Abusive primary school teacher.

[Dozzaflower]

My 8 year old son came home from school after having a fight, he wasnt the person who started yet fought back, i confronted his teacher who said she would resolve the matter. End of the school day the teacher comes across and says my son didnt tell her everything and should of told a teacher, all this in front of the other childs mother!!! Within 2minutes the teacher starts shouting in my sons face and pointing at him to which my husband then says "who the hell do you think your talking to" its carries on until his teacher says shall we go to the headmaster, we reply yes, yet we never make it that far as the teacher stops and starts sweat talking my son!! So we leave, ring the headmaster, were told hes unavailable as is the deputy head, (convienant) told we will be rang first thing, my son then tells me that the same teacher shouted at him in front of his class & when he didnt reply the teacher thumped the desk,,,,,, other parents have confirmed this via their children in the class, so no phone call, go to reception & were told the headmaster is in a "meeting" and will ring us at lunchtime.... ive had enough, do you think im right to make a formal complaint?????

Hang on fedupandfifty, we only reacted when his teacher mouthed off, she had no reason to, she came to us and started mouthing off , we were more than happy to let his teacher sort it out but she created a whole new issue, should i let my "ds" get the living daylights kicked out of him then?????!!!!!!!And like ive said its not the first time his teacher has behaved in such way.

yes he has, & from day one parents have had the same problems, im not the only person to complain.

Squeaky. The older teachers at my school are fab. Its the younger ones who seem to go over the top. The only way they seem to be able to get any control is by frightening the kids into submission. My 6yr old had 2 teachers who had taught in the same school since the 80's and in yr 2 has a young teacher. She is terrified of her and now hates school.

when you say 'mouthing off' what were her words? What was she actually saying?

Teaching is a damn hard job. We all lose our tempers sometimes (and no, the teacher's behaviour was not good) but you have no idea what she has going on in her life. Imo yr 3 and 4s can be very challenging as a group.

What's going on in her life has nothing to do with her job. I can't go into work and treat patients anyway I feel like because I'm having a shit time at home. I can take an annual leave day, call in sick or suck it up and do my job.

It doesn't work like that in teaching. You have to have your crises during the holidays or not at all.

manicbc, whatever may be going on in her life is not the 8 year old boy's problem is it? We all have bad days, it doen't give us the right to frighten and humiliate people other people.

squeakytoy, if the only way a teacher can control the class is through shouting and banging tales they should ask for behaviour management training.

dozzaflower, yes, complain. TBH if the head didn't ring me back by the end of today I wouldn't be sending my DS to school again until things had been sorted out. I'd request a copy of the anti-bullying policy too, see if it mentions bullying by adults.

If you have not been called by 1.00pm, I suggest that you call the school and say you will be calling in to collect a copy of the school's complaint procedure when you pick your child up from school this afternoon. If the Head or member of the SMT does not speak to you very shortly after this, I would be very surprised.

If this does not work, then you should think about making a formal complaint, this can be done in writing or by simply telling them that you wish to invoke the complaints procedure.

Complaint goes to the Head in the first instance, if they fail to resolve it to your satisfaction, you then complain to the Chair of Governors, they will have a Complaints Committee which investigates and hears your complaint, if you are unhappy they will set up an Appeals Committee made up by other governors who were not used for your first hearing. If at this point, you are still unhappy, then it may go to the LA or the Diocese (not all policies include this step) and then finally to the Secretary of State.

Ofsted does not really come into this and they will only ask if you have gone through these steps.

As a Chair of Governors with over 20 years experience, I am surprised by the lack of response from the school.

True but sometimes life does encroach on work.

I've worked as a supply teacher and have seen some truly awful teaching. Kids of all ages hate being shouted at (as do a lot of adults I know) and it is counter productive.

I think that the teacher's behaviour was unprofessional and unacceptable. Like manicbmc says, we do all loose our tempers at some time, but it sounds as though this woman does it a lot. If somebody yelled and thumped the table in front of me I would probably shout back, so fair play to your DS for not doing that.

You do not need to shout to get attention. There is a difference between raising your voice and shouting. Keeping them in at break or after school normally does it!

Let us know how you get on

Thanks everybody :) im logging off now ill let you all know later how i get on.

What happened in the 2 minutes interval between the teacher saying your son should have told her everything and her suddenly starting to shout in his face?

If my child told me, or I saw, her teacher shouting at her my first thought would, in all honesty, be oh christ what has she done. Not to be running off to the HT kicking up a stink.

The teacher came over to us , said " ive spoken to the boys found out what happened, her problem was that my son hadnt told her, my son said i told a different teacher coz u werent there, thats when she started shouting saying you should of told me, so thats why im not happy, she had no reason to kick off

Just sounds like she lost it. Agree with previous poster that we all do this - and with you that it is unprofessional and needs resolving. A constructive meeting can do that.

The headteacher wasnt in school we tried that straight after, the class was quiet as several children confirmed this, my partner only said what he said when the teacher was bent infront pointing in my sons face, think you would of reacted in the same way. His teacher always has a raised voice yet her actions yesturday were very wrong. My child should not have been treated in such a way.

we were taken to a sofa and my sons teacher started talking about how my son should tell her if there's an incident, we didnt walk off from her, she changed her mind, i min she was happy to go to the head, the next min she sat down, to me she realised she was being bang out of order & knew she was in the wrong,... its now 13:30 and still no phonecall from the headmaster, lunch is over.

Dozza, she does sound unprofessional and shouldn't have acted the way she did with your son.

However I just wanted to caution against getting angrier and angrier, which is natural when you're waiting so long to talk to the head - but you need to be totally calm and rational and constructive when you do talk to the head, otherwise he/she is likely to write you off as an aggressive parent.

The calmer and more reasonable you are, the more I think it will show that the teacher was at fault here - I guess what I am saying is don't give the head a chance to mentally write you off.

Are you collecting your son from school. If they dont ring by the time you go inform the secretary you have tried to contact the head on various occassions but he is never available. Ask to speak to him again if she says he is busy tell them you are going to the board of governers as you dont want your son in school until this problem is resolved.

Our head would never make you wait this long to speak to her.

I know im staying calm :) Just amazes me that i still havent been called, even if something had come up would it really hurt for the receptionist to call and say there's a delay?

Ok fifi , my hubby says ring them at 2:0clock however i think what you suggest sounds a better option.

Like sleepingwell says, just stay carm and inform her of what happened and you are not happy your son was shouted at in this way. It was unproffesional for her to do this in front of the other parents. Good luck Obvously dont take your son out of school but it may make him speak to you

Thanks fifi, ill update later..... hopefully with good news !! :@)

Please ring and ask for their complaints procedure and then start the ball rolling with a formal complaint.