Very scary maths teacher

Assuming your English teacher was a bit shit? I don’t necessarily agree with what you are saying but I think you need to give time to the teacher. It’s a new scenario for both of them.

“I’ve finished this page what shall I do?”

“Shall I write the long date or short date?”

holds book into the air and shouts ”Do you think I should start this lesson on this page or go onto the next one?”

”How many lines should I leave after the title?”

x30 every.single.lesson. Don’t even get me started on sticking something in their book!

Then don’t interact with me. I didn’t interact with you, I was talking to someone else. If you’re not interested in anyone else’s opinion then don’t bother talking to them, I couldn’t care less, I stand by my points and I’m not going to agree with you either.

Teachers also used to say only physical punishment would work because they knew best - thankfully we know differently now.

I am not currently a teacher but I worked in education for twenty years.

In most secondaries there is a behaviour policy. It might be called something else - sometimes it's discipline or part of the inclusion policy or whatever but all secondaries have one.

This states what sanctions teachers are supposed to give for specific behavioural problems.

For example, the behaviour policy at the last school I worked at said that if a student turned up not in uniform they had to be sent to pastoral support. Pastoral support then dealt with it, I actually don't know if they phoned home or what but the pint was teachers didn't deal with it.

Another example, the behaviour policy said that teachers were not to give out detentions without warning students first. So we all had to go to training on the behaviour policy and the example was;
Freddie, you are talking while I am talking. I am warning you now that if you do not stop you will have a detention.
(If Freddie stops - no detention)
If Freddie doesn't stop then you give a detention.

Individual teachers have some discretion over applying the behaviour policy, but if you don't apply it properly you will wind up in trouble. So for example say you set a detention without giving a warning. If the parent phones in and complains, the school policy was to cancel the detention if no warning was given.

Secondary schools employ a lot of teachers. In my last school there were over 100. In order to get some level of consistency they are told to stick to the behaviour policy and in general most of them do.

Many year 7's find this very difficult. Someone they have only just met is telling them off. They respond emotionally by feeling this person is scary.

In practice it's more like applying a customer service policy. If you bought the item over a year ago you are not getting a refund, if you turn up to school in wrong uniform you will be sent to pastoral support. Policy is policy no matter who you hassle.

It's not personal (most of the time)

Moving after a couple of lessons is quite drastic and chances are the school will say no. Email her form tutor and explain that she has had a good start but is now terrified of the maths teacher and is getting upset about school and could she or he support your DD and then take it from there Older students can be really good at supporting especially if the teacher is a good one but strict to start. If you know any, then you could ask. Schools can’t help if they don’t know and 99% of teachers wouldn’t want a child getting upset about coming in because they were terrified so ask her form tutor for some support.

I'm sorry that has happened to your daughter, it must be very hard for you all.
You are right, children dont learn if they are scared, but they also don't learn if the teacher is interrupted 10 times a minute or if children throw stationary/paper etc. Children can also feel scared by other children's bad behaviour in a classroom. It's a really tricky line to tread, to instill expectations and respect without crossing a line into authoritarianism.
Above advice to wait it out a bit then organise a meeting sounds like a good plan.

You can have an opinion but you have zero experience to base it on. Some of us have been doing this job a long time - nearly 30 years in my case - we know what works. I’m not going to listen to someone who’s never taught a single lesson in a school setting

At least she's not throwing the board chalk, or worse the wooden board rubber at the students!

We used to love it when a teacher did that! We always knew exactly what the pupil had done to deserve it (being a smartarse usually). The chalk or board rubber always either landed on the desk or hit the wall behind the pupil. No-one was hurt or traumatised, and anyone who wasn't paying attention was woken up.

Also at my school, the scary maths teachers were the good ones. The ones who weren't scary were fairly useless.

Yes, I have taught large groups of teenagers and no, not in a formal school setting, I’ve said that three times now.

You’re trying to insinuate that anyone who has never been a teacher isn’t allowed to have an opinion on teaching, but I’m never going to agree with you so don’t bother.

Some teachers are unnecessarily unpleasant to pupils (I say that as a teacher, and with a teacher DH). My DD had some extremely strict teachers in Y7 who really scared her. I didn't intervene as I thought she just needed to get used to it. Over time she developed severe anxiety about school and now struggles to go to attend. In our case, there are other factors at play too but it does mean that I have evolved into the annoying parent who emails all the time.

