At lunchtime the phone rang. Oh pants it school. What’s happened now? Bizarrely at the other end was a very official sounding Son

“Who am I speaking to”

Son, it’s me.

“Can you confirm that I am speaking to Mr XXXX XXXXXXXX”

Yes son, it’s me.

“Can you confirm that that is you.”

Yes this is your useless Dad.

I am going to ask you a question to confirm this. What did I have for breakfast”

Son you would be brilliant working in a call centre. You had 2 slices of toast, a waffle, raspberries and blueberries. Washed down with an orange juice.

“What colour plate did I use”

White and blue. (In the background I could hear the school teacher saying – come on lad it’s your dad)

“What colour cup”

Red

“Ok Dad the whole school has to spend an extra hour in school tonight to help set up the classes. Unbelievable. I am going to speak to my lawyer about this outrage. Bus will be late. Goodbye”

***********************************

The battle recommences.

So the hope of a new schooling approach didn’t last very long. Basically 6 hours. Son’s been kept down in the bottom set while a number of other kids got moved up. Some of the kids went up in all subjects, others went up in one or two subjects. No explanation from school just the Form Tutor handing out paper timetables with the sets on. His last Form Tutor (who has unfortunately left) confirmed his test and class performance merited moving up sets – at the very least in his three best subjects. We have kids with lower grades in higher sets than our son. Sadly the assumption has to be that he’s been kept down due to his dyslexia. The galling thing is that in today’s bottom set lessons he received again absolutely no help with his reading. So he’s marked down for dyslexia but then doesn’t receive any assistance. Setup to fail.

If that wasn’t enough his new Form Tutor and most of his new subject teachers appear to be the strictest in the school. So much for making learning fun. Plus the teachers he really connected with have either left or have been removed from his teaching programme.

If we are looking for an upside the best it gets is

“Well Dad at least I didn’t get a negative on the first day”

Nothing like positive reinforcement to encourage a bit of educational development….

Deep sigh.

Across all the lands how many other kids are being subjected to this crap. Too many. I heard a news item about another school where a 11 year old girl who had been excluded from class because her trousers did not quite cover her ankles.

Really.

After all these years how can we still get education so very wrong. Probably the same reason that with all the gifted and genuinely dedicated people we have in this country we end up being led by someone as awful as Boris Johnson.

73 thoughts on “Call from school”

  4. So frustrating. The teachers, the system need to make amends so ALL kids are set up to succeed. I do have to say, I smiled at your son’s phone conversation with you this morning 🙂

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  7. No T.A. for my granddaughter for the first 2 weeks, and then when it happens, not the one she has had, who is still there. All new teachers and a new T.A. at some point. She is supposed to work with her, but ends up for the whole class.

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      3. Lol I wish I was, my mum is very sick in hospital aged 94 and had to be resuscitated twice on Tuesday. Hubby has bad chest infection, i am the only one who is akright lol 😀. And that’s not saying much is it. But as soon as we can we will be going shopping 😀

        Liked by 2 people

  10. Oh no. Heartsick for you. I m so glad your son has you on his side. You will get him through. The best teacher doesn’t make up for a bad parent. If it has to be one or the other, it is great he has such a smart and understanding dad.

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      9. Well, it is certainly not “sneaking up” on the Americans, Trump is only trying to hide some of his machinations. But everyone is afraid of the bully. He is one who needs a bigger bully to slay him.

        Liked by 2 people

  15. So not only do they give him less improved education than previous years they make him and his mates do the work the school is supposed to do on top of that??

    I’m curious as to why it was necessary to bring your son to the office to telephone you and not have the secretary ring all the parents him/herself??? Less arguments from the parents perhaps?? Maybe the secretary does not get paid enough to handle that sort of crap??

    Won’t be long before the 19th century workhouses return at this rate. 😦

    I don’t know how you two retain your senses of humour – but i’m very glad that you do! 🙂

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  21. I absolutely cannot fathom how this happens. Tember is in the new middle school he started there last year. Very open concept. Hallways divided between 5’s have their own, 6’s have their own and 7 & 8 share. The goal is to teach how the child learns. No homework given. Really good with contacting parents. Always looking to help. I know last year Tember had difficulty settling and instead of making him go to school when he said he was not feeling well I allowed him to stay home. Let’s just say it happened too many times and I received an email asking if everything was alright at home and was there anything that they could do to help. Tember had an issue with one teacher who after I sent a note asking for an explanation that teacher called. She apologized to me. She apologized to Tember. And we had a really good talk about what could be done to make Tember more settled and comfortable. Granted it took until almost the end of the year for him to settle but it looks like this year is going to be better. School is still boring but he made a new friend. The other class clown apparently. And EA’s are huge here. Going into the classroom with them. We (work) provides those with different abilities to get work experience. Granted we have some morons but I know how to deal with those ones. In the most polite manner. Putting them into the hot seat. He He He. I cannot understand how Britain can be so ass backward in regards to education. Having some of the oldest and apparently best schools is no good to anyone if they do not pull themselves out of the dark ages and fall headlong into the year 2019. Sorry another book from me but grrrrrrrrrrrrr your school system drives me batty.

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  22. It is a shame when good teachers leave. My daughter just got dropped two sets in maths, but she recognised this might actually help her in the long run. Boris will not last long, and will be remembered only as a buffoon and Cummings’ puppet.

    Liked by 1 person

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  24. Argh! I’m so sorry. I hate seeing my profession behaving like that.
    I do love his response though, your son sounds like an absolute dude.

    It’s not much, but I have some resources that might help him in a couple of subjects if you wanted to drop me a message. If nothing else, perhaps I can convince him that there are teachers (albeit now tutors in my case) still rock up on the final day of half term with energy & love for all the kids… even if that is 95% coffee based.

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