Page 6 | Two classes in the same year group - very different experiences

Balletdancemum · 2023-10-14T20:02:19+00:00

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?

ThreeRingCircus · 15/10/2023 15:04

Are both your children happy at school? Are they both learning? That is the only thing that I would be concerned with.

Our Reception teachers are the same, I wanted Teacher A....very similar to how you describe. DD1 got Teacher B. Stricter, more formal, parents said they found her a bit fierce, classroom not as pretty etc. She absolutely excelled and responded really well to Teacher B, so much so I requested DD2 to be in her class when she started school.

What matters is children being happy to be at school and progressing in their own way. Not what the wall displays look like.

coodawoodashooda · 15/10/2023 15:07

ErcolSofa · 14/10/2023 21:09

I would know that Class A teacher is doing this completely in her own time and possibly at the expense of her own children and family. Been there- got the badge- probably my biggest regret in life.

The DfR official figures are that teacher work about 20 hours of unpaid overtime a week and that is without sending videos and sharing photos. They don't add anything the education of the child.

This

AutumnComfort · 15/10/2023 16:09

Sunnydays41 · 15/10/2023 11:16

They get half a day a week PPA time. And it's mainly at lunch... if she uses that time to simultaneously eat lunch and update the app, then so what? She seems to enjoy it, she's not being forced to do it, so surely that's up to her?

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I'd imagine that half a day means one afternoon…. Which is shorter than the morning…. Most teachers are short changed on PPA - it’s never the full and correct %.

ChiefWiggumsBoy · 15/10/2023 16:42

@Balletdancemum As a mum of twins who were in separate classes until they left primary, I'd say let it go. Next year it may be the opposite. The year after you might have the best teachers ever for both.

So long as your kids are happy in school I really wouldn't be arsed about all that stuff. I don't remember getting any updates like that from school, although we would get a half term report and art work.

(not going to lie though, the year one twin had a teacher both he and I loved and the other one had a teacher who was meh at the best of times, was a bit...annoying. But ultimately it was totally fine)

pieintheski · 15/10/2023 20:20

I am a teacher B and I took over from a teacher A in September.( year 7 class, one subject only - but I see them every day)

This last few months have been memorable for two particular aspects.

Constant complaints from parents about me being negative to their children (ie telling them when their work is not good enough when this has never happened to them before)- not understanding their children ( ie not excepting their excuses for poor work) and overworking their children ( ie getting them to do badly done work again)
Children making more progress and getting higher grades than they have ever got close to before

BlueIgIoo · 16/10/2023 06:38

pieintheski · 15/10/2023 10:23

That is absolutely not what lunch times or PPA times are for

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Completely agree. If I spend 10 minutes sending stuff to parents, that's 10 more minutes of marking at the end of the day - time I could be spending with my own children or work I have to do when they're in bed. I know 10 minutes is not a lot but much of primary school teaching is made up of 10 minute jobs. It's rare for me to have a task in the middle of a week that takes longer than 20 minutes, but I have a list as long as my arm of 1 - 10 minute jobs.

Sunnydays41 · 16/10/2023 10:04

LolaSmiles · 15/10/2023 14:30

They get half a day a week PPA time. And it's mainly at lunch... if she uses that time to simultaneously eat lunch and update the app, then so what? She seems to enjoy it, she's not being forced to do it, so surely that's up to her?
It is up to her, but it also sells her colleagues out and sets the expectation with parents that it's the norm and reasonable.

You only have to look on education threads on here to see lots that can be summarised as "Teacher this year isn't as good as last year because new teacher doesn't do (insert totally unnecessary thing that some parents value)".

Each time a colleague chooses to spend their time doing pointless socials updates or additional things that aren't T&L related, they're choosing to make life more difficult for their colleagues who:

Are still working the same number of hours but focusing on T&L or complex pastoral issues or other genuinely important parts of the job
Have leadership responsibilities beyond the classroom that require their time and dedication to run their areas well
Have additional pastoral responsibilities that take time and are more important than social media style updates
Have their own children and need to work through their lunch to make their own children's pick ups / they actually want to see their children in an evening instead of doing work that they could have done in the time they were pratting around taking and uploading photos all the time
Have caring responsibilities elsewhere in their families so need to be effective with their workload without having moaning parents on their case that Mr Blogs/Mrs Smith always updated the class blog every week on top of the usual workload
Have hobbies and a life outside of work and friends they want to see instead of creating an Instagram worthy classroom
Have ongoing medical conditions or chronic illness that means they do their job but haven't the ability to do endless extras
Have the sense to know that just because they have the time in their personal circumstances to devote their whole life to school, they know workload is a huge issue in schools so they're not going to deliberately make the workload issue worse for everyone

When it comes to updating Dojo and similar apps / complaining about it not being done, I always want people to say what should be dropped so they can have extra photos of their children.

