Teacher won’t talk with parents on the phone

[JustlookingNotbuying]

My dd is in year 9.
She is really struggling with her maths and I wanted to speak with the teacher regarding her progress, struggles and how to help her etc.
I sent 3 emails to the teacher and received no reply.
Left a voicemail message and have had no reply.
Had a phone call from the year head today to say the teacher has received my messages but couldn’t call me as he has anxiety and can not speak to anyone on the phone so could I relay all my concerns to the head and go from there?
I am far from impressed.
I have many concerns regarding this teacher, he sometimes swears in class (he is also DS’s friends form teacher and he does this in his class too), he eats and drinks in class and just appears to have a very lackadaisical approach to teaching and an almost disdain for his pupils.
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Dd recently did a test in class and got 1 out of 50! Apparently that was the average score for the class and the highest score was 15.
I can not help but feel that this teacher should not be teaching a low set class when the pupils obviously need someone enthusiastic and engaged helping them.
I feel that I am banging my head against the wall, I can not afford after school tuition but feel the school is failing her.
Apparently he has had many complaints over the years but it feels like the school protects him all the time.
What should I do? Where do I go from here?

[Post edited by MNHQ to remove offensive comment]

In this situation I would prefer to speak with the Head of Year, I am really lucky that the teachers at my children's school are approachable and welcome parent teacher collaboration. unless the relationship has broken down, I can't imagine a teacher refusing to speak with a parent.

Can you afford a private tutor? This is pretty serious in year 9. But not so much so that your dd can’t turn it around with the correct guidance. Maths is bloody hard.

In the meantime, engage with the school and head of department about your dd’s progress. If ultimately you’re not satisfied, you take it up the channels. But you need to follow this through properly and without going full guns blazing. With schools, you have to be cooperative but firm on your dd’s needs and work with them otherwise they will close ranks, which you say has happened in the past.

I’m also not sure why OP feels she’s banging her head against a brick wall.

The HoY has contacted OP, not the other way round.

So internally the school have picked up in whatever way that the teacher has ignored the contact, and stepped in to sort it out.

That’s good, surely?

[quote Cocomarine]@Cottonfrenzie agree better to speak to HoD than HoY, but surely OP’s obvious first step is to respond to HoY who is the one who has contacted her? Which is then the perfect time say, “can I speak with HoD please?”
I’d imagine HoY is still a useful contact, as decisions about changing sets might also involve HoY even if not their subject.

I agree that the Maths teacher should have made contact, but I don’t think that forcing that is going to as useful as taking the discussion (about reason for low performance, how to support from home, what school can do, possible set change) to the HoY.[/quote]
Yes she should reply to the hoy.

The main point I'm making is people on this thread are making out she's in the wrong to want to talk to the actual teacher.

Some (apparently teachers) even implying there's no need for parents to talk to staff outside of parents evening. This is not usual practice in the four schools I've worked in. The expectation is unless a parent is abusive you speak to them. It's your job.

My friends 20 year old dd was taught by him, she is now at college and is still struggling to pass her maths exams because she was so poorly taught by him

But at 20, she will have had lots of different Maths teachers

Oh I completely agree @Cottonfrenzie !
I posted earlier that emailing subject teachers is completely normal at my child’s secondary.

Leaving a voicemail for a teacher isn’t though… you simply wouldn’t be able to do that, they don’t have school phone numbers.

There are lots of things that are ‘a teachers job’ we simply cannot do all of them so we need to prioritise. I teach over 350 students and I’m part time and a core subject. Most teachers will teach more than that. I need to manage parental expectations around contact or I wouldn’t have time to do other parts of my job (like planning lessons, marking assessments, writing reports). If parents don’t like it they need to stop voting for a government that refuses to fund schools properly. Don’t blame teachers for a crap education system. It’s not our fault.

@Cottonfrenzie

Some shocking views on this thread. Unless the contact is excessive of course a teacher should be contactable outside of parents evening. It's literally part of your job!

Yes, I am. Via making an official appointment to come to school and see me. If a parent wants me to phone them at their will they can do one.

But how can OP make an appointment when the teacher won't even respond to emails

Not sure why eating and drinking whilst teaching is a problem? Genuinely interested as I have special permission to do this as a reasonable adjustment as I'm diabetic. Never found it to be an issue as it keeps me safe and in the classroom so the students actually get a regular teacher. Never thought it might cause concerns for parents. Furthermore, if a parent did raise it with a colleague they would be breaking all sorts of rules if they disclosed my diabetes.

He realistically can’t be that ‘crap’ otherwise he would be managed out.

Teachers have performance management appraisals. If they aren’t doing the job properly they’re out.

Just because various people have said they were taught by him and he’s crap doesn’t mean he is.

Talk in person to the Head Teacher, ask for an appointment. Maybe you need to be blunt and say that if concerns are being ignored, you suspect either weak management, or a teacher who has some kind of hold that is preventing action being taken.

Yes, I am. Via making an official appointment to come to school and see me.
If a parent wants me to phone them at their will they can do one.

How ridiculous. You should want parents engaged in their child's learning.

If the school has been graded inadequate im not sure I’d have much faith in this being sorted out and children only have one shot at education, @JustlookingNotbuying is moving an option?

