Saturday detention and inflexible school.

[Rainbow]

My DS2 is in Y8 and the school policy is, if they get 5 detentions for not doing homework, they get a Saturday detention. I don't agree with it but it is school policy and I agreed to work with the school for the duration of my child's time with them. DS2 got his 5 detentions and was told on Wednesday(2/10), that he had detention on the Saturday (5/10). As a Cub Scout Leader, I had made arrangements to go to District camp with all the beavers, cubs and scouts from our district. DS1 is a beaver leader DS2 and DS3 are scouts, DS4 is too young but had not choice and my parents and my sis are also leaders with beavers and scouts and so they came too. There was not at home who could look after DS2. I explained to the school that this was the case and after numerous suggestions along the lines of put him on 3 trains and a bus (total journey time 2 hrs 40 mins) it was agreed to postpone the detention to the following week. I got on the coach with all the other leaders and children on the Friday and returned by coach on the Sunday. I then discovered, that DS2's detention had been extended by 1 hour because he could not make the previous Saturday. School seems to be steadfast in their decision and insist on punishing DS2 for my commitment. He did get a couple of Saturday detentions last ear and one was changed as my cousin was getting married but the other 2 we bend over backwards to get him there, even picking up my cubs and taking them to their event before collecting DS2 from camp only to find that the member of staff who was taking the detention had not turned up! Working together is a 2 way street or at least I thought it was!

[bundle]

Thants "man up" is a commonly used expression, not a manifesto that the Y chromosome rules.

[Talkinpeace]

Scouts will not pay his mortgage or get him a job.
GCSEs will.
You are failing him if you do not support him in the core areas and allow the supplementary activities to be recognised as such.

In year 10 the homework will ramp up to 2-3 hours a night. Are those times ready in your schedule?

Detention is not working because your actions are making it not work.
No problem at the school, huge problem in the mindset of your household.

[cory]

Thants, this lad is a teenager or near teenager, he will soon be going out into the world on his own; quite frankly he needs to learn to do his work whether he feels passionate about it or not.

[Thants]

Bundle maybe think about what commonly used phrases mean before using them. Just because a lot of people say it doesn't make it right.
Think of the racist phrases people used to use that thankfully most people have reconsidered saying.

[Thants]

2 to 3 hours a night! That's crazy and definitely not true.

[Talkinpeace]

thants
Do you have a year 11 child - doing linear GCSE's ?
I do.
10 academic subjects, a couple of pieces of homework per week per subject plus reading around
the mocks are only a few weeks away ....

[RussiansOnTheSpree]

Thants It pretty much is true.

[Thants]

Things have changed drastically in only a few years then. That is surprising, I'm 24 and did not have anywhere near that amount to do an evening. Yes coursework in year 10 and 11 but even then it did not amount to even close to 2 or 3 hours an evening.

[soul2000]

Talkinpeace. You can see that you come from an academic background
suggesting the OPs DS will be doing up to 3 hours homework a night.
I suggest it will be a surprise if he does more than 45 minutes a night in YR 10/11.

[Talkinpeace]

Coursework has been abolished in all academic GCSEs.
Have you not been reading about the changes Gove has brought in?
Modules are almost gone.
Retakes are nearly gone.
GCSEs have gone back to the 80's
And as grade inflation is now under control, the boundaries are getting tighter year on year.

[Talkinpeace]

Soul2000
I'm not quite sure what you mean.
To get top grades and therefore to head to decent universities, any kid doing the academic ten will be working a lot
45 minutes a night in year 11 will not open doors to the right parts of the UCAS form.
Revision is back with a vengeance - no completed modules going into the mocks ....

[RussiansOnTheSpree]

9 years isn't only a few years in educational terms.

soul it sounds very much as though the OPsDS isn't doing even that amount of homework. But he probably should be. Poor kid.

[bundle]

Thants, you too need to get a grip
It's an expression which has no agenda. Unless you particularly want to impose one. Which you obviously do.

[soul2000]

Talkinpeace. Maybe he might be a candidate for the vocational way .
I know you are a big fan of vocational education.

I don't think Op is planning for Oxbridge at the moment.

