to be a bit freaked out that ds's new teacher is our nextdoor neighbour

[LargeLatte]

And she will be his teacher for nearly 2 years.

Every time the kids mess about outside the house, or are noisy playing in the garden, or we get a takeaway, or we go away for the weekend, or anything at all his teacher will know about it.

Please tell me this will be OK.

OP you've said this person complains about my children and how I look after them.

I think this a completely different thing to simply having the teacher next door. I would make sure your DS is put in another class (and maybe try and persuade the school to move one of his friends with him...)

I think it's really sad that both teachers and parents worry about this situation. It says a lot about the state of community these days in most places.

[sometimes i think i am more suited to living on a remote tiny hebridean island as i like to know my gp and teachers and neighbours etc]

I grew up being babysat by my teachers from my first years at primary school. One still sends me a birthday card every year and I go to see her every time I go home, and another is my Mum's best friend.
My mum taught at my school so I was completely used to teachers being teachers some of the time and family friends the rest of the time. I knew what happened at their houses, they knew what happened at mine. It was never awkward and even as a child I managed to keep things separate.

I know mum was friends with them so it might be different, but the only time I was ever aware that it might not be a good thing to know your teachers socially is when one of them divulged my middle name to my entire school during assembly - she was talking about things that can be handed down from generation to generation. Sometimes it might be a 'thing' (discussion of items with sentimental value) and sometimes it might be a name - like baby over there who has a middle name 'bythe' because her mum and her gran and her great-gran all had it.

I was mortified - I thought my middle name ugly and old-fashioned and tried never to tell anyone. That was the only point where I thought "Having your teachers as friends is a crap idea".