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^

My personal opinion is that the Head and (most of) the SLT are a bunch of Narcs.

A play performed by the teachers?! That's hilarious and worrying sad. And NO plays by the students? That's just nuts!!

Never mind that letter - I think there are other things worthy of complaint here...

Now the secondary school ds will go to do have plays performed by teachers, but usually a fun panto type one designed to be a fun end of term fundraising thing (keys see sir dressing as a panto Dame type thing

But no plays performed by children? Ridiculous.

Ph, a fundraising panto showing that even Sir is capable of taking the mick out of himself is a totally different kettle of fish and to be lauded IMO.

Oh, not Ph. Goodness me

Utterly revolting letter (with questionable grammar). Seriously - those of you who think it's "fine" have you actually read it? No wonder teenagers are driven to self-harm.

Only read the OP but I think it's a great letter. Wish I'd been sent it before my O Levels and A Levels. Would have focussed my mind I think.

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.

The HT's stress levels are not his students' problem. And he has no business to imply they are.

That first paragraph is the most worrying IMO, if true then it does not speak well to his mental health, it makes him sound fraught and anxious and he is outright saying that this is affecting his ability to do his job. For these reasons I'd be tempted to forward a copy to the Chair of Governors, but without comment, so that they can make up their own mind.

And yy to all the previous posters saying where is the support. There is nothing telling kids to ask for help if they feel overwhelmed, to do their best and then let it go, etc. In your daughter's place I would have spoofed Amber's reply "I'm worried you haven't prepared well for Ofsted" etc and left it on his desk. That's probably not advisable though!!

It is slightly odd in tone and content. However, I do t think it warrants a complaint. There is nothing ultimately wrong with it, just that you do nt like the tone. I'm sure we have all written letters others don't like.
I think you need to have a good reason to complain to a school. Who exactly would you complain to and what would you expect to be done about it?
If you feel strongly, when writing your letter of thanks to the HM for the school educating your child for the last X years, after exams, you could make a passing comment about finding it a bit odd, but nothing as strong as a complaint.

I don't like that at all.

When I was at school in the 80s the teachers considered it their job to deliver the curriculum, but not to advise on study skills/ organisation/ good revision habits etc, so I'd have found that very useful. I'm quite a sensitive/stressy person by nature, but if I'd already been doing all that stuff I would have thought "Good, looks like everything's in hand" if I wasn't it would have given me a bit of a framework to organise myself by. Agree that encouragement is good too though. Love Amberthecat's suggestion though.

SpeedwellBlue - having been at school in the 80s, the pressure was nothing like it is on young people nowadays.

You were "clever" it you went to University. Lots of people didn't, lots left school at 16 and 18, and had perfectly good careers.
The press didn't build up every year to "Results day in the summer".
I knew people at Oxbridge and Medical school with less than 3 A's at A'level. Getting a B at O'level was seen as quite good (A* didn't exist).

The message young people get nowadays is that they need A*, my DD is not in top sets but will not be happy with less than an A. It is a long way from the relatively relaxed way I did my exams.

Admittedly a lot more is also known now about the best ways to study and learn.

A "bit" of a framework?! Not everyone benefits from doing ALL the things he's suggested, SpeedwellBlue. Are you sure you wouldn't have panicked and gone away to waste your time timing how fast you could write, then worrying you were wasting your time on that and jumping to making notes on little cards, even if that didn't work for you, then trying to work out what your "exemplar" answers were, when you aren't even supposed to know what the questions are??? I would rather, this close to the exams, someone didn't come in and suggest I should be doing all sorts of things that I might NOT have done and which wouldn't actually help ME, anyway, particularly if I were a diligent, anxious type who worried that if I didn't do everything that was suggested, then that might be the cause of my failure...

He sounds like an arse. I'd think any head who sent a letter like that was a total tool, tbh. I understand what he is trying to achieve, but his methodology is seriously crap. I wouldn't necessarily complain, but I would raise your concerns over the tone of the letter and the amount of pressure it would put on conscientious children who are already under a lot of pressure. It would be a lot better if he acknowledged the fact they have already done a lot of work, are stressing out and offer some proper tips on time management, good exam technique and effective revision strategies.

The intention of the letter may be ok, but what he has produced is absolutely horrible, counter-productive and seriously crap!

