About Ds Teacher wanting to call him something else ?

[CrazyHhas5kitties]

So Ds 5 has come home from school a little bit upset & after asking bribing him to tell me what's wrong I'm unsure how to deal/react to it .

Right so for the sake of keeping my anonimity (sp) I have changed the names .

So Ds is called Tom & has a class mate called Thomas from what I can gather Thomas' mum has told their Teacher that Thomas must now be called Tom so the Teacher has told Ds that he must be called Thomas so everybody doesn't get confused

Ds said 'but that's not my name' but apparently that's how it has to be because everybody can't be confused by two children with the same name , even though Tom is what's on my Ds birth certificate not Thomas

So if I haven't lost/confused you all what should I do about this ?

I will be seeing the Teacher Monday so I will say something I'm just unsure of what to say

well it would not be A and B it would be eg S or J for Smith or Jones, silly.

I have two girls in one of my classes with the same first name AND surname. AND middle initial. AND they've been best mates since nursery.

So we have Sarah Jane Brown (say) & Sarah Julia Brown. & they just have to be 'Sarah Jane' & 'Sarah Julia' to all staff.

To their friends they are 'Little Ginger Sarah' & 'Big Blonde Sarah'...

...anyway, YANBU. But definitely check ds hasn't got confused as to what teacher actually said.

Hi, old infant teacher here.
It is ridiculous, you must tell her firmly he is not called Thomas. She will have his correct name in her register, there is no excuse.

er strange school. I am a TA and we have 3 boys with exactly the same name, so what!

we either look directly at the child we are addressing as would any child or use the child's full name.

certainly go in.

my dd has a long name that we always shorten to a boys so think Georgie for Georgina, a mum of a boy came up to me at the beginning if reception year and brayed 'of course you will call her by her proper name now or they will confused her with my ds'

don't bloody think so dear!!!

I dont understand it, there are two children, one Tom, and one Thomas. Remind me again why they have swapped name? Why cannot Thomas be named Thomas, and Tom be named Tom?

If Thomas is used to Tom, is it not easier to explain to him that because his name is Thomas, and there is already a boy named Tom, we must use his full name from now on, than to randomly give another child his name?

Assuming this isn't DS having got hold of the wrong end of the stick, his teacher is a wee bit of a loon isn't she?
I think you should suggest she reads "Wee Free Men" or any of the other Nac Mac Feegle books by Terry Pratchett as a lesson in differentiating people with the same name - Wee Davy, Big Davy, Medium Davy, Wee-er than Medium Davy but not as wee as Wee Davy Davy, etc. She'll be a new woman at the end of it.

In my tiny primary school of less than 30 pupils there were 5 boys with the same first name and 2 different boys (not one of those 5) with exactly the same name, down to their middle names - they were called David the 1st and David the 2nd, like kings.

In your shoes I would actually take it straight to the head.

Bloody hell! No need for your son to change his name. He is Tom A, other Tom is Tom B. or whatever. Sorted surely? My DD has 3 Jacks and 3 Ellas in her class. No one is confused at all as they each are known as Jack A/Ella B etc.

So yes I'd have a word with the teacher.

"why is my son B and not A?"
seriously? probably because your surname is Brown and theirs is Anderson! unless that's only another example of a teacher assigning random A/B labels, which is just as daft as insisting on using the wrong name.

My son moved from a school of 450 children where he was the only one with his particular first name (Robert is a pretty common name just not in that school!) to a small rural school with a class of 4 boys where there were two others with the same first name. So three Roberts out of 5 boys!
No one suggested that any of them became a Rob or a Bob, they were just Robert!!
( I now have 3 girls with the same name in my class, 2 with the same initial and 2 with the same middle name-we get by!

Tbh now that I have calmed down & had a chance to think about it I'm certain it was the other mum that made this odd decision as she is an odd one

This happened to me as a child. Aged six there were 3 girls all called same name as me lets say it was Elizabeth (it wasn't) one got Elizabeth, one got Lizzy and I got given Beth.
To this day I am Beth to everyone DH included except my immediate family!
When I think about it I get really angry at that teacher and confused as to why my DM didn't say anything.

The most annoying bit is Ds name is not Common or even very well heard of & is a completely different name to his Class Mate

So is it like, for example, one child called Caitlin, but she wants it shortened to Katie, and another who is just called Katie and the teacher insisting she is called Katherine?

Completely not on. We have Big Tom and Little Tom in my class.

I have a Thomas too. I'd be really annoyed if his teacher started calling him Tom.

phantomnamechanger and NigellasDealer

Both children had similar surnames (upto the middle letter, it happens), If the children had different last names they would have been "Simon" first letter of last name.

I swear to Tak that some people look for issues where there is none.

*are none
not "is none"

you are not wrong there boney, thats for sure

Pipbin yeah like that

I wouldn't make a fuss with the teacher, but I would ask why she/he thinks it is appropriate to tell you son he can no longer use his given name. I don't see why it has to change.

I would also be inclined to tell you son not to answer to anything other than his name.

FWIW worth my dd2 told her teacher to call her Lexie rather then Alexandra as she didn't want to be confused with Alexander.

She is a tiny little girl and Alexander is a well built boy and a good couple of sizes bigger then her. They are the complete opposite in every way, shape and colour as then can be.

Its quite hard for me to say Ds to not answer to anything but his name as he has AS and is already confused enough so I'm just hoping to speak to his Teacher and not mention it to Ds again

Reminds me of a situation at work where a colleague told me Kevin was selling one of those windmill things that go in your garden. I neglected to check which Kevin it was and shlepped round the office bothering 2 incorrect Kevins about windmills before locating the correct one.

I now refer to them as 'Post room Kevin', 'Development Kevin' and 'Pervy Kevin'.

Sorry for going off topic OP!

He has AS? Surely that only makes the teachers attitude worse?

mostlymama that happened to my cousin, his teacher wrote 'Benjamin' on all his books even though his full name (on his birth certificate) is 'Ben'.

We also have/had 2 pairs of children with exactly the same first name and surname at school, and we manage. Though I was very confused when I was doing first aid, and had thought the children were having me on when they insisted they had the same name as each other!