Should I complain about this Headteacher's letter?

[ImperfectTense]

Name changed for this...

Background: DD in year 10, has already done 2 GCSEs in year 9. Doing 2 more soon. Been staying late in school during the week and going in on Saturdays. DD's natural ability is B level (she has a spld). We received this letter from her Head recently which I assume it is sent to all exam students. DD is upset about it and wants me to complain. She feels pressurised and doesn't like the tone of the letter. The school is a comprehensive, Ofsted Outstanding, converter academy (recent). Any thoughts?
Thanks!

Text is below:

^Dear (name of student)

It is currently Bank Holiday Monday at 11.10am and I am at my desk writing to you, thinking about you; I am not doing what I came to school to do because I am worrying whether you are fully prepared for your forthcoming examinations. Have you/are you revising as I write? Are your revision notes complete? Are you testing yourself? Have you reduced your knowledge to some small notecards? Do you know you can write fast enough? Have you got in mind your exemplar answers? Have you been to all the exemplar activities? Have you considered that the examination boards are likely to have made it even harder this year? Have you ignored your friends when they have said 'I haven't done anything'? (They're fibbing).

Your future rests on your results. It is a time of pressure. It is a time of sacrifice. Time spent studying now will reap a reward. You are growing to adulthood at a time when educational qualifications are getting harder. I can only hope that you have grasped that and that you are working extremely hard indeed and I applaud that. I am sure that they will be successful. Remember, just being in school does not guarantee automatic success: you have to USE the time. Practically, I hope you have a revision timetable and that you are practising past questions in timed conditions - this is the key.

You know me sufficiently well to know that I am ambitious for you and want you to excel. It is, however, not something that I can conjure up for you. Please take these next few weeks very seriously and ensure that you capitalise on all of the support that is available to you.

With best wishes,

Yours sincerely

Mr X
Head^

The head sounds as if he/she is cracking up! Dreadful letter.

Awful letter. I probably wouldn't complain as I chose my battles with my DC's school carefully and wouldn't personally prioritise this. However you may feel differently, especially if it has caused a lot of distress for your DD. If you do decide to complain, you could do so through the board of governors.

DD feels the message is that results are the only things that matter . It's a set of examinations, you know...
In life; results are of course not the only things that matter, agreed.
In exams, however... Of course results matter, it's the whole point.

Stupid letter to send, particularly at this stage. If my DD had received it, she would have felt even more pressure than she did already. If my DS had received it, he would have ignored it, and would probably have gone out with his mates as a metaphorical two fingers to the head. Either way, it is totally counter-productive.

I don't like it. Yes exams are important, and yes revision is essential, but it's very 'one size fits all'. There may well have been very conscientious kids who had made the perfectly sound decision not be be revising at 11.10am on a bank holiday because they, like the rest of us, need and deserve a break. And going on about the exams getting harder is very odd.

I can see what the head's trying to do, here, but I think they've gone about it the wrong way. I wouldn't actually do this, because I wouldn't want to antagonise the head, but I'd be sorely tempted to write back with something like 'Dear , It's 3am and I can't sleep because I'm worrying about you. We haven't had an Ofsted inspection for a while, and I'm wondering how prepared you are. Ofsted have got so much tougher recently. Is all your paperwork in order? Do you have all the data they'll ask for to hand? ...'

I don;t like it (either as a (ex) teacher or a parent).

It is a letter emphasising pressure and stress.

Yes, there is some practical advise with regards revision timetables and note cards. But it is not well presented. It is all done in a pseudo chatty way. Bullet points would be better

And there is nothing on there regarding time out, rest breaks, good night's sleep, etc to counter balance it all.

Not good overall. And not very supportive overall. TBH looking at it from another angle it makes me think he is worried about his own schools results more than anything else.

"I am sitting worrying about you ." What a knob end.

It's too much. And rather bizarre.

Can I 'like' AmberTheCat 's response? He sounds like a twat. Good luck to your dd.

