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So this is coming from the sites I've been floating at recently (not my regular site)
Quick bg: I work for an after-school care provider as a floater, meaning I can be at different schools every week. At the moment I have one regular shift (my "regular site") and the remaining two are floating shifts.
It's a CHOICE, not forced upon them!
This came from one of the schools, which has a VERY small group, almost to the point of being single-staffed some days. I rocked up early so I could find my way around and met the manager of that site. Nice lady. She then informs me about her usual Friday practice, which was to provide a movie for those kids that wanted it. However, one parent flipped out and believed that the kids were being FORCED to watch a movie with no other choices available. Needless to say, instead of raising it with the manager on-site, they went ABOVE her and complained to the regional person. As a result, she is no longer allowed to put movies on.
And the kids during the day do the same things...?
This came from another school where this particular child was the reason for me being there as opposed to another staff member. I'll sum up his behaviour in one word: unpredictable. He would occasionally throw tantrums, throwing everything around the room where possible. He has also kicked things and broken things (including at home). He also appears to have a problem with the manager on-site (he didn't have a problem with me though, so we suspect it's not a "he hates women" thing).
The parents are also divorced with the story that dad had a really bad temper and the child in question saw some things that were inappropriate. This of course, has resulted in the following expectations/excuses from the child's mother:
1. He's meant to be entertained from the moment he walks in the door (during school holidays, this isn't an issue because the kids are entertained from the moment they walk in. It's during the school term that this is an issue.) and that he shouldn't have to go through routines and such.
2. He's only young. (there are several kindergarten students who have no problem following the routine)
3. He's been cooped up at school all day. (So have the rest of the children)
4. He's been through trauma (while that may be true, there is THERAPY for that! And if you are sending your child to a low-fee private school, surely you can afford to send him to a therapist! Also I'm not sure that traumatic children squeal at their friends and bang on the windows after school)
We also suspect that mum may have a role in this, as he has been known to throw tantrums when she (and ONLY) she rocks up, but has minimal issues with his grandmother (who picks him up). From what we understand, the mother is also refusing to send the child to therapy or if the child is going through therapy, we are not aware of it. (in other words, communication fail!)
Well at least YOU recognised it
Over at another school, there is one child who's a bit older than the child mentioned above. He's been described as "not fitting in" with the ethos of said school, but evidently the parents wanted to send him to the school. Either way, he displayed some anger issues. It took a term and a half before the parents finally figured they'd send him along to therapy and he appears to have improved as a result.
Yes, it is her responsibility!
This one is not from either school, but something going around of late. A parent complained that a child had lost an item of clothing. At primary school age this is VERY common, with hats, jumpers, drink bottles and other items often getting "lost". In this case, it was her shoes. Now, we are VERY strict on the wearing of shoes for OHS reasons: that is, shoes on at ALL times. Including sandpit, gym and indoors.
Somehow, kid loses her shoes. Does the parent?
a) blame the child for taking her shoes off in the first place and help her find them?
b) follow up about the lost shoes to see if there was something malicious that happened? (ie shoes were hidden as a prank)
c) Blame the program and/or school for losing said shoes and insist that it's their responsibility for her items of clothing?
If you picked c) congratulations, you are the parent mentioned above! Also lost shoes and other items of clothing are a fact of primary school life and they WILL happen. Otherwise, don't send your kid to school with incredibly expensive shoes!
wtf?
All I know about this one (from regular site) is that a parent opted to abuse a child for an incident that happened at school. Now we require that the parents go and sign their child out first THEN go and pick up their kid instead of previous instances where the parent picks up the kid then signs them out.
Finally
Just a friendly note to parents: we run on mobile phones primarily as management are often floating between sites (My state managers are awesome!). If a phone cuts out in the middle of a call and they don't respond immediately, it is NOT because they don't care. It is more than likely that they are floating to another site and want you to actually respond, particularly if you are screening calls.
Anyway, that's the stories I have so far.
