Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Original poster

How to handle parents evening with Maths teacher

31 replies

LowMaintenance101 · 05/03/2025 14:34

Hi everyone. I'm after some advice in how to handle an upcoming parents evening appointment with my daughter's maths teacher.

She's in Year 7, so this will be her first parents evening in this school. It's a virtual one as the school is undergoing some work and the car park is not usable.

The school encourage students to be present for each meeting.

She has had an issue with confidence in maths since year 5. And then SATS in year 6 really cemented the issue. I worked with the year 6 teacher and each day she sent all her maths work home, so any areas she had struggled with, we could go through at her own pace. Her SATS results in maths were excellent, but she really did put the work in.

Fast forward to secondary school, she has settled in well and is enjoying school overall, but absolutely hates her maths teacher. (She is really happy with all her other subject teachers).

She's been put in the top set for maths, but the teacher is well known for being difficult. The parents have a private Facebook group for each year group and his name has come up a few times. Concerns around him singling kids out in front of the class. The kids are supposed to tell him if they haven't understood anything, but if they do, he tells them off, so they all just stay quiet.

I'd appreciate some pointers in how to handle him. I am not confrontational, and there hasn't been a specific incident that I could raise, but I want to let him know that my daughter isn't responding to his brand of teaching. She is basically just scared of being the next kid to be picked on. And given that she will be at the meeting, I want her to feel that we are advocating for her.

Any tips greatfully received.

OP posts:
Thatcannotberight · 05/03/2025 16:50

This absolutely could have been my yr 7 son last year. Top set maths teacher is vile. He's in the next set down this year, sneerily agreed by vile Top Set teacher at f2f parents evening last year. He's much happier, doing well in classes, still needs a bit of help with homework, but definitely the right decision.

SE13Mummy · 05/03/2025 15:52

Talk to your DD first and let her know you'd like to bring up the idea of her being moved into a different set because the pace and style of the top set isn't working for her. Given she needed to revisit everything on a 1:1 basis during Y6 maths, it's not unexpected that Y7 maths may feel hard. A change of sets may not be able to happen immediately but it may help her confidence to ask for a set move rather than being moved into a lower set because she's struggling. At my DCs' school the maths sets are fairly fluid even throughout Y11. There is a definite top set but the next set seems to have a number of students who outperform the top set in mock exams etc. suggesting the different delivery style and pace is working well for them.

Soontobe60 · 05/03/2025 14:58

Why not be honest? “Mr Maths, in our Y7 Facebook group lots of parents have complained about your style of teaching - and my DD doesn’t like you”.
Gossiping about a teacher in a Facebook / WhatsApp group isn’t going to change anything. If you’re concerned, speak to the Head of year.

TeenToTwenties · 05/03/2025 14:54

Why not say it is too fast paced, you ate having to support behind the scenes, and please can she move down a set?

Octavia64 · 05/03/2025 14:50

Hmm.

When you say there hasn't been a specific incident, but there are concerns about him singling out children, what sort of thing are you talking about?

It's normal in most classrooms for the teacher to ask questions and choose children to answer them. In some classrooms this is done randomly (via the lollipop stick method or others) but in other classrooms the teacher will focus questions for particular students.

Saying you don't like his teaching style is unlikely to get you anywhere.

You could try saying that your DD has had issues with confidence in the past and you would appreciate him suppporting her in developing that.

I was a maths teacher for many years, and it's quite common for teachers who mostly teach older students and/or higher ability students to have a style that year 7s struggle with.

Usually they appreciate it a lot more when they are older!

BoundaryGirl3939 · 05/03/2025 14:39

The teacher is not going to change his style of teaching at this stage. Could you look into grinds to up her confidence? Secondary school can be a different ball game as she is far more anonymous. Could you ask him to advise you on what you could do to help her? I would not refer to his teaching style.

Swipe left for the next trending thread