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Primary education

Showing work to the class

7 replies

magicmummy1 · 29/11/2010 19:01

DD (year 1) is bright, and doing well at school. She is always very eager, and has done a few particularly good pieces of written work recently, which her teacher has shown to the rest of the class - for example, reading out her story to the other children at storytime. The teacher has made a point of commenting to me about the same bits of work, and she does certainly write well for her age.

At first, I thought this was lovely - dd was clearly pleased and proud of her work. However, it seems to be happening quite frequently, and I have no idea if the teacher does this as regularly with other children's work or not. I don't want to ask dd about this directly, as I really don't want to encourage comparisons with other children.

If it is the teacher's habit to regularly share bits of good work from all of the children with the rest of the class, then I'm absolutely fine with that - it's a nice way of celebrating achievement and inspiring all of the kids to do their best. However, from little things that dd and other children have said, I am getting the impression that dd's work is getting singled out more than most, and I am not very comfortable with this at all.

I absolutely love her teacher, who has been brilliant in every other way, so I don't want to make a fuss unnecessarily and I may be barking up the wrong tree entirely anyway. Is there any way in which I can address this tactfully?

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Deelle · 29/11/2010 21:01

I havent a clue how you can address this im afraid - but I must warn you about it!
A similar thing happened to one of my DDs in yr 2 - in the end the teacher had her on a kind of pedestal - I helped out in the class once and when the teacher asked a question and no-one put their hand up she said - 'well I know who will know the answer' - all the class said my DDs name - needless to say she was bullied !!

Good luck

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magicmummy1 · 29/11/2010 22:23

Thanks Deelle. I don't think that the teacher has dd on any kind of pedestal or anything, but she does stand out in certain ways, and I really don't want this emphasised any more than it has to be.

I'm probably a bit over-sensitive about this, as I have a few unhappy memories from my own school days of being held out as "an example" to my peers, and it not going down particularly well with some of my friends. :(

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IndigoBell · 30/11/2010 09:27

Why don't you just mention it very casually to the teacher. 'I was pleased but a bit surprised to hear that DDs story had been read out again...'

I'm sure she'll get the message and won't think anything of it / you....

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dikkertjedap · 30/11/2010 12:24

I think I would be inclined to make an appointment with the teacher and just to be open about your concerns, explaining that you are worried that she already stands out a little bit and are worried she might get bullied.

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PinkElephantsOnParade · 30/11/2010 13:15

This is usually not so much of a problem at primary level as DCs are more inclined to want to please the teacher at this age.

I had this happen to me at secondary and it made me CRINGE so much!

At one point my English teacher read out my essay from an exam out to the ENTIRE year group without even telling me! Someone from one of the other classes told me about it and I was mortified!

Didn't get any overt bullying as I had a good supportive group of friends, but got quite a few snidey comments from others in the year.

Might be worth having a quiet word with the teacher. She probably has no idea that this could be a problem.

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magicmummy1 · 30/11/2010 19:17

Thanks all, I'll try to have a casual word with the teacher when I'm helping out next week. Really don't want to make too much fuss, as for all I know, she may show off the other kids' work with the same regularity. Indigo, I think your suggestion is probably the right way in.

PinkElephants - my own experiences of this were at secondary school too, and like you, I wasn't overtly bullied about it, but I would see the eyes rolling whenever teachers mentioned my name! And yes, I used to cringe and wish they'd shut up!

As you say, dd is very keen to please the teacher at this stage, and so she is delighted by the attention, but I don't want her to read too much into it iyswim.

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PinkElephantsOnParade · 30/11/2010 23:54

Yes, probably best to have a quick word now to nip any singling out tendency in the bud now.

In secondary you DEFINITELY do not want this, especially in a school like mine, didn't do me any favours!

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