Teachers getting the blame for everything

[Moonlightdancing]

Is seems to me that parenting is moving more and more towards the teachers. I really wish it was mandatory for each parent to teach a day in a school and see how it's really like. Your child is no angel. My child is no angel. There is so much to teach in a day, to provide support to children that need it, assessments, reports, meetings etc. On top of that you have parents complaining that their child has issues with friendships, school not supportive, needs a plan in place. When to do all that? I tell you when. At lunchtime. So you don't have any breaks. No wonder everyone leaves the profession. Sorry for the rant, but i see all these posts about schools being blamed for not supporting the child....i mean, a little parenting at home will go a long way. Teaching children boundaries and respect would help massively. And it might come as a suprise to some, but children do lie....

I know. As a teacher I am upset for the other children who actually want to learn, but can't because if this behaviour. And before anyone starts with special needs, no its not. Most of the time is behaviour and lack of respect.

I can understand frustrations regarding friendships/bullying but how can schools be expected to monitor what a child has posted on snap chat the night before

I’m not bothered about monitoring Snapchat, it would be good though if they could respond effectively to the bullying happening openly in the classroom and playground.

The situation with SEN/EHCP is shocking in most areas and completely down to government cuts. A child may well be entitled to a number of TA hours but of that TA can’t be recruited it can’t happen!

So what should the parent do? Not say anything and send their child to a place where they daily can’t cope because their needs aren’t met, keep them at home with the impact on learning, work etc. Or advocate for their child in school?

Some of the issues are systemic and not easily solved. Some teachers/schools aren’t great, some parents aren’t great but the government have done an amazing job of pitching us all against each other while they get away Scot free devaluing education, turning people into workbots and undermining parents left, right and centre.

This.

This 100%

Agree about toilet training and dressing and other skills like holding pencils and stuff. Ridiculous to expect teachers to do all that - but any comment about lazy parenting on here (and in RL maybe) gets jumped on with SEN.

Not all kids with issues have SEN. Some have very lazy and inadequate parents and teachers can't compensate for that.

I'd massively reduce what teachers have to cover but introduce consequences for schools that let kids leave who can't read and write - that's shocking in this day and age.

Working FT is no excuse either. Both DH and I worked full time (I went back to work when DD was 4 months old) but we managed. Parents need to take responsibility and parent their children. It isn't up to schools to toilet train, teach manners/respect/how to act, how to dress etc. Teachers are there to teach literacy/numeracy etc, everything else is up to parents!

I know, I get the funding argument from pp but the biggest thing I’m looking for is other parents’ attitude

Dc schools are good, they get dc through to high level, the funding is the same the difference is the parents

It's why I sent DD to an all girls grammar. The pupils work their arses off and the parents back up the teachers. There is very little bad behaviour and my DD wouldn't dream of shouting, screaming or throwing stuff at any of her teachers. One thing I have noticed though, particularly as the girls get older, is that the teacher-pupil relationship becomes more collaborative and the girls opinions and ideas are listened to and taken seriously. I'm a great believer that respect is won not owed.

Some would argue that a child who is unable to manage their behaviour in a classroom, does have SEN.

Some would argue that a child who is unable to manage their behaviour in the classroom, is because of lax parenting with no boundaries.

I imagine that it can be either, or and sometimes both.

introduce consequences for schools that let kids leave who can't read and write - that's shocking in this day and age.

How on earth would that be enforced? What consequences? How would you judge this?

Which school would you blame if a child left year 6 not being able to do whatever you think they should, but that’s the 8th school they’ve been to? What if they’ve got SEN but the parents refused to discuss it, what if their attendance was shocking, what if the parents couldn’t be bothered to take them to SaLT appointments?

I'm sure you would @Gamechanger82. But while I agree that we ask far too much of teachers and give them lots of jobs that aren't theirs, the key one is surely educating children and reading and writing and fundamental to that.

It is unacceptable that any child leaves primary not being able to read and write and I've met a few of those. It impacts so much on their life chances.

So if we take tasks away from teachers and schools then they need to focus on the ones that are left and actually deliver on them. Of course that's not in my gift but one for Government.

