Concerned about DD being a school office 'runner'

[NotMondayAgain]

Hi all, I just found out that later this week DD is going to be a runner for the school office for a whole day. She is in yr 8 and said all yr 8 children are made to do this for one day and they miss all lessons that day and instead do their homework or reading when they are not running errands.

I saw the headteachers last week at a school meeting and asked him about it. He admitted the reason is that they do not have enough staff to run messages around etc so they make the kids in yr 8bdonit onebday each.

I feel quite angry about my DD not learning anything for a day. Headteachers loads of schools do this and it is normal. Is he right?

Thanks

I manned the school phone in year 6 when something happened to both the receptionists on very short notice. I did two afternoons and my best friend did the morning shifts. The postman was a bit surprised to find a child running the office. I think the head did the morning rush and end of day. It was a tiny rural primary. It was fricking ace! My mum phoned just to say hello and see how I was getting on and she was extremely proud of my professionalism apparently. And now my current school has year 8 runners. They love it.

It might be my children's school. I think it's good for them as an introduction to work experience and as a contribution to the school community. It does no harm in Year 8.

It's nothing to be concerned about. Most middle and comp schools have a daily runner.

At secondary school it's normal for children to be told about things rather than a letter being sent to parents about absolutely everything they do.

I just asked my year 8. He has no idea about it . Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.

My son would love it .

I did this over 20yrs ago!

1 week tea and coffee duty at breaks making drinks and selling homemade cakes to the teachers. Any profit we made was ours.

1 week school reception duty at lunchtimes, inc answering phones and meeting visitors.

Aged 11/12 I think it was. Maybe 12/13. Anyway we used to bloody love doing it.

Yep we did it in year 9. You had to go and ask for work from your class teachers so you had stuff to do if it was quiet.

Everyone loved that day! We were called runners too.

My school had something called responsibility desk that all the year 7s and 8s had to take shifts at. It was basically the same as the runner, 2 pupils would miss lessons to sit at a desk beside the main office and we had to run errands and carry messages around. We only did it for half a day though rather than missing the whole day of lessons. 2 people would do the morning shift and 2 would do the afternoon.

Also that the headteacher didn't just tell me it's because they don't have enough office staff.

He probably wanted to see how long it took for that explanation to get round to the other parents ...

Oh for crying out loud.

My dc's school did this, all the children took turns over the course of the year.

I actually think it is a good thing. It gives them responsibility. I think at dc's school they did things like collect all the registers as well as taking messages and delivering stuff. My dd even made the Head a cup of tea on the day it was her turn, and she was really proud of that.

We did this at my school and it's 50 years since I left! We loved it because we felt we were being treated like responsible almost-adults. We got to do a variety of tasks between our class work. Like others have said, we reported to class at the start of the lesson and were given work to take to a table we were stationed at.

@hiredandsqueak hahahaha that's brilliant. I wish I'd have thought of that. I did this in Y8 too and I loved it! My sister will do it next year when she's in y7 and she's already excited for it. My school did it alphabetically and I remember being really scared there won't be enough school days for me to have a go because my surname starts with T. Some kids didn't do it and were really sad.

I can remember doing that at school. I loved it! Its good for kids to feel grown-up and responsible.

My DDs school do this.

sounds ok. she'll still learn stuff. kind of like work experience? good for her to do something different, talk to different people id have thought. i wouldn't mind.

depressing we fund our schools so poorly ofc but is unlikely to be harmful to your child.

I think we should remember that a school is a community, and actually, students learning how to represent their school and make contact with the public is no bad thing.

Good to take some responsibility.
Schools are communities; people should support their community.

Anyone objecting is voting for parties that promise to raise taxes, right?

Good office experience

I’ve never heard of it although I don’t think one day is such a bad thing to miss.

Here everyone has an online login on the computers in the room and messages go between pretty much like instant messaging within the software. Everything is electronic. On the odd occasions the computers are down then it goes back to paper.

our school do it and they are called prefects. Dc love it. Its 1 day.

Maybe you should fund raise with the parents to be able to pay for another member of staff?

Don't think it does any harm. I know someone who wrote in asking for her DD not to do it because she would be anxious walking into a classroom full of older kids. In my view exactly the reason she needed to do that job for a day, but some people would rather reinforce their children's notion that they are not capable of doing things than boost them and believe in them until they discover they can.
To the posters asking why they don't email teachers, clearly you have never been a teacher. You don't have time to read emails while teaching unless you have a very docile class! Little Johnny's mum who has arrived to take him to the dentist would be waiting a very long time in reception before the teacher had time to read the email summoning him. A runner is much more efficient.
I do agree though that students who are persistently absent shouldn't be allowed to be a runner.

I remember doing in year 8 too, almost 15 years ago now. We called it ‘office duty’ and did it in pairs, I think I got to do it two or three times in the year. We all loved it!

I work in a school that does this and it's brilliant. Some of the kids who don't do well in lessons are actually great at showing visitors around, doing little jobs for teachers etc and it's a great confidence boost for them. For others this will be more or less the only responsibility they have to write about on college applications.

Don't any of your think that they may learn something from it and that they may look forward to doing something different for the day. The responsibilities they have for the day may make them engaged to learn again and make them feel good about themselves.