Really? The head is trying to encourage revision. Why would you complain?

Encourage revision.

Well to do that maybe outlining the support available would be more helpful.

By saying that him and his colleagues are there to help should you need it.

Maybe he could have told them about believing in them,

About paving themselves. Or heaven forbid offering a class on how to structure a revision time table or advice on how to revise effectively without burning out.

This letter does no such thing. It's just panicking already stressed students

Pacing

Do we know the school haven't already done all that Giles? I would have thought they would nowadays.

Talk about pressure. Your DD should complain, not you.

Firstly , we are only days before the first exam so its a bit late to use scare tactics.

Secondly those candidates who haven't done any revision are unlikely to start now and those who are revising are likely to be stressed and nervous and giving them a long list of things they should have done is unlikely to help.Seriously if you can't write fast enough now you are unlikely to be able to remedy that in the next five days are you ?

Thirdly the pupils have no responsibility for his stress levels whatsoever, he is an adult and needs to to concentrate on controlling his own emotions .Its all a bit "don't panic Mr Mainwaring" He should be keeping a clear head not running around telling them how stressed he is , they need to feel confident not petrified ,worrying about whether the exam is going to be harder this year than last or whether the world is a tougher place is not in anyway going to help them to remember the facts they need for that exam, it is irrelevant to their performance on the day .

I am eternally grateful that my childrens' school spend time making sure the atmosphere is one of quiet studiousness and ensuring that the children understand that exams are just another qualification and absolutely do not define who you are.

If my eldest had received that letter 5 days before the start of GCSE I think he would have given up on the spot, he was worried enough as it was ( got very good results but is a worrier) .My ds currently doing GCSE has spld, he would be baffled by the letter, his tutor is working hard at keeping him as laid back as possible do that he doesn't panic in the exams and gives himself the best chance.If he is stressed he most certainly is not trying to pass it on to his students .

Just to add I have taken many exams in my life and small notecards are the most useless things for me ever , mind mapping is definitely the way to go!

So what if the school has?

Would you take any notice of what teachers say about supporting you previously, when the was weird a letter basically saying that they are now responsible for his health and well being and stress levels as well as the poor running of the school the next few weeks as he is busy thinking about them and not doing his other jobs.

They don't need that and it makes a mockery of anything other teachers have said. They will feel they are letting the whole school down.

Dear HT
Your are a patronising twat.
Yours Sincerely
Nocoment's DD1

(Also a mostly B grade student with a SLD).

DD2 (first GCSE on Tuesday) said " well, why is he dumping his stress about league tables onto the pupils? And what a waste of paper, doesn't he know that's bad for the environment?". If she'd been given that from her current HT (new this year, still finding her feet with how to talk in a non-patronising way to Y11s), she'd have come home, brandished it at me and said "look what she's come up with now! How does she think thats' going to help us?" and binned it. Alternatively, if it had been bad day for her health-wise, she'd have burst into tears because the school reckoned she was going to fail everything and so it wasn't worth even trying .

I'd be worried about the HT's health (physical and mental) tbh.

DD1 decided she needed some English revision, here is her actual reply (hopefully without her dyslexic spelling) she scribbled it on paper.

Dear HT

I am currently wondering if you eere ever a child or are a genetic clone that started life as a 30 year old.

You can be worried about your students exams. However you don't need to write them a letter on a bank holiday Monday and send it to Y10.

I am in Y11 and in answer to your questions:

Have/are you revising?
No I'm writing a complaint to you, I didn't start full revision till Easter of Y11

Are your revision notes complete?
NO

Are you testing yourself?
Occasionally with bitesize

Have you reduced your notes to cards?
Some for this week.

Do you know if you can write fast enough?
I don't know, probably not, thats why I get extra time!

Have you considered exam marking is gettig harder?
Yes, I swear at them constantly.

Do I ignore my friends, lying and saying they have done nothing?
No, I know some of my friends have done nothing for RE tomorrow.

My future doesn't rest on these results, only your schools oustanding OFSTED does!

Bringing inschool doesn't guarantee success.
School planning our lessons well and not leaving it all up to us helps a lot.

Thank you for listerning and I hope you'll agree when you´re so overstressed from over work you have to leave,

Yours a human being.

PS no I haven't been to all the revision classes I was rehearsing for the school play.