To think Primary schools should ask less of parents?

(139 Posts)
wonderstuff Thu 16-May-13 12:00:44

Supporting education is vital, reading, supporting maths, spelling homework in general I'm cool with.

But today I got an email that requests next Thursday I dress dd in a green top and brown trousers so she looks like a tree, all the children are having a tree themed muffty day. They are having an Eco day, guest speakers all fantastic stuff, it's a great school, but short notice, very specific requests like this are frustrating dd doesn't have a green top, I am fortunate in having the means to go get her one, but it seems a real imposition.

AIBU to be annoyed by this?

CloudsAndTrees Thu 16-May-13 16:33:05

Most dress up things are annoying, especially when the children gain very little from it.

It's fine for plays and I had no problem when my children had to be dressed as evacuees for a thing they were doing, but crap like dressing like a tree is just pointless. And it's not as if they are even going to end up looking like sodding trees anyway!

topcatrocks Thu 16-May-13 16:50:29

Boffin - the school's actions are disgraceful. All parents should be clearly informed of financial arrangements, especially if they're subsidising others without knowing it (obviously the children should be kept in the dark about whose parents are "richer" or "poorer").

TattyDevine Thu 16-May-13 19:03:50

Totally with you on the mufti days. But headteacher is meh about non themed muftis. She says she likes the "incidental learning" that happens when you dress in theme. Also, she has a theory that all pupils go loony on mufti days. I'm sure they do. As loony as any other day. Or loonier, but for £££. Gah.

TattyDevine Thu 16-May-13 19:04:46

PTA been campaigning for a straightforward mufti since last Sept when I joined. Also want nail painting, tattoos and hairspraying at fete due to lack of (free) facepainter.

TattyDevine Thu 16-May-13 19:05:51

All this to make up money for spending last year on a reading system that isn't older than we are. I know people hate PTA but that's really what they do...apparently they have just enough money to pay the teachers and keep the building from crumbling hmm

ninah Thu 16-May-13 19:21:35

I teach, and I agree with mb. What does it add? strange fashion dreamed up by a certain kind of SLT who think it makes school look 'creative' and fun ..
I hate dressing up and if you think the dc have it bad be grateful as an adult you aren't required to go to work in a pirate suit
(forgot I had this on and went into corner shop, was asked 'are you local?' grin)
I love the film bad teacher, it parodies this kind of thing

ChewingOnLifesGristle Thu 16-May-13 19:24:08

shock @ Boffin's post. Just. Unbelievable.

Dd1 is now in yr 9 and incredibly (apart from the occasional 'wear what you want' day) the school do not harrass us for anything, do not keep throwing random fancy dress up days and basically just get on with the job of sticking to the point and just teach.

After primary school where none of that applied I'm wondering how they do it tbh. Because Primary give the impression that they cannot make a single move without any of that malarkyhmm

Can't wait for yr6 to be over for dd2 so that all this madness (including SATS) will blissfully end. I thought some weeks ago that we might, just might have had the final dress up day, but ooh nooo they're managing to squeeze in at least 2 more before July. Not to mention (no doubt) a costume for the school play.

I can only assume that the people that keep throwing dress up missives my way do not really understand the reality of their expectations. 3 dc through the primary system and I am waving a feeble white flag of surrender. I have a cynical suspicion that an over fondness for dressing up days is really just an Ofsted brownie point scoring exercisehmm because the default for every single blimmin thing they do is to dress up for it/as it no matter how bizarre or abstract the topic. My dc got sick of it ages ago.

Cakecrumbsinmybra Thu 16-May-13 19:29:45

I too am really shock at that boffin!!

AWimbaWay Thu 16-May-13 19:53:25

What NoisesOff said, not very Eco at all for a load of parents to go out buying clothing they neither need nor want.

Am also truly shocked by Boffin's post.

BoffinMum Thu 16-May-13 20:11:37

Well I pulled my youngest out of the school because of that and related crap (eldest was about to leave anyway). Youngest spent his days on a 'thick kids' table with an unqualified member of staff and could not write at eight, because the classroom teachers had demanded lower ratios for themselves and this was a way of reducing numbers. Moved him up the road and he was writing beautifully in a month and went on to get level 5 in his SATS. Star pupil. Said it all, really.

