to think teachers and schools do a fooking amazing job, and to be stunned and disgusted that they get such unnecessary arse-ache from ridiculous parents?

[bejeezus]

Im despairing of the amount of AIBU threads recently along the lines of- teachers shouldnt be telling my dc to go to bed early/ shouldnt be promoting 100% attendance blah blah blah

I understand there are other routes to adulthood besides main-stream education. But whilst you do use mainstream education you should understand what a difficult job it is for schools and teachers to educate groups of 30 children and maintain discipline, if those children are late/absent/tired and if the parents are constantly undermining the teachers/schools authority.

Schools have a whole diversity of families and children to accomodate including children with English as a 2nd/3rd language,social problems,SENs, disabilities and a whole range of abilities to cater for within each class. The last thing they need on top of this is spending valuable time and resources accomodating whiney-arsed parents who think the rules should not apply to them because they are in some way 'special'; ie. they are educated and rich and capable of home tutoring to facilitate an extended trip and absence from school. Ifthat isthe case, then do your home schooling and free up the schoolplace for a child that is not going to disrupt the class by extended absences/lateness and duvet days.

And, no, having your childrens lead an enriched and cultured lifestyle does not constitute a valid excuse for lateness and tiredness. Get your kids to bed on time so the teachers have the best chance of getting the best education to the most kids

There are very many countries and cultures where only1 child per family is educated (at best) because the family cannot afford more. This is almost always not a daughter

Its appalling. Education is a priviledge. What chance in hell do teachers have of getting kids to appreciate that, if the parents insisted on taken it for granted.

And finally, big-up to the teachers on here. You do a grand job, in the face of lunacy!

YABU
some teachers are fooking fantastic others are fooking crap
people are allowed to criticize/be unhappy and voice their opinions about a bad experience or something they don't agree with

teachers do not do any better/worse a job than any other profession in the UK who are also subject to the same praise/criticism.
GPs, dentists, nurses police, politicians, estate agents, bankers,solicitors,shop assistants........are all objects of dissatisfaction at times...the rest of the profession does not need to take it personally.

many of my ADULT customers are late, rude, grumpy, unreasonable, need extra advise/coaching compared to others..instead of calling them whiney arsed we take on board their complaints or problems/issues and try to come to a mutual ground

instead of taking it personally perhaps you could just take on board people's comments ..rather than just dismissing it as a whiney arsed excuse (very professional)...because I'm sure you also complain from time to time about services or businesses that you use

DH does an amazing job. So he says

No big complaints about the education my DC have had so far but then again I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting. I guess the proof will be mainly in the pudding - when we see the sort of adults they turn into.

....arent children the customers of school, not the parents?

bejeezus I completely . I thought the thread about the going to bed thing was unreasonable.
I mean how dare a HT promote the children's wellbeing by actually suggesting that they have an early night ?!

There are a number of things you can sack a teacher for, but being crap ain't one of them.

My Dad used to say this regularly. He was a well respected high up university lecturer at a top uni for teacher training!

As the child and grandchild and greatgrandchild of teachers, I had never heard of this "teacher is always right" concept until I started frequenting Mumsnet. My parents (and no doubt grandparents) took it for granted that not everybody is good at their job, or not even trying their hardest, and that when malpractices occur you are allowed to point them out. People who work hard and work well should be praised was their attitude. Not everybody must be good if they belong to a certain category.

As a university teacher, I would be devastated if my students just quietly put up with something that was stressing them out and making learning harder: I would want to know so the problem could be sorted. I had the same attitude when I worked as a teacher.

Starlight... Times are changing dps school got rid of one a year ago and he has one in his sights now. He was complaining it will take longer than it should...

I had a discussion with p today about whether dd3's year 1 teacher should be 'allowed' to teach if she didn't have a good grasp of formal written English. She does in the main but makes mistakes. Yesterday at parents' evening she had written that dd "didn't quite spell phonetically yet but was getting there." excuse me" I wanted to say " the issue is that she DOES spell phonetically, that is what we are trying address. I didn't though.
She also wrote that dd's writing was "working progress"
That would normally bother me and it does a tiny bit BUT she enthuses all the children in her class, they love her and want to learn.
Slightly off topic sorry

I totally agree with OP. You only have to spend an hour in a classroom observing to see what teachers are up against. From the pathetic line of parents/carers in the morning waiting to say things like 'if it's sunny, he can go out to play, but if it's windy, keep him in' or 'have you seen the dolly shoe she brought to school yesterday?' to parents/carers arriving 30 minutes late for the school run at the end of the day without even a courtesy phone call. Never mind all the usual crap they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Really was that is good to know. He put it down to the unions erc. Despite being a raving leftie himself.

He got fed up with the 'system' though because all the students he used to fail for being crap got their marks overturned to meet government targets......

He reckoned that a 3rd of his students should never have been allowed to set foot in a classroom after their course.

He took voluntary redundancy in the end out of frustration and ever decreasing pedagogical education.

thanks ever so much for bigging me up beejezus

It scares me that UK teachers cannot spell!

icompletely agree that teachers should not be held on a pedestal- of course they can be crap.

But as a tax payer myself and a parent, I dont want my dcs teachers to have their energy and time wasted on ridiculous complaints such as I only see on mumsnet e.g. teachers should not tell children what time bed time is. when they could actually be concentrating on teaching and doing a better job.

It appears we have been lucky though- I cant fault dcs school. Its not ofsted good, its not in a desirable neighbourhood.But its a happy school where all the pupils are considered as individuals. I wouldnt insult the teachers with such piffling crap,and luckily I think most of the other parents in my dds class think along the same lines

'100% attendance awards at primary school for example, are a load of old bollocks.'
quote of the week right there

Unfortunately though, even the best teachers are becoming less effective. I think it is easy for teachers to blame parents for their stress and not understanding what they have to deal with when really they should be taking their stress out on those above, lack of resources, ridiculous inclusion agenda and the 'system' that makes them less able to cater for the individual needs of the children.

hooray for posters who understand SN. There was much smug judging of posters who had children who suffered from anxiety around attending school on last night's thread. I even resorted to sweary words.

...to be clear the ridiculous parents that the OP is referring to are parents like me

My DD has SEN. All the more reason that precious parents dont fanny about 'enriching their childs lives' and then disrupt the rest of the class with absences/lateness and tiredness

No-one was smug about children with SNs on that thread--Heswall said her daughter did NOT have any anxiety disorder.

As I remember corn your dc was/is genuinely ill..so none of what was said was directed at you...no one was disputing time off for genuine illness. What was being said was that receiving the blanket letters when your child has been genuinely ill does not have to be a big stress. And as the attendance monitoring protects very vulnerable children, it was reasonable to expect those parents to suckit upa bit. As, there was apparently not a better workable system to be suggested

My DS has SEN.

All the more reason TO take him out IMO, to top up his education coz the school hasn't got a clue frankly.

He always learns MUCH more in the school holidays than he ever does in term times.

YANBU - I think teachers get a bit of a hard time. I'm nearly one and most of my pals are teachers. I like them...mostly

if your child can't attend school it turns your entire life upside down
there is no support
So having lived (and come out of the other side) of that, I get very cross when I see sweeping generalisations made about attendance

I'm not angry with teachers

Ok starlight maybe I have just been lucky then. Our school is fantastic for SENs- lots of support and strategies

Maybe you should just "suck it up" if another child, who happens to be nothing to with you, is tired or ill.