How would you define truanting?

WillowTheWhisp · 10-05-2007, 13:35

Kids bunking off school to hang round town with their mates or swan off to the pictures?

According to one of the teachers at Moorhead truanting also covers trying to aim for a higher grade on your GCSE coursework by using a non GCSE PE lesson period last Friday, with the knowledge of a member of staff, to work on an academic GCSE subject which had a deadline that day.

WillowTheWhisp · 10-05-2007, 16:02

I would just like to express my appreciation of the PE teacher in question, Miss Lucas, who after discussion today with the teacher who did not obtain permission from her for Mimi to miss the class has apologised to me and to my daughter and has cancelled the detention. Just a pity the other teacher didn't take a leaf out of her book and apologise graciously instead of coming up with a myriad of excuses as to why she didn't consult the PE teacher. I would have admired her so much if she could only have simply said that it shouldn't have happened instead of all the fishing for sympathy as an overworked under appreciated victim of a terrible situation.

AccringtonsBarbie · 10-05-2007, 17:13

If she knew the deadline was coming up then its her own fault. I had deadlines at school and knew when they were. Not having a go at her/you.

mallard · 11-05-2007, 21:07

well it,s her own fault because she would reallise later in life what she should of been doing when she come,s to get a job.

WillowTheWhisp · 11-05-2007, 21:15

Mallard, please read my second post - the teacher who gave her the detention has actually apologised to my daughter and cancelled the detention once she had heard the full story from the other teacher. The other teacher had told my daughter that she had obtained permission on her behalf when she had not done so. Would you suggest that my daughter should have said to the teacher "I don't believe you. I'll go and ask her myself." Would it not be likely that if she had done that she would have been punished by the teacher for her insubordinate attitude?

Tin Monkey · 12-05-2007, 07:49

I think that this is more an indication of the amount of pressure teachers are under to get results. Education isn't about learning anymore, it's like any other result driven industry.

In response to your original question Willow, then strictly speaking, missing timetabled lessons to complete work for other subjects is truancy. Of course there are mitigating circumstances in this case.

WillowTheWhisp · 12-05-2007, 08:10

Thanks TM for actually answering the question - and for putting a different slant on things. I hadn't seen it that way before. Of course my daughter aiming for a higher grade than the pass level she already has would reflect well on the teacher of that subject in the end wouldn't it? Excellent point which had not occurred to me.

In reply to Mallard's reference to 'what she should of been doing when she come,s to get a job' (sic) look at it this way:
You work in an office.
There is a manager and an assistant manager.
The manager says to you 'On Monday I want job A completed'
Monday arrives and the assistant manager says 'I want you to complete job B.'
You reply that the manager told you last week that he/she wanted job A finishing on Monday.
The assistant manager says that job B is now a priority and to get on with that. He/she will OK it with the manager.
Do you refuse to do job B?
Do you insist on speaking to the manager yourself?
Or do you accept that the assistant manager has authority over you and that he/she will speak to the manager and explain why you are doing job B rather than job A?
If you defy the assistant manager and carry on with job A you might not only risk the wrath of the assistant manager but also the wrath of the manager who may not actually be aware that job B needed to be a priority when he/she had previously asked you to do job A.
If you had followed the instructions of your immediate superior and then been sacked for failing to complete job A don't you think you'd have a reasonably good defence at a tribunal?

Just something to think about.

As I've already said the PE teacher (who did not actually owe me or my daughter an apology as she had only acted on the information she had at the time) subsequently cancelled the punishment and apologised to both of us, and followed up with a further phone call to check if the other teacher had apologised to me. Now that particular PE teacher has gone way up in my estimation because she was able to reassess a situation when she had all the information to hand and admit that her original view had been clouded by misinformation provided by others.

Neil · 12-05-2007, 09:52

You job A and job B analogy is fine Willow but where and when should this coursework have been done? Is it supposed to be done at home or at school? If at school is there a fixed amount of time allowed to do it in?
You will have to excuse my ignorance of GCSE's and course work, when I was at school it was still GCE's where you sat an exam and there was no coursework as such involved.

WillowTheWhisp · 12-05-2007, 15:21

The coursework had actually been done Neil. She'd even been graded on it!

However, the teacher had said that if she did some extra work before the deadline of last Friday then she could get a higher grade. I have already tried to explain this.

She could have just shrugged it off said she couldn't be bothered and she would go with the grade she had already achieved. Plenty of kids would have done that and rested on their already acheived laurels but she was willing to give it an extra shot and aim higher.

This was within a short period of time and involved working during her own spare time (lunchtime, break time etc) as well as the lesson periods. She would have completed the work during any spare time on that day but it was suggested that as she wasn't doing PE for GCSE that she could do the work during that period.

She would have gone herself and asked her PE teacher's permission to do this but the other teacher told her that she would OK it with the PE teacher. The mistake my daughter made here was in trusting that the teacher would actually follow through and do so - but she didn't. My daughter was not aware that she hadn't done so until she received the detention for truanting from her PE teacher.

The PE teacher herself now fully understands the situation and since doing so does not blame my daughter and cancelled the detention so I am totally baffled here as to why several AccyWebbers feel they have more right to hold my daughter to blame than the PE teacher herself. My daughter was doing what a teacher had told her to do. She was doing it at a time when she was told to do it. If I can't explain it any better than that then I'm sorry.I really don't know how to make it any plainer.

flashy · 12-05-2007, 15:24

cant say as i ever truanted from school, i didnt need to, just used tinks as an excuse to get away, she'd tell me to push her down so we'd have to go to the hospital cos of her 'bruised' legs....of course we never went to the hospital, but we always had permission to leave school

by the way, i wasnt being tight, it was all her fault

....ask her

WillowTheWhisp · 12-05-2007, 15:54

The aim of my original question seems to have become lost in defending my daughter's attempt to improve on her GCSE coursework grade.

If I saw the word 'truant' on a student's report it would indicate to me a lazy person who shirks responsibility and not someone I would consider as a potential employee. If however, I saw a note that the student continued to strive for improvement above and beyond that already achieved I would have the totally opposite impression and see the person as someone keen and enthusiastic who I would be pleased to employ.

SamF · 12-05-2007, 17:37

You seem to be over-emphasising the extra work done. Everyone but the very bottom in ability/ambition does it, and normally well in time for any deadlines.

Neil · 12-05-2007, 18:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillowTheWhisp

The coursework had actually been done Neil. She'd even been graded on it!

However, the teacher had said that if she did some extra work before the deadline of last Friday then she could get a higher grade.

That just proves to me these GCSE's are not worth the paper they are written on. They appear to be very open to abuse and cheating.
She finished the work and handed it in and it was graded. The teacher then gave it back to her and said do some more and I will give you more marks.

Two points spring to mind.

1. If she thought she had done her best and finished the work then that is what she should be marked on - final, no extra chances.

2. Is what this teacher did allowed by the examining body? Are teachers allowed to accept completed work, then give it back and say well done, do a bit more and I will give you a better mark? What has happened just does not appear right to me.

What is the difference between a teacher telling her to do more work for a better mark after grading it already, or, the teacher telling pupils they have got some answers wrong in an exam and telling them to change them?