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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be tired of teachers exaggerating

454 replies

onarailwaytrain · 29/09/2014 22:19

Dd and DS (twins) in year 11 at the moment and all we have heard is how they have to get their GCSEs, their lives will be ruined if they don't, they will never get to college and never get a good job. Etc.

Dd in particular is unlikely to get many cs or above. AIBU in thinking the teachers should back off a bit?

OP posts:
Original poster
onarailwaytrain · 02/10/2014 17:08

Delphiniums you seem convinced I am just a bit slow and haven't understood; I have!

But I don't care ... Obviously I feel for people in that position but it just does not excuse mocking, jeering and snideness and that's why I posted!

OP posts:
Delphiniumsblue · 02/10/2014 17:13

But however the teacher put it she was not exaggerating! It has huge implications- as explained by Nomama.
Experiences in the past are irrelevant.

ravenAK · 02/10/2014 17:13

smokepole - slight derailment, besides outing me to anyone I've ever met, but in answer to yoour question, I did a degree straight from school, worked in pubs/restaurants/music venues/on the door to fund it, & then went into venue management after Uni.

Eventually my first husband & I bought a pub restaurant.

I had more disposable income than now because we had no additional accommodation or work transport costs because of living over the shop, we ate the surplus stock that would otherwise have been binned, & mainscale teachers don't earn £50k, even at the top of the pay spine!

I then left the hospitality industry after being widowed, & did a one year PGCE as my entrance into teaching.

I now earn roughly the same as (according to this thread) a KFC manager. I've never been one, so I don't know how hard they work - but I certainly graft more now than I did as a pub landlady. But I'll admit that I prefer teaching.

Original poster
onarailwaytrain · 02/10/2014 17:17

But however they (plural) say it DCs won't be getting a C or above delphiniums so the endless 'poor teachers' is tedious and irrelevant.

The teachers obviously aren't to blame for the system but is there anything so wrong with 'it's really important to try your best.'

I don't want to play the special needs card here at all - but DO you have a child with special needs?

OP posts:
Original poster
onarailwaytrain · 02/10/2014 17:17

But however they (plural) say it DCs won't be getting a C or above delphiniums so the endless 'poor teachers' is tedious and irrelevant.

The teachers obviously aren't to blame for the system but is there anything so wrong with 'it's really important to try your best.'

I don't want to play the special needs card here at all - but DO you have a child with special needs?

OP posts:
Delphiniumsblue · 02/10/2014 17:20

I don't think you can have read my posts as I have said that I do all along!
Your DCs may not get Cs but they are going to have to do it again next year, and the year after. I haven't taken the exact timings so it maybe they will scrape in without. After 2017 they won't.

Fruityb · 02/10/2014 17:21

If they don't get a C first time then they have to keep going till they do. In English anyway. Thanks for that one Mr Gove. It means we end up with kids being set up to fail second time round...
Performance related pay isn't in play at my school it's linked to performance management so your own target setting.
Sadly schools have to be results driven as resits no longer count on school figures, we're going to 100% exam again which is terrifying and so many parents want to know what kids got. It's what schools are judged on and we have floor targets to hit. They expect an increase in progress every year so assume that all kids learn the same way and at the same rate. We've had kids we've had to teach to read yet have come in with high levels. Too much pressure on figures and sadly not on the individual. That's the government's fault.

Delphiniumsblue · 02/10/2014 17:21

My last link is a good one- if you don't read about it you won't understand that it does have huge implications for your children. I think my last link said who was exempt.

Delphiniumsblue · 02/10/2014 17:23

Have you read what Nomama actually posted? You seem to keep saying that your DCs won't get Cs as if that is the end of it- it won't be.

Dragonfly71 · 02/10/2014 17:24

Nomama is right, the government have decreed this is necessary. On the plus side OP your children will be able to go on to college and study something vocational if they choose too. Lots of colleges give pupils good support to achieve the grade c in maths and English alongside their course. This is less stressful hopefully as they won't have to worry about taking any other gcses at the same time and will be doing the non academic stuff they enjoy the rest of the time. Yanbu, this system is causing too much stress for our teens at a really vulnerable time in their lives.

Original poster
onarailwaytrain · 02/10/2014 17:27

Yes delphiniums I have and I know it won't be the end of it - I've said that, multiple times, BUT - insulting them isn't going to change facts for them.

