan of the "write about your holidays" thing - when the teens were at primary they had to do similar, and I remember feeling just as I do now. I can't think of a quicker way of identifying the haves from the have nots - but I know there are plenty of people who just think "tough, that's life" so I may well be on my own here.

that should have been publicly identifying

My daughter's old school asked this. At the teacher-parent meeting, the teacher even said she can't believe we didn't go abroad during the summer holiday (like other kids in her class). It was a snobbish private school. Just before she left, there was a class project to bring a photo of each child's house. The teacher told our daughter our house was small (a semi) compared to the others. Another reason why we hate that school so much.

Bloody hell sunflower

ipadquietly OK - none taken . I just didn't like to think of my poor children being subjected to 'so how much chocolate does mummy eat exactly?', 'what time does mummy get up in the holidays?' or 'she spends how long on Mumsnet'!!

I don't understand the "simple, non threatening" argument - so many writing ideas available.

Agree Mrz

The problem is: even if they did something over the summer so it's not "watched TV" or "played on X box". What if "what happened over the summer" was: "tommy next door was killed in a knife fight" or "we visited Dad in prison" or "Brenda was in respite care so we went to the park". Or even as my DC could have written on subsequent years "Uncle O died", "the cat died", "Grandma died", "the Gerbils died".

Mrz-sorry, I thought I was clear.
Of course there are many writing ideas available! This is one that has always worked well as a first day activity for me though. It obviously doesn't work for you and that's fine too!
It is a non threatening activity in the sense that there is no new learning to worr about. I am not asking the class to do something they haven't done before. Some of the class will be wonderful at writing fantasy stories, some information reports some discursive texts etc. The one text type they can all do well and achieve at (I don't want anything too challenging on the first day) is recount writing. Writing about something they have actually experienced.
As I said earlier, I ask them to choose one thing they really enjoy and recount it -this avoids your issues mummy time.

I have to say, I had no idea how controversial I have been all these years! My class are happy and smiling during the task. They enjoy telling the class about their favourite park trip etc and it is a nice, social settling in experience plus I get a quick look at their writing to see how much they have moved on/regressed over the summer.

Yes, as Mrz said, there are other activities -naturally! But I see no problem with doing this simple activity on the first day back :)

However, given the experience of some on this thread (Sunflower-your daughter's experience was horrible though I sincerely hope not typical) I can see why some of you are wary.

Oh and if they want to write about playing on an x box-that's fine for me! I do expect them to describe exactly what happened in the game and how they were feeling throughout. Or example, if they were excited for example did their heart start beating faster...etc.
I doesn't really matter what they choose to recount.

It's not the lack of material, is the having their noses rubbed in the holidays other children get.

I used to be green with envy that my friends had had things like beach holidays, stays in a hotel, eaten in restaurant. My write ups were playgrounds I'd played in and visiting my grandparents.

Do the children read each other's write ups though? If it's just a writing task?

This is one that has always worked well as a first day activity for me though is that a good reason to always do the same thing or is that more the "easiest option" argument?

Do the children read each other's write ups though? If it's just a writing task? do you not routinely share childrens writing?