Minimus has a new head teacher, the old one retired at Christmas. The new one just happens to be the wife of an idiot Head of Sixth Form at the THW's old school ~ he and I have a long record of argument. Looks like his wife and I are about to embark on a similar exchange of correspondence.
Tonight (end of first week of her first term in charge) she has sent home a news letter detailing all the things she intends to change. One in particular is that she plans to revoke the rule that says "When the Red Flag is Flying on the School Field Children must remain on the Tarmac Playground" ~ a perfectly reasonable way to keep the children clean when the field is muddy and having the double advantage of keeping the grass in reasonable condition for when better weather prevails. This rule was instigated some years ago and has worked perfectly.
She has also announced that some building work will be carried out over the next few months.
I have therefore written to her:
Many thanks for the two newsletters sent home this evening.
I note that you intend to rescind the existing rules and allow the children to “play on the school field at break times”. To facilitate this we are requested to supply an “old pair of trainers”, presumably to wear in the mud patch (which is what your field will soon become). I do, of course, see the point of not wanting all those muddy feet in the school but a couple of observations regarding this:
Children seldom have old trainers. Either they have new ones or they have trainers that they have outgrown. This means that we are now being asked to provide not only black shoes to wear when in uniform and a pair of trainers for PE and Games but two pairs of trainers. Since their feet tend to grow a size a term that equates to three pairs of shoes/trainers to be purchased each term. In these straightened times you have, at a stroke, asked us to add 1/3 to the termly cost of footwear for school.
I note that you have made no provision for the fact that they will now be leaving school each evening in nice clean black shoes beneath mud streaked trousers. Now that will really improve the image of the school. Your expectation (implied) that every evening parents will be happy to either have a pair of black trousers to wash, dry and iron, shortening their life to probably less than a term per pair, or choose to send the child back to school the following day in a muddy uniform frankly beggars belief. Don’t tell me that the mud will brush off once dry as experience has shown that whilst the mud will indeed dry overnight it and the accompanying grass stains will not be removable unless soap and water are applied.
Frankly I cannot see the logic in changing the perfectly operable “Red Flag means don’t play on the grass” system which has worked so well hitherto ~ unless it is to facilitate the use of the tarmac area of playground for the anticipated storage of builder’s equipment etc.
As you are an experienced teacher of many years standing and the parent of two boys I would have thought you could see the obvious problems you will be causing parents by this decision and I ask that you reconsider the matter, bearing in mind the foregoing observations. I do not want to be collecting a mud bespattered child each evening, nor do I want the continued aggravation of lost/stolen or strayed trainers. I am aware that such a system is in use at another school locally and the amount of lesson time wasted in changing in and out of shoes each break time could, in my opinion, be put to better educational use. This household has that particular tee-shirt and it is just one of the many reasons my son was enrolled in XXXXXXX Junior School….. It had a good reputation for using common sense in such matters.
Obviously I do not wish my son to be singled out for special consideration/treatment and if you decide to go ahead with this plan he will be provided with an additional pair of trainers in order that he may play with his classmates but frankly I felt obliged to comment and I know from the conversations overheard as parents collected their offspring and read the letters thrust into their hands at the gate this evening that I am not the only one who feels that this is not a good idea.
I foresee a long battle through to next July when he will be leaving the school and thought it best to get my opening shots in early