Well at 11am on. Bank holiday Monday I would hope my child wasn't sitting there revising but taking the time to relax before the hard slog of the coming weeks

I would have complained loudly - my DDs high achieving Comp has been talking down exams a bit, as they are incredibly stressed. DD has lost it on more than one occasion, especially before Controlled assessments. She is only in year 10 and only has one GCSE exam this year (Core Science).

In my experience most students don't need more pressure, even most of those who may be being lazy are doing it because they feel so pressured (they are just the type of people whose response to pressure is to give up).

It's a bit of an odd letter, but it doesn't say
"You must all do more"

it says

"Are you doing x/y/z?"

Surely if you are, then the answer is "Yes, I am" -can't see how it puts pressure on those who are working, but it just might jolt the odd one who isn't doing enough into doing a bit more.

Can't see any reason to complain about it - just raise an eyebrow and put it in the recycling.

Very creepy in my opinion , I would be very concerned of a HM of my children's school wrote such a lot of self indulgent clap trap to a child who is in year 10 , remember this is not even a year 11 .

Apologies OP but I've only read your message and not the full thread. I think she should write a letter in response explaining how it made her feel. I'd be angry about it too if I were her. There's something a bit presumptious about it that jangled my nerves too.

A dangerous letter to send to all students from someone who appears to have very little understanding of good mental health (in fact, he sounds like he has a huge anxiety problem himself and ought to see a counsellor...). The letter is OK for people who do not suffer from anxiety, but will probably have little effect on most of them. Those who are already stressed and very anxious will react very badly to it, reading into the subtext the fact that the world is really a pretty awful place where exam results are everything, that doing badly is not an option, that they will be a failure if they can't cope, that they will ruin their lives if they don't succeed at these exams. There's nothing worse than an over-anxious, panicking student, or does he not realise that excessive anxiety hugely harms the ability to concentrate and remember simple facts? Also, highly anxious people will be so intent on blaming themselves afterwards for their failures that they will be far worse at picking themselves up, dusting themselves down and learning something positive from their failures than people who failed because they were too laid back. I thought a huge increase in mental health problems had already been identified in school-age children, without over-anxious head teachers going out of their way to contribute to them.

Also, absolutely no mention in the letter of where to turn if it is all getting on top of you and you are feeling panicked and unable to focus. The letter gives the very distinct impression you won't get any sympathy from the school if that's the case, given that the headteacher thinks you should be feeling worried and your future rests on it...

I wonder if the predicted grades for this year show less than outstanding progress. Perhaps his data isn't looking so good this year and an inspection is imminent. If progress is not outstanding the school can't be outstanding. Perhaps he is projecting his own stress onto the students.

It does seem to be a bit OTT- perhaps some student need a bit of kick up the backside but for those who are diligent and doing their best it does seem to up the pressure they are already under.

Too much pressure in that letter.

My teacher said I wouldn't pass a GCSE. I was embarrassed but I did pass but I know I should have got a higher grade. Teachers want their students to succeed but there are good ways and bad of achieving this.

Some very wise and perceptive comments, thank you. I think I will contact the school and express my concerns rather than complain. DD is already under a lot of pressure and the letter really annoyed her.

Thank you to everyone who posted.

I think it is fine.

I like Amber's response and would be sorely tempted to do something along those lines, but only if my DC was leaving in June.

I find the first paragraph quite sickening in its trying to pile on the guilt. It obviously a complete lie that he came in to school to do something else - he came in to the school to compose this letter; it is far too long and considered to be an off the cuff thing.

There are some practical suggestions, but it is all presented in a way to increase anxiety levels and make pupils far more fearful for the future than they need be if they don't get the grades they want. The tone is haranging rather than helpful.

Sounds like all he gives a fuck about is his shiny new academy and his own career. Tell him if he's that desperate to please Gove he can go and kiss his arse himself instead of offering up the well-being of his pupils as sacrifice.

Spot on BB! It was a school Gove considered for his own children and he has visited on several occasions. He was treated to an exhibition of the Head teaching and also a Shakesperian play performed by the teachers - the kids don't get to do plays unfortunately !

Exams are imminent. Don't waste time engaging with the school on this, just tell your dd that the amount of work she doing is fine and to forget the letter.

A play performed by the teachers? Now I've heard everything!