I’m a trainee teacher and I tutor Year 5 girl outside of my school and I’ve started to feel quite uneasy about how her dad treats her. She scored incredibly well (90%) on a paper we worked on together yesterday and he responded with “why not 100%?” which made her cry. He laughed it off and told her she wouldn’t be upset if she just stopped getting things wrong, then walked away whilst she was crying with her head on the table. Mum is quite meek and doesn’t offer any support etc when dad is around. I was quite shocked and didn’t know what to do, it was awful.
She’s incredibly kind, funny and hard-working, but she often gets really tearful when we’re working together and when things aren’t perfect but won’t take a break, comfort herself or accept reassurance from me. It feels like nothing is ever good enough for him and he’s always looming around, looking over her and nitpicking at her answers. I’m not sure if this is something I should be worried about from a safeguarding point of view, but it doesn’t sit right with me because of how upset she is. She’s often teary but this is the third time she’s properly cried during one of our sessions after dad has criticised her. 😞
I have asked my headteacher for advice but wanted to hear thoughts here too. I’d like to keep working with her of course but feel like I should contact the school directly about it to let them know she’ll need some extra reassurance/support.
what do you think?