Can teachers tell when parents do the HW?

[mumhp]

My daughter is in year 7 at a large comp and is in the top stream. We think she is doing fine, but she complains that others are a lot cleverer than her. The school uses a rewards system called vivomiles and she hasn't won many, but there are some kids that have. They rank them in league tables which are published on their website and this term those with the most go on a trip to Barcelona. I recently found out from talking to one of the parents of these super successful kids that they don't just help with homework, they actually do it. They tell the kids what to write, to the extent of dictation or doing their artwork etc. The parent seemed rather proud of themself! However the work is then rewarded with vivomiles, the child praised and the others made to feel inadequate. These kids also seem to be the ones picked to be on the school magazine board, in newspaper features, designing the school Xmas card and other special things. It is always the same kids so I am beginning to think this isn't very fair - it is a massive school with an intake of 240 per year. I cannot believe that the teachers don't notice, or have they and are they just playing along?

Its not very fair on the children - when it comes to exam time they will be stuck if they have previously been used to a parent dictating the answers.

Yes, of course.

The difference between the work done in class and at home will be obvious.

I don't know WHY any parent would do this - they aren't helping the child at all.

Unless they plan on sitting all exams for them.

And doing further education for them.

And getting a job for them...

Yes, we can tell :)

My colleague gave me a housepoint for my contribution to my DD's hw last week.

dd won her school art competition with a elephant that basically looked like a squiggle

she was up against a parade of amazing pieces including a 3d moving dinosaur that was apparently done by a 5 yr old

I think they can see through it

Of course we can!

I have brought it up with some parents at parents evening before. They generally go a bit red, shuffle about a bit and then change the subject.

Wonder if they can tell when the nanny does the homework? I've been known to help out a 13year old with his Physics homework. I got very good marks as well, he informed me last week.

I am a PGCE student and I can tell when pupils in my class have not done their homework themselves. And I have only been teaching them for a month....

Yes.

Also, by reading other threads in this topic, it is evident that some parents get Mumsnet to do their child's homework!

I deliberately did my sons homework once (long story); he was working at a level 4, the work I completed gained a level 7. Accepted without a murmur. In his Educational Records as 'X completed a really good project'.

They don't always notice. My son made a fantastic castle out of clay and lego for his 1/2 term project. It was really good for an 11 year old and we contributed nada apart from admiring noises when it was completed as we are both far too lazy to do homework. I was gobsmacked when he got a very average mark for it. It was well researched and well thought out and he did a really good job. Explanation was that loads of other kids' parents had spent all 1/2 term making papier mache ones with working drawbridges and the like and his looked shite in comparison, apparently. Pah.

Yes we can tell. A mile off. Even with the brightest year 11s we can tell if it's not their own. Genuine work has a certain naivity that parents just can't replicate.

sometimes they can tell and sometimes they judge wrongly. My dcs have occasionally fallen foul of homework that has looked too professional when they have in fact spent ages on it and done it all themselves. I imagine it works the other way sometimes too and a parent's work is thought to be the student's.

Had a parent quite hacked off 'their' h/w didn't get a better mark ...

imho we can always tell

They can generally tell, but sometimes they get it wrong.

Dd's geography teacher has been hinting all term that dd must have had help with her geography homework because her language is so mature. She hasn't bothered to check with dd's English teacher what her level of English is actually like. I wouldn't dream of writing her work for her; and she would turn down any offers from dh (not that he would make them) as his language is far more naive and cliched than hers.

Dd feels slightly troubled by the thought that her teacher thinks she is lying, but I've told her to try to put it out of her mind and just keep on doing her best, because teachers come and go, but the learning she does will stay with her.

Generally yes. ONe local kid was refused her coursework because it was so obvious that her mum did it.

Cory - that is fairly poor of your DDs teacher. Surely she can see that the classwork and homework are of the same standard.

My DD also writes in a much more mature style than me, she is y6, but there has never been any suggestion that it is not her own work (Her teachers have met me so know better ).

Though at DDs previous school there was a lot of obvious parental help with homework but the teachers never did anything about it.

I remember one case when DD was in yr 2, homework was to visit an art gallery and choose a picture to do a project about. One child came in with a massive complicated poster which was obviously done by her mother - the writing was obviously not that of a 6 year old!

The child was given top marks and a big fuss was made of her. DD was really cheesed off as it was obvious to everyone that this was not the girl's own work.

The teachers must have known but the mother was the leading light of the PTA so no-one wanted to upset her

We have the opposite problem. I think we're expected to help DD with her homework (in year 4) but we always ensure she hands in her OWN work. I've often wondered if the teacher knows that we've not helped and DD has done it all on her own?

Ds is terrible at art. Truly awful. The (fierce) art teacher told ds he had to re-do his self-portrait at home and bring it in the following day.

So ds duly turns up with a all-new self-portrait owing much to dh's artistic talents. The teacher was furious and threatened ds with detention for not doing his own work.

Ds realises he just can't win with that teacher.

Very mean of the teacher, gramercy.

Art is one of those things you are either good at or you aren't.

Could understand having to take it home and redo if he hasd been mucking about in th lesson.

But to have to redo just because the teacher thinks it is just not good enough is just plain nasty.

Did she think he was going to turn into Picasso overnight?

Sounds like some of the stories my mum tells me about her convent school in the 1950s.

But harking back to the OP, at least the teacher recognised that it wasn't ds's own work. He didn't suddenly give him a great mark.

I sometimes help ds with his homework, in that I find him relevant books, suggest a few things, but I would never write anything for him. What would be the point?

No, wait, I lie. A couple of years ago it was 4pm on the Sunday of half-term and ds sheepishly muttered that he had a project on Clarice Cliff to be handed in the next day. I cobbled together the words whilst ds did some sort of suitably orange design round the edge. But I wasn't aiming to get him top marks - just get the darn thing out of the way.

I've never done it. At primary I would sometimes help if asked or read it through but at secondary never.

It used to be a standing joke in this house when it came to arty competitions. The front runners were always Mrs K. and Mrs C.
What surprised me though was the fact that the staff would judge the work and these two mums always won. The teachers must have known - why did they not choose the wonky efforts actually done by a child?

I know a number of parents who did homework for their dc's, then it became a battle to get them to work themselves when the real stuff in secondary kicked in. I was accused of doing some art for one dd, I have never done their homework (just pointed out when it needs to be redone, if a teacher is going to spend their time marking I expect my dc to put in a decent amount of effort, but I don't expect it to be perfect), she went on to A* GCSE and 100% in art AS, I can barely draw a stick man, doubt she would have achieved that if I was doing her sketch books, sculptures etc. In my younger dc's school I don't think many children do their own homework, I was shocked when I went in to see the termly project work on display, obviously done my parents, support and help yes but do it all for them? I don't think so