PP is right- children don't learn if they are scared.

Bizarre, my schooling experience wasn’t like this at all and I just asked my best friend who is an high school teacher and she said the same.

Maybe that’s your experience but it’s clearly not universal.

I'm a secondary school teacher.

Don't go in all guns blazing after the first week demanding a new class. The teacher is getting to know the students and establishing expectations and routines. We do have to be quite strict at first with Year 7s because a lot of them have no idea how to behave and some are frankly quite feral. This strictness might seem 'scary' to a child used to the cuddly warmth of primary school, but they do get used to it after the first few weeks.

As a couple of PPs have said, the relentless inane questions do get frustrating and disruptive. Year 7s do need to learn quite quickly that they have to develop independence, resilience and common sense, otherwise you lose so much precious lesson time to utterly pointless questions and silly distractions.

I remember last year with my Year 7s, in our first lesson I lost the plot when the fifth child asked me what the title was when it was quite literally on the board in front of them and I'd said it about ten times already. I regretted being snappy afterwards and apologised but really and truly it is so bloody trying to have to keep stopping what you're doing to answer yet another question that someone has already asked or provide information that is literally in front of a child's face. I try and be Miss Honey but the litany of 'Miss I haven't got a pen', 'Can I write in pencil?', 'What's the date?', 'Where should I write the title?' and so on and so on - argh!!! - really does test the patience of a saint. Especially last thing on a Friday.

Give it time. I would only recommend intervening if this is still an issue by half term.

Phone the teacher, have a chat, let them know and see if things can be ironed out. They may even invite you both in after school for a chat. Start there and see if things get better.

So have you ever taught class after class of 30 kids at a time ? Do you have classroom management experience?

Any teacher that does that either spends all of their time keeping kids back and "chatting" to them about what they have done or the class is chaos.
Not following the classroom rules and sanctions policy of the school makes life harder for other teachers.

The one exception to this is if the class is well-behaved with no children with issues, which is increasingly rare in today's education system.

Not in a formal school setting no, but I have taught groups of unruly kids, yes.

So zero experience? Never actually taught a single class ?

I haven’t taught children in a school setting but I have worked with kids, unruly ones at that. Being a teacher isn’t the only way to understand what it’s like to deal with tricky kids.

I wouldn’t say I’m awful to year 7s but I am definitely more stern in the first few weeks. Lots of them want to ask constant questions, talk over you, tell you what they are doing, ask what to do rather than waiting for instructions. Some of them do this because they’re super keen but some are pretty naughty! They are trying to see what they can get away with. This has got worse over recent years.

Lessons are only 1 hour so to stand a chance of getting through any content properly you really do need to set out your stall, it’s all a bit of an act really. Give her a few weeks and I bet she calms down. A little bit of fear isn’t a bad thing when you’re trying to control 30-33 people every hour for 4-5 hours a day.

How many years teaching experience do you have ? At what level ?

Okay fine, you don’t have to give out punishments/detentions to be a good teacher and have control over your class.The point stands.

The idea that you have to be strict and shout and give out detentions and roll your eyes at kids to get results is utterly incorrect.

Other than mentioning detentions none of the other bits that you mention are in my post and are all your own interpretation of my post.

I thoroughly disagree with this. Strictness isn’t the only way to handle kids. Most our our strict teachers in ugh school were disrepspected because they were wankers. The most respected teacher was an English teacher who I never saw give out a detention or raise her voice. She was firm, fair and an incredible woman. She wasn’t soft and we didn’t dick around. I can recall loads of her lessons and one of the texts she taught is now among my favourite books.

The idea that you have to be strict and shout and give out detentions and roll your eyes at kids to get results is utterly incorrect.

Just FYI

My husband used to be a maths teacher (at uni),

No where near comparable, he needs to wind his neck in, all the hard work behaviour wise is done by the time he gets them.

my ex was an English teacher at a massive comprehensive school: they would both agree that a good teacher shouldnt have to behave like this to keep a grip on a class of 11 year olds.

Let me guess, he never had any problems with the kids!
This usually means that he didn't give out detentions and the other teachers had to pick up the slack.
Also how long ago did he teach? behaviour is much worse than it has been in years.

I am not a teacher by the way, all three of my children had the same very strict Maths teacher at school, got lucky. All of them had their best grade in Maths, and they know why.