New recruit teacher is inadequate

I'm certain that I wouldn't send my children to a school that hadn't identified such a glaring flaw in their curriculum before this. One has to consider what the previous teacher/s of this subject were doing and whether the assessment of their teaching was accurate in light of what the OP has uncovered. It doesn't say much for the management of the school.

BoboChic - So in other words, you are stuck with the inadequate teacher? I hope you got some reassurance from the HT that he would be providing more support and supervision for this teacher whilst you work on the new curriculum!!

How very very odd you are OP.

So have you asked for the removal of your DC's teacher? While you organise the rest of the school?

And why is the education of your DC's peers your concern?

Yes OP, you are studiously avoiding the question of what the fate of the "inadequate" teacher will be when you seize control of the world

BoboChic - you still haven't said what will be happening in your dd's actual lessons in the meantime. Does she retain the same teacher? Does the HT think this same teacher would be an OK teacher if it weren't for the flawed curriculum? You seem to have gone in with one issue, come out with another and forgotten the first issue.

I loathe the sound of the US system, btw. Not so much the land of opportunity as the land of entrenched privilege and massive inequality.

Bobo. good luck with your meeting on Monday. After reading your posts I am confident you will make good progress in expediting this matter.

OP you are sounding more and more like you are on anew ego boosting exercise, tgat yiu know better than anyone with an element of you will do it my way and I will continue to badger you until you do

I'm a bit confused. Unless things have changed since I left, French teachers don't apply for a job the way we would here. As a teacher you're a 'fonctionnaire' (civil servant?), you're employed by the government and as such you don't really choose your school, you're kind allocated a school (and pray for the best...).
Also the French system is different in that you don't have all the hierarchy you'd find in the British system, it's usually Headteacher>deputy head> teachers, there is no Head of department for example ( again things might have changed since I left).
Try having a meeting with the teacher, if nothing comes out of it contact the Headteacher and at a last resort get in touch with the ''Académie' of your school/ region.
Good luck with trying firing him (if that's what you have in mind) it can be hard in the French system.
Maybe wait and see? Give him a chance as it' only been 2 weeks (hides for cover...)

mathanxiety, the US system sounds very wrong. It means how much money your school has, is directly linked to how much money the parents have. Here schools with a large number of children from por families, actually gets more money from taxes.

People in the UK are far too accepting of problems in the state education system.

It's one of the reasons things don't improve.

I visit lots of schools and whilst teacher pay /conditions is obviously a problem, many of the reasons for poor outcomes in my area of expertise are easy and cheap to fix. They are cause by poor decisions and fixed ideology from the SLT.

Can I just say that, having read this thread, I am delighted I don't live in France where my children's education would seem to be at the whim of the playground queen bee.

Completely agree.

As for of course parents get what they want you make it sound like a good thing. I know it may be a strange concept to you but parents can be wrong you seem the type that would never admit that though

Can I just say that, having read this thread, I am delighted I don't live in France where my children's education would seem to be at the whim of the playground queen bee.

I worry that academies could well lead us down a similar path

So in this brave new curriculum world, what will happen to the "inadequate" teacher of the OP?

bobo

So now that you have discovered the 'real' reason behind your issues, how are you going to sort out the issue that you have started for the teacher?

Math
from what I can see on this thread we have three (possibly four) different school systems represented.

It isn't entirely possible to compare one system to another.

"no taxation without representation' means that you have right to be represented, not that you have the right to push your individual values/opinions on others.

Parents have the right to input into schools, they do not get to dictate policy, democracy means that the needs of all are served ( something the original "taxation without representation" forgot, many needs were not served.)

Undergrad courses in the US are not ( for the first few years anyway) as academic as those in the UK. Students persuing something like my subject (Econ) would find that the first two years at least are almost comparable to A level, even at Ivy League schools. This is what results in things like "pre med" and "pre law" sets of courses at colleges. Where as in the UK our students would start at 18.

I've taught in the states, in both good and challenging areas, I have fundamental issues with the way the taxation system works in terms of schools, but sadly in the UK house prices near good schools are driven up as well, so its probably similar.

It absolutely does give a right to 'dictate', encapsulated in the dictum 'no taxation without representation'.

That is the whole basis of independent school districts local control is preserved and it is why residential segregation in the US works to maintain relative educational advantage and disadvantage.

Those school districts whose residents 'pay in' with large annual property tax cheques receive a 'payoff' in the form of excellent teachers, excellent sports facilities, excellent extracurricular activities, schools with great and well earned reputations, and property values that are maintained. This is accomplished via keeping the pressure on the elected officials (superintendents) and elected school boards, who run the districts and are responsive to the interests of the residents. Wealthier districts tend to have residents who have money to put where their mouth is.

Those districts whose residents are unwilling /unable to pay for excellent schools get mediocre schools. Residents in those districts also elect their superintendents and their school boards, but these bodies represent what the communities aspire to and find reasonable to expect from their schools.

In the US there tends to be a direct correlation between average property value and income, and quality of public schools.

Students report home that their university freshman year biology courses were a breeze thanks to the excellent teacher they had when they were 14." Doesn't say much about the course content at US universities at undergraduate level does it?
You are wrong to extrapolate in the direction you have gone there. It reflects in the case of my DCs' high school a biology teacher with a PhD from an Ivy League university who could easily have taught at a university but for reasons that are not clear (perhaps a guaranteed job and excellent pension?) chose to spend thirty five years teaching biology in a suburban American high school instead.

World rankings of universities are based on all sorts of criteria. Some place great store in them and some do not. It remains that some universities are extremely selective, by which is meant they admit under about 15% of undergrad applicants. Admission rates like that mean they pick only the best undergrad prospects America and the world can throw at them.