Two classes in the same year group - very different experiences

[Balletdancemum]

If you had twins in two different classes, would this bother you?

Class A:
teacher is like Miss Honey. The classroom is very pretty, the children have the most wonderful experiences, which the teacher documents via photos and sometimes videos and shares with parents regularly. (3-4 times a week).You feel like you know what is going on and it’s lovely to be able to use the pics as a talking point with dc.

Class B:
Classroom is very garish colours and doesn’t look anywhere near as lovely as class A. The class do the same topics as class A but we get to see very little. The teacher barely updates with pics and the teacher just seems far more negative in general.

There’s a noticeable difference between the two. Would this bother you?

Yes it would bother me but I wouldn't separate twins in primary so easy solution is get them in the same class the research shows twins do better together when they are younger.

Teacher B may have children in her class that cannot be photographed.

Also teacher B might be spending more time teaching and less time photographing.

Also teacher B might not want to spend her own time and money "prettifying" her classroom, and not should she, and teachers like teacher A should not be doing it either, as it creates unrealistic demands on other staff in the same school

Exactly.

It also depends on the special needs in the classroom, some children cannot have "prettified" class rooms and need plainer walls, especially autistic children, for example.

Stripped back classrooms are very much the new norm to reduce stimulation for neurodiverse pupils.

Lots of schools have a policy of separating them. I think the research says they do better apart.

It sounds 100% typical of a primary school. It absolutely does not mean class A is a ‘better’ teacher. I would predict Class A teacher is young and new to the job and Class B is older and more experienced. And they probably think social media and all that techy jazz is a waste of time. I would not worry!

exactly

I think teacher a is younger and trying to impress and pass her nqt year perhaps whereas teacher b is more jaded but hopefully more experienced

Teacher A won't be around for long as class dojo isn't GDPR compliant

The whole school use it! Teacher B just never updates her class story! 😐

They're not allowed to have a policy, the interests of the specific children have to been considered.

Good for teacher B. Sounds like she's standing her ground and no incriminating herself in the school's bad practice.

Yes, of course they're allowed to have a policy.

You're miffed cus your kid is in class B.

Wait and see.

To answer your question, this sounds like an anxiety/attachment issue in you.

You feel reassured by updates from teacher 1 and the lack of them from teacher 2 makes you feel anxious.

Have you generally felt anxious about your children?

Because your OP reads all about your anxieties. You haven't mentioned once how either of your children feel about this.

It's good for you not to get updates and photos. You need to learn to separate.

@Balletdancemum just a heads up...Secondary School will blow your mind.....

Op, do you think sending videos home to parents indicates good teaching and a better experience for the child? Because I certainly don't. It's what the child's experiencing that matters. I don't need "evidence" of that as a parent. It's nice to see, sure. But it doesn't add anything to the child's experience of school at all, and that's all that matters to me. Is my child having a good time and learning well? And I will know that through other ways - by my child telling me about what they do, seeing their development with my own eyes at home, knowing that they're excited to go into school, and hearing what they do at parents' evenings etc. I don't need any videos.

😂Yep.

She has twins, one in each class.

I wish my child was in such a class.

Loads of photos are being taken of her. As the school has to comply with GDPR someone is going through and ensuring her plus others aren't in shared ones. What a waste of someone's time that could be put to better use e.g. ensure the correct info is on the school website.

Nursery and her CM also took what seemed to me numerous photos but in retrospect much less.

I'd also love to know the age difference between teacher A and teacher B because

"the children have the most wonderful experiences, which the teacher documents via photos and sometimes videos"

just sound like someone who is used to instagramming the shit out of life and projecting a perfect image.

Whereas teacher B sounds like someone who is concentrating on actually teaching the kids.

I would assume Teacher A is younger and without her own DC.

Teacher B is older and not as tech savvy. She may also have DC.

The school should be cracking down on this, because teacher A makes teacher B look bad. I’m teacher B 😂 I find it impossible to update twitter as often as we are supposed to, whilst other colleagues are uploading photos daily. I know it looks bad from me but I just don’t have time and I know it doesn’t improve learning. I have inherited classes (1 form entry so no direct in-year comparison) from a teacher like teacher A (in different ways) and it’s a nightmare. She did things like spend part of every lunchtime listening to a child read, and a weekly 1:1 maths session with a v able child again during lunch. Parents were miffed I was not able/willing to keep this up the following year. Her books always looked BEAUTIFUL but it didn’t help the learning. She worked every hour god sent and ended up leaving teaching as she was burnt out.

I used to be a governor at my dc's primary school. The teachers that all the parents raved about were not always the ones where the children actually make progress.