to think a child should not be blamed for teachers shortcomings

[bloodyschool]

Have NC'd
DD is a quiet conscientious and hard working child.The archetypical model student.She is 7
She was late or school one day last week (no excuses it was just a one off day wneb she was a bit tired and dilly dallying) and then the car had a bit of trouble starting and we ended up 10 minutes late.I hold my hand up to that Yes our fault entirely.
However after school DD and I were called into the office to be told that on that day, her teacher, who is an NQT was being observed.DD being late had flustered her so much that she had had to start the lesson again and had consequently not been marked well.DD who adores her teacher was in floods of tears and had been feeling very guilty and sorry for her teacher.
I am furious.Yes to be blamed for being late is one thing- to be blamed for the teacher not coping with a very common situation is not.

Your argument is with the person who talked to you about this.
It is none of your or your DD's concern what grade this teacher was given.
Her appraisal is confidential and any discussion with you about the outcome is unprofessional.
I would talk to the HT and ask why this person thought it appropriate to breach confidentiality.

Completely agree with this, and also that your dd's treatment has been really poor. I would raise it if I were you. As a teacher, this whole situation seems unbelievable for so many reasons!

• the teacher being unable to cope with a child who is late (a perfectly normal occurence)
• your dd being blamed, to her face, for her teacher being given a poor grading (impossible! - I can just imagine the response from an OFSTED inspector if a teacher tried to blame a CHILD for being given a poor grading!!)
• you and your dd being told about the grading (as said above - completely confidential)

You might find the HT is also very shocked about what happened if you speak to him/ her.

That I , definitely complain. What the school did was totally wrong. If te NQT cannot cope with late arrivals she should not be teaching!

YANBU!! A NQT should be able to cope with a pupil arriving late. If they can't, it is not the problem of a 7 year old. It should not have been brought up in front of your DD.

I have a 7 year old DD and she would be upset if she thought she had caused her centre of the universe, goddess and altogether wonderful person teacher to get in to trouble, she would be very upset indeed. I would have to do all I could to reassure her, but her inability to see her teacher could do anything wrong would mean she lived with the blame rather than be able to accept it was her teachers fault for not being able to deal with it.

Yabu to be disgusted but also yanbu not to complain. Whatever the rights or wrongs, your child should not have been privy to this conversation. You need to be in her corner because her memory of stuff like this is likely to be that it went unchallenged by you.

Complain in writing and ask for a written apology imo.

Yabu and yanbu in the wrong spots there!

Ok I am going to email the HT today.The teacher who spoke to us was the NQTs r mentor teacher.I'll let you know what happens!

YANBU, I would have hit the roof sent my DD out the room before giving them a piece of my mind about professionalism and if a teacher can't cope with one child been late then the teacher deserves a poor score. I would complain if I was you but understand why you don't want p. Hope your DD is ok....

Did you get any response?

A bad workmen blames his tools ans all that...

she should be able to cope with that.

I find this very hard to believe. Observation results are confidential between the teacher and the observer (and the head if they aren't observing). If the mentor really did pass on this information, they are unbelievably unprofessional and I cannot see what they hoped to achieve (the NQT will surely be mortified if she knows you were told).

I have been teaching for seven years and we are observed at least three times a year. We are actively discouraged from passing on our results to our colleagues, never mind children or parents! I really hope this isn't true.

If it is true, the teacher should have easily been able to deal with a latecomer, although I do hate being observed and I can see why she would be flustered.

I am guessing the 'mentor' teacher felt it reflected badly on her mentoring.But not acceptable!

bloodyschool
"a child could only be blamed for their behaviour not for the teacher's poor assessment."

I dispute this, I have seen pupils deliberately destroy lessons whilst an observer has been present.

What did the HT say?

Totally agree with MagicHouse

Bloody, that's not on, either for your dd, or the NQT. Complain. The mentor is probably inexperienced.

I totally agree with you sneezy. As a teacher myself I would be mortified if I thought another member if staff had highlighted this to the parents/child. I've been teaching for 6 years and it's not really a realistic lesson if all children are on their best behaviour just because it is an observation. They should all be acting normally (which should hopefully be well anyway! ) and lateness is normal - particularly in a secondary school where they are coming from another lesson. The NQT should be using this as a learning experience. I disagree with those who say she shouldn't be teaching, these things come with time.
Being late in itself is obviously not great but it should not have been highlighted to you just because the lesson happened to be an observed lesson.

The mentor should be disciplined for discussing such matters, was not her place at all!