Not at all... I don't think my eldest DC's teacher has put anything on the app all term, but I just accept that they have different teaching styles/preferences 🤷‍♀️ Tbh, I actually prefer my eldest's teacher.

As long as they're keen and doing a good job, I'm not going to judge how they do it!

Sunnydays41 · 16/10/2023 12:17

LolaSmiles · 15/10/2023 14:30

They get half a day a week PPA time. And it's mainly at lunch... if she uses that time to simultaneously eat lunch and update the app, then so what? She seems to enjoy it, she's not being forced to do it, so surely that's up to her?
It is up to her, but it also sells her colleagues out and sets the expectation with parents that it's the norm and reasonable.

You only have to look on education threads on here to see lots that can be summarised as "Teacher this year isn't as good as last year because new teacher doesn't do (insert totally unnecessary thing that some parents value)".

Each time a colleague chooses to spend their time doing pointless socials updates or additional things that aren't T&L related, they're choosing to make life more difficult for their colleagues who:

Are still working the same number of hours but focusing on T&L or complex pastoral issues or other genuinely important parts of the job
Have leadership responsibilities beyond the classroom that require their time and dedication to run their areas well
Have additional pastoral responsibilities that take time and are more important than social media style updates
Have their own children and need to work through their lunch to make their own children's pick ups / they actually want to see their children in an evening instead of doing work that they could have done in the time they were pratting around taking and uploading photos all the time
Have caring responsibilities elsewhere in their families so need to be effective with their workload without having moaning parents on their case that Mr Blogs/Mrs Smith always updated the class blog every week on top of the usual workload
Have hobbies and a life outside of work and friends they want to see instead of creating an Instagram worthy classroom
Have ongoing medical conditions or chronic illness that means they do their job but haven't the ability to do endless extras
Have the sense to know that just because they have the time in their personal circumstances to devote their whole life to school, they know workload is a huge issue in schools so they're not going to deliberately make the workload issue worse for everyone

When it comes to updating Dojo and similar apps / complaining about it not being done, I always want people to say what should be dropped so they can have extra photos of their children.

Also, the same could be said for any job... Employee X stays later three times a week, but employee Y is unable to or doesn't want to.

Sunnydays41 · 16/10/2023 12:29

That doesn't mean employee X should stop doing it because it makes employee Y "look bad".

Keeprunningg · 16/10/2023 12:33

The difference you're mentioning here is parental involvement in what's going on, not the teaching style itself. You know what's going on in class A, so why are you wanting to be updated with the same stuff from Class B?
I wouldn't worry unless you see a significant lack in either's progress outside the norm.

MollyMarples · 16/10/2023 12:33

What a waste of time. Teacher A needs to understand how children learn. Prettifying her classroom, and taking photos of kids ain’t it! I’m glad I don’t teach KS1 or nursery, what a nightmare

StarlightLime · 16/10/2023 12:34

Sunnydays41 · 16/10/2023 12:29

That doesn't mean employee X should stop doing it because it makes employee Y "look bad".

It may eventually be noticed that Y's results are equal or better,and questions asked as to why X need so much longer to achieve the same thing.
Sometimes excessive overtime is seen as just that, an inability to either manage your time or cope with the workload.

Watchthedoormat · 16/10/2023 12:38

The Teacher in B may be more interested in actually teaching the children rather than keeping up appearances.
I'd be concerned the other teacher has the time to be dressing the classroom prettily and updating the dojo. It seems like she cares very much about what others think of her.
A teacher who is confident in their role wouldn't care so much about how they were viewed.

1AngelicFruitCake · 17/10/2023 06:32

StarlightLime · 16/10/2023 12:34

It may eventually be noticed that Y's results are equal or better,and questions asked as to why X need so much longer to achieve the same thing.
Sometimes excessive overtime is seen as just that, an inability to either manage your time or cope with the workload.

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Or Teacher A is the better teacher and puts things on dojo! If you use it a lot dojo doesn’t take long to upload the odd photos here and there.

LolaSmiles · 17/10/2023 08:24

Or Teacher A is the better teacher and puts things on dojo! If you use it a lot dojo doesn’t take long to upload the odd photos here and there.
It's still a choice on how to spend time, which when workload is substantially higher than a reasonable working week it's right to question.

Either Teacher A is letting other things slip or is letting work creep into their home life even more (because time spent on Dojo doing social media style feeds is time not spend on teaching and learning).

Some people don't mind working excessive hours with additional workload, but it's a bit crap when that leaves other colleagues having to look at the expectations (some unreasonable) and weigh up I could do the Dojo updates, but that means I'm juggling other work at home instead of seeing my children, or have less time with my spouse once the children are in bed, or the housework needs to be delayed, or I get less sleep.

When colleagues do these things, a bit like endlessly replying on apps at all hours, it creates a culture of workaholism which negatively affects everyone.

Two classes in the same year group - very different experiences

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