Has the teacher been a bit over the top in her report assessment

[treas]

Ds is a well behaved hard working Yr8 student who puts a lot of time and effort into all of his homework regardless of the subject.

One subject he does the teacher has told us that she considers him 'gifted and talented' in (pointless label I know) as he has produced GCSE level work and has always had top marks.

Ds's monitoring report has come back with this subject teacher stating that his homework is a 'cause for concern'.

At parent consultation evening we were informed that ds had not handed in 2 pieces of homework.

1/ A powerpoint presentation, which he had taken in on a dvd but there had been an 'IT issue' and the teacher had not been able to retrieve the work. Ds on coming home immediately burnt a new disc and returned it the next day but was unable to hand it in as he wasn't being taught the subject that day (teacher's decision, not his).

2/ Ds was one 13 out of 20 children who had misinterpreted the teacher's instructions and had revised how to do something rather than show how to do it on paper.

As a result he had a lunch time detention. At the time I thought it a little unfair as there was an obvious communication error between the teacher and pupils, but so be it.

So now my ds has a black mark on his report that will go up to his next school for things that I see as unfortunate incidents not totally down to ds, rather than blatantly not doing any homework.

Have to admit that I'm annoyed mainly because the teacher basically called ds a liar for telling me that the majority of children in the class had done the same as him for homework incident 2 and had to have a detention. 13/20 children to me is the majority of the class and I could see in her marking book the long column of red marks to back his statement.


So was the teacher a little heavy handed? And should we raise a query?

Ds of course feels it unfair as there are other children who don't appear to be punished for not doing homework at all.

Sorry so long, didn't want to drip feed.

[joanbyers]

Is he at a middle school or a prep school? Just curious why he is in y8 and you are thinking about a next school?

[Kez100]

No, I wouldnt complain. That's the way the cookie crumbles. Homework wasn't done (for whatever reason - you only have one side of the story).

These things happen and sometimes teachers make mistakes (other times parents get an embellished story from the student). Have to go through with it though as its dangerous to undermine the teachers authority.

[cory]

I think you're overinterpreting. A black mark in his report isn't like a criminal record that is going to follow him forever. Can you imagine a future employer/university/whatever actually wanting to know?

But if you teach him to have a chip on his shoulder and worry in case other people don't get as punished as he does, then that attitude could follow him a long way and make his life difficult.

Your job is to teach him the difference between real injustices, which it is the duty of every citizen to fight, and the minor annoyances of life, for which you use your sense of humour.

fwiw dd had lots of totally untruthful statements on her junior school reports- and some that would put the legality of the school in question of anyone ever bothered to read them. They don't.

Me, I wouldn't be worrying so much about undermining the teacher's authority- but I would be worrying in case I was encouraging an attitude of touchiness and feeling-hard-done-by which could do my child harm in the future. -Never mind, dear, is a very useful phrase.

[annh]

A black mark on his report? Really? How detailed do you think the reports which go to the next school will be for two errors in one subject in the first term of Yr 8 to follow him through his school career? You are overthinking this.

[treas]

joanbyers middle school - three tier system

Kez100 - have already gone through with it when he was punished with a detention. Actually ds not one for embellishment and a very honest child - too honest for his own good sometimes.

cory - Ds completely oblivious to our annoyance. As for fostering any hard done by feels, forget it, we're a tough get on with it family.

[trinity0097]

Things like suspensions will get carried into the next school, and internal detention for homework will not be relevant to the next school. They will not care one bit, or even know!

[noblegiraffe]

Next school will probably not even look at his report, let alone care that he had one low mark on an otherwise glowing report.

They have hundreds of kids to worry about, some with real issues.

[treas]

noblegiraffe - no need to be patronising

[noblegiraffe]

Sorry, but this really isn't anything to get worked up about.

[treas]

noblegiraffe - not worked up so much as annoyed and just wanted no know if people thought the teacher had been heavy handed with her assessment.

[Kez100]

You also asked if you should raise a query. My answer, no, you should let it go, as you are a tough get on with it family.

[treas]

Kez100 - did you mean to sound quite so rude

[annh]

Treas that put-down really only works outside MN, not here where it was invented!

[diabolo]

I understand your concerns OP and not sure why you seems to be getting a tough time.

I work in a middle school with good friends in the Upper school we feed - I promise that unless your DC is a serious trouble maker with exclusions and / or behavioural problems - they won't be advised about this.

We certainly don't copy our reports to the upper school and I can't imagine many other schools having the time or resources to that either.

[purits]

Have to go through with it though as its dangerous to undermine the teachers authority.

Care to explain that further?

[Kez100]

The context matters here. The matter in question is 'should my son have been given a cause for concern homework grade?'. Teachers are tasked with this subjective assessment. It is their remit. A parent, or child, can privately choose to think 'in our opinion they were wrong' on this occassion but to actively query such a minor assessment gives an impression to the child that every battle should be fought. And to fight one so subjective too, is not a calculated move. Battles should be carefully chosen and some things in life, let go, move on. One day, you may need that Teacher to go the extra mile.

[NotQuintAtAllOhNo]

No, the assessment was in my opinion fair.

1st homework.
Your son had not managed to find out how the work was supposed to be delivered in a way that it could be retrieved. Should it be emailed? Burn a dvd or a cd - how to do so to make it compatible with the schools systems, ie what format or version, or on a USB stick? The subject was IT and even my 11 year old boy would find out how to hand his soft copies in before bringing anything in to school.

2nd homework.
He misunderstood and did it wrong, plain and simple.

What your son needs to learn from this is research how his homework should be done and what is expected.

[PropositionJoe]

Yes the teacher might have been a tiny bit heavy handed. No, you should leave it.

[cory]

"cory - Ds completely oblivious to our annoyance. As for fostering any hard done by feels, forget it, we're a tough get on with it family. "

There is your answer.

[treas]

annh - tongue was firmly in cheek when typing that, but it does feel good saying it

NotQuintAtAllOhNo - actually homework 1 was a continuation of a previous powerpoint, not IT, so ds had handed it in once already on the dvd and it had been retrieved ok by the teacher. He then had to add to the original powerpoint and saved it in the same way. This time teacher was unable to retrieve the work. So ds's research was fine.

homework 2 - 13 out of a class of 20 did the same as ds, so over 50% got the wrong end of the stick, which suggests the teacher had not communicated her instructions in the best way.

[treas]

Since starting this post I have found out from ds that the teacher concerned walked out in the middle of the parents consulation, leaving the parents of a child who had told her their child was not enjoying her lessons stranded.

Unfortunately, I don't think we are the only parents who have had concerns (minor though ours were).

Think the school are best off looking into things themselves and giving the teacher the support she needs.

[noblegiraffe]

Perhaps playground gossip isn't the best way to assess if a teacher is any good or not.

[treas]

noblegiraffe - no but personal experience and history with a teacher sure goes a long way.

[LondonMother]

I think I may be living in a parallel universe. If I had told my parents that I didn't enjoy Miss X's lessons I would have got no sympathy at all. Some lessons are enjoyable, many aren't. They aren't there to have fun, they're there to learn.

Different, of course, if the reason the kid isn't enjoying the lessons is because Miss X is picking on him [bends over backwards to see both sides of the question - slips disc...]