It wouldn't be easy @Redlocks30 and there's always going to be times when it's not the schools fault. But fundamentally if their job is to teach children and they fail then action needs to be taken.

I'm completely with removing a load of social skills and other stuff that isn't a job for teachers but on the flip side teachers need to do their actual job of educating children.

Re: the last point. We’ve got a child who is going to leave our primary school functionally illiterate. We have tried. He has had hours and hours of intervention and it hasn’t worked. We’ve approached various agencies and got no support. He came to us barely talking and unless you know him he can still be hard to understand. He can’t read because he can’t pronounce half the sounds and he can’t write because he writes as he speaks so it’s unintelligible. He had speech and language therapy but they have signed him off because “he’s been going for quite a while now.” But until he can speak he won’t be able to read or write easily. He’s had 1-2-1 intervention, small group intervention, been taken out of class, had support in class. He’s operating at Year 1 level. Just. It would be hurting to be penalised after everything we’ve tried. But we are out of ideas and no-one seems able to help.

*Need to proofread.
He’s Year 6, operating at Year 1 level.
it would be gutting, not hurting.

introduce consequences for schools that let kids leave who can't read and write - that's shocking in this day and age.

We have one family at my school where we think the parents actually don’t want them to learn. The parents cannot read and write and “we manage just fine”. The children have attended less than 60% of sessions since September because they only come when their social worker is available to physically get them in. Mum tried to say she was home schooling the children but as she cannot read herself …………. 🤷‍♂️
Believe me the school REALLY tries to educate all the children but there does need to be some support in the home.

So if we take tasks away from teachers and schools

Well, if and when that ever happens, we’ll see.

I'm completely with removing a load of social skills and other stuff that isn't a job for teachers but on the flip side teachers need to do their actual job of educating children.

Most teachers I know would be delighted to focus purely on teaching but there will be children who find it very difficult to learn.

My DD is one who needs a particular approach to learning, she went from a reading age of 5 (aged 9) to now being able to read at an age appropriate level (aged 12) with the support of a specialist tutor who could work with her to find the right teaching method for her learning style. While the school put in 1:1 support, they couldn’t adapt their teaching style to meet her needs. They had neither the consistency of resources or the specialist training to do so.

Much would need to change in education, social work and specialist provision before we can honestly say schools or teachers have failed in their job.

I teach secondary. I already had 3 complaints with to deal this afternoon. In one case, a students saw me and walked off before joining my class in their own time 10min later. In another, a student decided they wanted an extra 10min of break. Both got a detention and parents complained. In a third, a student was supposed to stay behind, but walked off and then complained about getting sanctioned.

Another student, who walked up to my desk and rifled through my SEND folder (accessing sensitive information), phoned reception on my teacher's phone, drew dicks on my wall and hit another student, got let off their isolation because they hadn't been warned it was going to happen. I got told it was only me. A quick look at records shows they're definitely not just like that my lessons. But I got blamed in house by the behaviour lead.

Yeah, we are blamed for everything and I don't blame a single colleague for quitting. All of the above issues could be dealt with at home, but instead I am still sitting here now, responding to parental emails.

A little fed up today.

I completely agree OP. Most parents great. But there is now a cohort who think their children can do no wrong, and who'd rather be friends with their offspring than parent them. I'd never be a teacher now, it must be a very difficult job.

As a teacher I love ringing a parent to tell them something like ‘your child swore at me today’ to be told ‘I don’t know why you are telling me, they are your problem at school, contact their head of year’.
We are parents and teachers apparently!

The pressure on teachers from parents sometimes is unbelievable. Several of my children will often say ‘my mum doesn’t have time to read with me’, at which point I think ‘yes but she has lots of time to be a keyboard warrior when you’ve lost your unnamed packed lunch box doesn’t she?’. Most of the parents at my school are sensible, knowing full well that we are taking on more and more responsibilities of parenting whilst they are working more (no one’s fault), but some absolutely take the mickey. Work with us, remember that we are human beings, and know that we also want the best for your child. Or… feel free to home educate. No… didn’t think so…

Teachers are treated like absolute shit nowadays. Completely understand why there's a retention problem.