He realistically can’t be that ‘crap’ otherwise he would be managed out.

Depends on the school, the management and the subject. A crap(ish) maths teacher in a poorly run school is absolutely easy to believe. They’ve got to weigh up how bad he actually is (and he may be amazing at teaching a level but rubbish with ks3) versus who they could recruit. Decent maths teachers are like gold dust.

I always do everything I can to avoid talking to parents (I do email back but always wait at least a week) and if I had even the slightest whiff of them being dissatisfied with my service then there’s not a chance I’d speak to them on the phone.

Well that’s helpful, no effort to try and address issues, no opportunity to talk to you and avoid escalating problems because you simply decide not to speak to parents, and wait a week before replying to emails. I guess it’s one way to deal with issues, not constructive by any means to make someone wait for over a week (and presumably they wait a week again if they reply to you) so a simple matter that could be resolved in a 10 minute phone call drags on for weeks due to your refusal to speak to anyone who you suspect might not be happy.

How ridiculous. You should want parents engaged in their child's learning

When l was a secondary teacher l taught 400 different kids a week. It’s kind of hard to deal with that many parents’ engaged in their child’s learning.

I can very well believe it might take a secondary school teacher in a large school a week to respond to a parent. They are very busy people who are expected to wear many hats and your child is one of many to them.

I don’t know why you have been asked to speak to the year head - it is an academic issue not a pastoral one. Email the subject leader / head of department and copy in the headteacher. If you get no joy email your concerns again to the headteacher copying in the chair of governors. Do not mention any hearsay, just the facts as they relate to your DD.

If I was the teacher I wouldn't want to talk to you on the phone. If I were you I would think a phone talk would not be very helpful. There are other ways of approaching things and perhaps a good thing to do is to step back and work out what you want from this.

Get rid of the teacher? Unlikely within the time your child is at the school.

Change the teacher into a different person? Unlikely given the tone and substance of the discussion here. Anything would be minor and things would simmer unpleasantly.

Move your child to a different set and/or ensure that a different teacher takes on the group next year? Maybe. If it doesn't open a floodgate the school might be glad for this to happen.

Get extra support for your child's learning? I'd explore this whatever you feel about the above points. Not just for the topics in the coming months but to go over some of the foundational work that might need firming up. Yes that puts an onus on you. It might not seem fair.

As a mother I would not consider it a top banana level victory if I looked back on ending someone's career while my child had lifelong issues with maths. Given age and duties of care, your child matters more than the teacher and also matters more than you as far as I am concerned and given the pit that seems to have been dug one of that pair is more likely to start to dig out of it.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

How ridiculous. You should want parents engaged in their child's learning

When l was a secondary teacher l taught 400 different kids a week. It’s kind of hard to deal with that many parents’ engaged in their child’s learning.

I teach similar numbers now. You are hardly constantly fielding phone calls and emails! I can sometimes go weeks without speaking to parents. But if one calls me I call them back. And I respond to their emails promptly.

Look up ‘failure to educate’

@CremeEggThief

I can very well believe it might take a secondary school teacher in a large school a week to respond to a parent. They are very busy people who are expected to wear many hats and your child is one of many to them.

That's not good enough. I say that as a teacher and a parent. 24-48 hours is adequate. I teach hundreds of kids a week. It's not an excuse.

Ten minutes to talk to every students’ parents? Even if each set of parents just has 1 issue they’d like to discuss each year that adds up to an hour and a half each week added to my workload. And I’m part time. Plus, as I have learned from experience, if you are available and receptive to parents’ every enquiry they will only keep contacting you, increasing workload even more.
Like I said, if the op wants to help her dc with maths then they can do that without harassing the teacher. To me it sounds like, as is often the case, the parent has a bone to pick and wants to be heard. That’s not constructive either and is one of the things that causes teachers additional stress. Fortunately my school understands this and mostly protects teachers from fussy parents.

But you are in contact with the head and they have offered to look into it, so why not just follow this path? ask them why this means they cannot email, accept the answer and go through them instead for now.

The teachers specific diagnoses and medical records (spread by inappropriate gossip, how awful) are not your business, and should form no part of your argument here. Whether you also suffer with your own anxiety or neurodiversity is also irrelevant for the purpose of judging what they should be able to manage when unwell. This teacher is not obliged to have the same struggles as you or anyone else with similar conditions and you have absolutely no idea that anyone is 'playing a card'. It's a cynical and unpleasant thing to come out with, however you want to justify it.

Presumably the head and the school are aware and monitor their own staff so do not need parents to do it for them based on assumptions and hear say. Perhaps the inability to speak on the phone will not be permanent. Anxiety can flare up and is very disabling, clearly the teacher has disclosed it to the head and they are (rightly) offering support at this time and have offered a solution to you also which sounds perfectly doable.

Not suggesting it is ideal or the standard required but how many others in job roles have been unwell, disabled or unable to deliver aspects of their job due to a health condition. Employers (thankfully for all of us should it ever happen) are required to make an adjustment and allowance where they see fit, and they presumably have more info to judge that on. You've hardly been ignored by the school here OP.