Quick bg: I work for an after-school care provider as a floater, meaning I can be at different schools every week. At the moment I have one regular shift (my "regular site") and the remaining two are floating shifts.
It's a CHOICE, not forced upon them!
This came from one of the schools, which has a VERY small group, almost to the point of being single-staffed some days. I rocked up early so I could find my way around and met the manager of that site. Nice lady. She then informs me about her usual Friday practice, which was to provide a movie for those kids that wanted it. However, one parent flipped out and believed that the kids were being FORCED to watch a movie with no other choices available. Needless to say, instead of raising it with the manager on-site, they went ABOVE her and complained to the regional person. As a result, she is no longer allowed to put movies on.
And the kids during the day do the same things...?
This came from another school where this particular child was the reason for me being there as opposed to another staff member. I'll sum up his behaviour in one word: unpredictable. He would occasionally throw tantrums, throwing everything around the room where possible. He has also kicked things and broken things (including at home). He also appears to have a problem with the manager on-site (he didn't have a problem with me though, so we suspect it's not a "he hates women" thing).
The parents are also divorced with the story that dad had a really bad temper and the child in question saw some things that were inappropriate. This of course, has resulted in the following expectations/excuses from the child's mother:
1. He's meant to be entertained from the moment he walks in the door (during school holidays, this isn't an issue because the kids are entertained from the moment they walk in. It's during the school term that this is an issue.) and that he shouldn't have to go through routines and such.
2. He's only young. (there are several kindergarten students who have no problem following the routine)
3. He's been cooped up at school all day. (So have the rest of the children)
4. He's been through trauma (while that may be true, there is THERAPY for that! And if you are sending your child to a low-fee private school, surely you can afford to send him to a therapist! Also I'm not sure that traumatic children squeal at their friends and bang on the windows after school)
We also suspect that mum may have a role in this, as he has been known to throw tantrums when she (and ONLY) she rocks up, but has minimal issues with his grandmother (who picks him up). From what we understand, the mother is also refusing to send the child to therapy or if the child is going through therapy, we are not aware of it. (in other words, communication fail!)
Well at least YOU recognised it
Over at another school, there is one child who's a bit older than the child mentioned above. He's been described as "not fitting in" with the ethos of said school, but evidently the parents wanted to send him to the school. Either way, he displayed some anger issues. It took a term and a half before the parents finally figured they'd send him along to therapy and he appears to have improved as a result.
Yes, it is her responsibility!
This one is not from either school, but something going around of late. A parent complained that a child had lost an item of clothing. At primary school age this is VERY common, with hats, jumpers, drink bottles and other items often getting "lost". In this case, it was her shoes. Now, we are VERY strict on the wearing of shoes for OHS reasons: that is, shoes on at ALL times. Including sandpit, gym and indoors.
Somehow, kid loses her shoes. Does the parent?
a) blame the child for taking her shoes off in the first place and help her find them?
b) follow up about the lost shoes to see if there was something malicious that happened? (ie shoes were hidden as a prank)
c) Blame the program and/or school for losing said shoes and insist that it's their responsibility for her items of clothing?
If you picked c) congratulations, you are the parent mentioned above! Also lost shoes and other items of clothing are a fact of primary school life and they WILL happen. Otherwise, don't send your kid to school with incredibly expensive shoes!
wtf?
All I know about this one (from regular site) is that a parent opted to abuse a child for an incident that happened at school. Now we require that the parents go and sign their child out first THEN go and pick up their kid instead of previous instances where the parent picks up the kid then signs them out.
Finally
Just a friendly note to parents: we run on mobile phones primarily as management are often floating between sites (My state managers are awesome!). If a phone cuts out in the middle of a call and they don't respond immediately, it is NOT because they don't care. It is more than likely that they are floating to another site and want you to actually respond, particularly if you are screening calls.
Anyway, that's the stories I have so far.
(we do get some preschool kids in a couple of days per week)
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