What makes me really cross is that I had been buying those bloody teachers Christmas presents. What a fool I was! total and utter fool!

BoffinMum Thu 16-May-13 20:14:06

LOL at looking minted though! grin

loopydoo Thu 16-May-13 20:16:05

I can sort of understand infant pupils dressing up but anything older than that is defo overkill. Poor kids and poor parents.

IsThisAGoodIdea Thu 16-May-13 20:23:25

I don't remember any of this when I was at school yet, amazingly, we still managed to learn stuff, pass exams and have a whole heap of fun along the way.

But then we didn't dress up in general. Parties didn't have princess/pirate themes and we didn't get dragged round Tesco dressed up as Spiderman or waiting tutus. It seems fancy-dress is much more common now so maybe children expect it.

IsThisAGoodIdea Thu 16-May-13 20:24:41

Tbh, the dressing up wouldn't bother me as much as all the science/craft projects I read about on here. I dread all that!

TattyDevine Thu 16-May-13 20:25:09

Gotta piss on that Mulberry and hide the rolex in the glove compartment if the Lotus if it fits yeah grin

TattyDevine Thu 16-May-13 20:26:13

Or get Harlequin to use the Mulberry as a sick bag wink

marriedinwhiteagain Thu 16-May-13 20:27:56

I once suggested that instead of paying a pound to dress up/mufti days, working parents paid somewhere between two and five pounds not to participate. I think the head teacher's lips are still engaged with the cat's anus !! But, it would have been cheaper for many parents and would have raised more money.

loopydoo Thu 16-May-13 20:30:14

Yep isthisagoodidea, totally agree. Our parties used to consist of wearing our only best dress and playing party games and eating sandwiches, jelly and cake. Then we went home. But we thought that was great.....expectations from kids are way above normal these days....

I reckon the whole dressing up thing has come over from the US. They dress up more as kids over there.

ChewingOnLifesGristle Thu 16-May-13 20:37:06

I think it's just an easy quick way to show 'what a great school we are' when it's actually the parents that facillitate it.

It just looks like the school are doing something when they're not. Smoke and mirrors.

DontmindifIdo Thu 16-May-13 20:41:42

I particularly hate that we get these for DS's nursery, it's a nursery, where the parents use it to work - they know they are asking households where both parents work outside the home ot get these short notice outfits.

OP - to make it easier/cheaper, you'll probably find brown trousers and green t-shirts or polo shirts in the boys sections - try supermarkets rather than spending a lot. (For pre-school boys there seems to be a lot of green and brown in Sainsburys, haven't looked in the older sections but guess it seems to be a reaction to the 'bored of blue' so many parents have mentioned to them)

Wallison Thu 16-May-13 20:59:35

marriedinwhiteagain that is a genius suggestion. I would happily give 2 or 3 pounds or even a fiver over to the school rather than having to spend my lunch hour frantically looking through shops for whatever fucking dressing up clothes the school has decreed I buy "to raise money for charity" (raise money for Marks and Spencer more like ffs).

Oh and if anyone else's school has a 'wear something spotty' day for Comic Sodding Relief I can save you the bother of looking for boys' stuff now by telling you that there are NO spotty boys' clothes in any shops, ever.

CloudsAndTrees Thu 16-May-13 21:13:53

The last two times my children have been made to wear something spotty I have just gone to WHSmith and bought a packet of their little spot stickers, then covered normal clothes with them.

Wallison Thu 16-May-13 21:19:09

That is a good idea! I have blu-tacked cut-out paper circles onto t-shirts but will do the stickers next time. Why didn't I think of that before? [slaps forehead]

buildingmycorestrength Thu 16-May-13 21:23:21

Spots with face paints.

OP, if you have face paints maybe paint a tree on their face. Or something?

idiuntno57 Thu 16-May-13 21:25:45

my Ds's school is obsessed with dressing up. Kids win prizes for best costumes etc.

I believe it is part of their war against working mum's.

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