My niece and nephew did 2- 2.5 hrs a night. when they were in yr 11 at academic grammar schools.

45 minutes a night though is 45 minutes more than i ever did.

[Thants]

Bundle it does have an agenda you just haven't thought about it. Using language that doesn't perpetuate sexism benefits us all.
I can't wait until we have a labour government again and they can hopefully sort all this shit out.

[TeenAndTween]

I've skimmed this thread. Apologies if I have missed relevant information.

1. I think you were right not to rearrange scouts
   
2. I think school was not massively unreasonable to add an hour to the DT due to rearranging it.
   
3. The impression I have is that if hw is not done, they do a boring DT, but don't have to do the HW? That is crazy.
   
   There seems to be possible things going on either:
   a) your son is failing to write the hw down correctly, so doing it wrong/incomplete
   b) your son is willfully not doing hw because boring DTs are nicer than boring hw
   c) your son is not capable of doing the hw, and using not wrting down as an excuse to get out of it.
   
   I get the impression you think it is (a).
   
   My DD has difficulty note taking from verbal input, and especially at the start of secondary did not always write down hw clearly enough, meaning she had to go back the next day to clarify.
   
   It is totally ridiculous that the school is not willing to check the planner to check he has written HW down correctly. If he is missing such a number of HWs they should be helping him, not just saying he's got to learn and then punishing him for failing.
   
   I would try to one of
   a) ask to speak again in person to Tutor / SENCO and insist they help your son,
   b) say in future he won't do detentions for hw not in planner if they haven't checked his planner
   c) say HW should be done in place of enrichment clubs (can they really mandate attendance?)
   d) move schools to somewhere with better policies

[Blu]

This is what I would do:

Spend some time finding out exactly why he is getting his homework wrong. Ask him to show you the worksheet and where it was that it was deemed insufficient. Get him to show you his planner, and the work that they have been doing in class, and work out exactly what it is his homework should cover. Give him some hints about how to write down thoroughly and in greater detail what it is he has to do.

Check the homework he does against his planner - see whether it seems thorough to you.

Keep this up for a couple of weeks.

Possibly talk to his tutor about whether he is listening in class. Is he concentrating when the homework instructions are given out. Can he actually hear properly? Get this checked, if you are in any doubt.

Since the vagina is the only genital organ with muscle, I would call this 'cunting up' or 'growing a fanjo' in respect for the female power in parenting.

[kaumana]

Time to cunt up! Grow a fanjo!

Blu that's brill.

[frogs]

Thants, do you ever find yourself wondering whether you're being a teeny bit pompous and self-righteous?

Here's a clue: you are.

Blu, I LOVE 'cunt up'. Sadly I fear it is a bit rude, even by my sweary standards. How unfair. We should start a campaign for gender equality in genital metaphors.

[Thants]

I think it's sexist because it is. We live in a society that normalises sexism and inequality so that's why you don't see it. I think addressing inequality and prejudice is important.

[Talkinpeace]

Soul2000
Were your neice and nephew in year 11 between 2 and 18 years ago ?
Just that then the exams they took bear little relation to what is going on today.
Vocational is great, but a lack of work ethic will dump you in the poo regardless of the path chosen.

blu
How does a 'cunt up' compare with a 'balls up'

[frogs]

And I think you're being pompous because you are. I can see all manner of things, I just tend not to assume that every who disagrees with me is wrong by definition.

TiP, I think 'balls-up' is matched by 'tits-up', so I think we're all clear on the sexism front there.

[soul2000]

Talkinpeace. Niece was in yr 11 4 years ago Nephew last year.

Niece is 2nd year Liverpool Business and French.

Nephew Yr 12 As levels History Politics English/ Chemistry

[Talkinpeace]

Both modular then.

frogs my fave has always been arse over tit and where do moobs fit in .... ?

[soul2000]

Talkinpeace. I think nephew has to take different units this year and do modular exams the same next year is this right?

I can understand Gove wanting to change Gcse ,what i cant understand
why he wants to destroy everything, surely evolution over a few years would be better. However i think in some subjects coursework should be
used. At University you have assignments "COURSE WORK" so why does
Gove want to get rid of course work in school exams.