Opinions on teacher's behaviour before I over react...

[Namechangedforthisone287]

I have name changed, but only because I've discussed this IRL with friends so I don't want this linking back to personal medical things I've posted about recently.

DD is 12 and in year 7. This week they are doing tests in all subjects. Clearly, these should be conducted in silence. This afternoon, they have been doing a history test (DD says short test, only 6 questions) and her friend has spoken to her. DD felt she had to reply so as not to be rude. Another friend has then mouthed something to her from across the room, and DD has given her a thumbs up. The teacher has seen all of this, and has taken DD's test paper off her, and said she'll have to redo the test tomorrow in form time, by herself. He has then ripped her test paper up over the bin.

DD says she was humiliated and embarrassed as everyone was looking at her. She cried at the time, and cried when she told me about it.

Now, DD can be a chatterbox and absolutely should have got on with her test and not interacted with her friends. I can understand that it may have looked like she was cheating. But I'm really unhappy with how things were handled by the teacher. Fair enough to take her test and make her re do it, but tearing it up and making a spectacle of DD is a bridge too far in my book.

WWYD? She doesn't want me to make a fuss.

That’s actually quite a good way to look at it. How could he fix her environment so she doesn’t have opportunity to talk, until her maturity catches up?

My son is doing PPE exams this week (Yr 11 type mock exams) one boy sat in the exam messing around on his mobile and throwing stationary across the room and refused to do the exam, nothing was done about it and he was allowed to distract everyone throughout the exam which is so unfair everyone else. Therefore in your case I wouldn’t be contacting the school as I think the teacher was in the right.

I wouldn't do anything other than tell DD that's a lesson learned.

I wouldn't do anything except reiterate to your DD that she shouldn't talk in exams.

I'd back the teacher all the way. I bit of embarrassment doesn't hurt occasionally.

I'd have gotten an automatic telling off by my parents for this when I was at school, my mum certainly wouldn't be questioning the teachers behaviour/response!

Your response is ott, and that's possibly why your dds response was also ott. Crying?

Do not embarrass yourself in contacting the school. your daughter broke the rules and has been punished.

I agree with what the Teacher did, harsh but necessary.

I just asked my 16 year old son if a student was caught communicating with another student across room in exam what should happen. That is all I asked him. He said disqualify students and notify exam board. Then I told him it was mock exam not the real one. He said give them 0 as their mark. Make them sit right in front of invigilator in real exam.

He probably has a fair number of questions from which to choose, not just the ones he set today. He hasn't set himself that much extra work, except supervising the new test. He'd be marking the class papers anyway.

Because you don't indulge in humiliating spectacles in order to 'discipline'? You treat them the same way you treat everyone else, with respect

And she won’t know better in the future. She’ll still talk because that behaviour hasn’t changed. She’ll just get told off again afterwards.

That seems very fatalistic. Presumably then OP's daughter is doomed to have all her exam results cancelled if she can't learn from experience?

What are your qualifications and experience please, that you are so sure you can predict children's behaviour so confidently?

What should this teacher have done instead to help her and the other students learn that lesson?

If this happened to my dc, I would just think it was a good lesson so they won't do it again.

She shouldn't have talked during the test, she should take the punishment and you should do nothing except reinforce you do not talk during tests.
I also doubt the teacher ripped up the test paper in front of her/the class. Thought that sort of thing died out when I was at school (centuries ago!).

YABU
Tell your daughter not to talk during tests.

Your daughter was in the wrong, she knows she's in the wrong which is why she doesn't want you to make a fuss...because the truth of how much in the wrong she was will be exposed.

Just leave it with the school and reinforce to your daughter that exam rules aren't negotiable or open to interpretation.

Well. That was fairly conclusive

Because you don't indulge in humiliating spectacles in order to 'discipline'? You treat them the same way you treat everyone else, with respect

I don't understand why you think applying the natural consequence for cheating in a test is humiliating or disrespectful.

Do you teach Y7? What do you do when a child cheats in a test?

Trauma is when you are living in a country and a bomb is dropped next to you not having a test paper ripped up because you broke the exam rules.

He’s donr her a favour. She won’t do that again and if she did that in a public exam she’s stuffed.

What I would do would be to give my DD or DS an enormous bollocking for getting involved in such silliness in the middle of a test. All of them would know this without doubt and would probably not tell me about it.

I’m a teacher. And I’ve already said what he could do to help her succeed.

I doubt you’re getting the full story

Good, hopefully she learnt her lesson. She's not in primary anymore. Support the teacher, there's nothing worse than pupils disrupting the class, other pupils want silence in tests. They should have made her do the test during break time

I complain a lot but YABU

Don’t do anything.