Look. You have a child who can't see. Do you keep telling them 'you will be claiming the dole for years you know unless you learn to see'

NO - I hope! Because she cant.

I am not the one missing your points; you are missing mine. My children will go on to fe (said that) and keep doing English and maths (said that too) but they will not in the year 2015 get Cs in them both. Teachers telling them they will amount to nothing is not going to change that.

OP posts:
Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 02/10/2014 17:28

The government needs to wake up. Not all children are academic,

Delphiniumsblue · 02/10/2014 17:28

At least the colleges seem to realise they can't just do more of the same but they are upset about the speed of the changes- that was in a previous link that I gave early in the thread.

Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 02/10/2014 17:29

Teachers pay linked to results. No wonder teachers go on at them so much and can you blame them. It's their bread and butter,

Delphiniumsblue · 02/10/2014 17:29

But will it be any better next year when they are still having to get them- or the year after?

Delphiniumsblue · 02/10/2014 17:32

If they can't achieve it in 2015 is there any point in trying to achieve it in 2016? Do you not begin to feel more of a failure the more times you fail it?

Delphiniumsblue · 02/10/2014 17:32

It is the government that needs to wake up!

Original poster
onarailwaytrain · 02/10/2014 17:35

I don't know delphiniums but either way being insulted won't make a bit of difference to whether they get it next year or the year after will it?

I agree it's wrong but I didn't start the thread originally for this and it's as if you're determined to tell me the teachers are right, their lives will be ruined. I can't explain how distressing I have found your posts! No doubt you'll tell me you're right and read your links. But what the fuck, pardon my language, do you want me to do? Tell the kids 'you're right there is nothing for you after school so yeah kill yourselves'?

I suppose I'm just hoping for a bit of understanding here. Fwiw DCs are adopted, I didn't mention this as it isn't relevant but maybe it helps understand how low their self esteem is anyway to rejection and how hard their early years were - I'm not saying your links are wrong but I am saying teachers shouldn't be telling my sixteen year olds they are worthless. As your comments here have really affected me and made me tearful and I'm not 16. It's really made me see what it must be like for DCs anyway!

OP posts:
Dragonfly71 · 02/10/2014 17:35

Sorry if I repeated what you'd already said about fe op! I have had similar experience with my dd but she actually did a lot better than we were led to believe she would by school. The teachers do try to scare them into working harder. Not good, but guess they are desperate.

Original poster
onarailwaytrain · 02/10/2014 17:36

Will you DO ONE delphiniums? Please???

What the FUCK do you want ME to do about the government? I know the system stinks but the government personally aren't ringing my house telling me that my children have no future beyond the dole.

OP posts:
Original poster
onarailwaytrain · 02/10/2014 17:38

Sorry that was rude.

Thanks dragonfly.

Please, I beg you - no more. No more about how my children will be trapped in college until they are 43 resorting English and maths, point made , point made , point made. Thank you.

They will keep trying because that's what they do.

I guess I just don't see why self hate needs to be taught alongside language analysis.

OP posts:
Original poster
onarailwaytrain · 02/10/2014 17:38

Sorry that was rude.

Thanks dragonfly.

Please, I beg you - no more. No more about how my children will be trapped in college until they are 43 resorting English and maths, point made , point made , point made. Thank you.

They will keep trying because that's what they do.

I guess I just don't see why self hate needs to be taught alongside language analysis.

OP posts:
Itsfab · 02/10/2014 17:38

My English teacher told me I wouldn't pass my English GCSEs. I was so embarrassed I worked that bit harder and passed.

I do tell my children that they need to work hard as exam results that are good gives them choices and means they will be able to get the job they want, which means they will have money to do the extras they want to do. Written here simplistically but the point is obvious.

mrsruffallo · 02/10/2014 17:40

I know what you mean, it's the assumption that that everyone must be academic and if they are not they are just being lazy. You can't fit a square peg in a round hole. You can teach kids all kinds of things but you can't make them all have a thirst educational brilliance.

pea84 · 02/10/2014 17:42

This has gone off post completely but I feel the need to respond to the comment about the average salary. As I already said, I earn £24,000 a year as a teacher which is below the average salary (apparently £26,000) so at some levels being a teacher does not pay well. Sorry to bang on about it but as a 30 year old who can't afford to move out of her parents home this subject pisses me off!

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