To think class teachers don't need to know...

[LemonDrizzleDisco]

Name changed but frequent poster.

Aibu to think that only pastoral team at school need to know personal details about a child going through tough times and class teachers should only be told that the student is going through a difficult time and XYZ might make them emotional.

I think you are being daft, honestly, we have hundreds of children literally, who need special consideration and TLC for every reason under the sun, there is no way to realistically remember exactly who has which issues, anyway, let alone exactly what we are supposed to say about which child when and to whom, saying something vague about being kind like this teacher did is fine,

Obviously class teachers need to know why someone is off school, it impacts hugely on teaching, learning, planning, assessing, etc.

all this sort of information should be available in the register as a matter of course, no one will be carrying it around in their heads though.

Totally depends on the situation - science teachers discuss all sorts of medical conditions, cancers, hereditary conditions, genetics, terminations, death... if a student is struggling because of something which may be discussed in class then staff should know.

Actually - loads of class discussions could be painful for students struggling with a million and one things...

I had a student come in, put his head on the desk and nap. If all I'd known was that he was having a few problems I might have been a bit cross / woken him up. In fact I'd been told that his dad was in intensive care because of some problems with his alcoholism. My lovely (but prone to silliness and usually needs reigning in in class) had been in hospital all night. Because I'd been told I changed my lesson (ratio - including some reference to alcohol) and let him nap.

I also asked his best mates to look out for him. I didn't announce the reasons but I did make sure students knew he was having a tough time and to look out for him.

We see our students for a massive chunk of their day. It's important that we know stuff about them.

and yes, apart from that we have also moved units around, as a science teacher, but sometimes it isn't possible,For example student who had carried a relative's dead body through a war zone got very upset at a lesson on the rate of cooling of a large object, because they related it directly to this experience, which I did not forsee. I did once cancel a lesson on the brain as I knew a child had been spattered with her brothers brains in a car accident.etc etc etc

so the more information we have, the better, although it isn't always possible to predict what will be upsetting.

I vividly remember a classmate telling morning news that his mother had died in a car accident. Our class teacher then sent him on an errand and while he was gone, explained to us that the boy was going to live in an orphanage and we had to be extra kind to him. Which we were. I remember going home to tell my mother, and to this day wonder how the boy got on. So in our situation it was a positive because we learned an important lesson about kindness and compassion. Not the same situation as yours I appreciate but it's not always a bad thing for teachers to share, we learnt a lot and we're able to show compassion to our friend.

I think teachers usually do need to know what is going on in order to fully support that child, however this teacher dealt with the situation very badly. She shouldn't have talked to the class about it and she shouldn't have brought it up with the child if the child didn't mention it first.

I'll give you an example, I am a form teacher and a child in my form has certain things going on at home, which I know about as the head of year told me after I witnessed some worrying behaviour from this individual. Because of this the child's behaviour is dealt with in a certain way. This week a trainee teacher joined our form and as a result of something and nothing went totally over the top shouting at this child. This resulted in a negative spiral of behaviour that then carried on all day and impacted every lesson. I know exactly what is going on with this child, but they have no idea I know. However it does mean that I can can give them the settled and appropriate start to the day that they need in order to hopefully have a positive impact on the 5 lessons they will go to. It also means as a result of this the child will often come and find me throughout the day and tell me how they are getting on, be it positively or negatively. After I explained to the trainee what was going on she could also see how what she had done had made things a lot worse.

As teachers we aren't told info so we can gossip about it or to make us feel more important. It should never be discussed with another student and I personally would never bring it up with that student directly unless they approached the topic first.

As teachers we aren't told info so we can gossip about it or to make us feel more important.

no honestly we're not, we don't gossip about children's private lives! it simply isn't of that much interest to us, it the job! We gossip about gossip worthy stuff, not work

Depends on the gravity, but by and large all the adults who will come into contact with the child need to know.

I have a self-harming potential suicide in one of my classes. We all needed to know that.

I've currently got an arsonist, yes we all need to know that!

I do get the impression that the OPs issue is something relatively trivial, though, compared to all the things that are going on in the lives of the average secondary school student body, the teacher probably thought it was no biggie

It's something traumatic dd has been through,like a parent dying it has a big impact on dd.

and of course another example we do bend uniform and hair style rules for children with specific scars, if the scar was received in traumatic circumstances - not if it is just a birthmark, or operation or something.

So we would need to know which child has which scar, etc, obviously, other wise they would never be getting past the door for any lesson!

Are you sure science teacher knows what it is? She may know just what she is supposed to know, and her only mistake would be saying something to the class and to DD. It's worth telling your contact at school as it may be helpful for that teacher to be told that often children don't want things to be acknowledged, they want life as usual. Nothing different.

Then of course there is the run of the mill stuff like divorces and lost grandparents, etc, which probably happens to most secondary ge children at some stage, but it is still worth knowing a few details, because obviously it is a different experience for different children, some take these things in their stride, and some are less resiliant.

I think the teacher knows because she mentioned it to dd and asked dd about her ptsd.

I think I'm just overthinking the situation and that the teacher was genuinely just being caring.

I'm a teacher and the science teacher who announced this was out of order. I would make a complaint and ask that the science teacher is spoken to about how to handle these situations. I suspect it came from good intentions, but the science teacher is probably fairly inexperienced (I'm only saying this because staff turnover in teaching is high, especially in science, which means most teachers are fairly new to teaching). In every school I've taught in, classroom teachers have been given the bare minimum of information.

I think it is helpful to know. I can remember an occasion when a child had an extremely traumatic experience and teaching staff had just been told the child was having a difficult time. The problem was some of the other children knew and one made an unpleasant comment and all hell broke loose. At the time I had no idea why it had all blown up which made it more difficult to manage.

If it is a major event then in today's world of internet information sooner or later everyone in the class will know. If the teachers do not know then they are on the backfoot and more likely to handle it badly. If the teacher pre-empts that the class know that it is under control and to behave appropriately.

We are not doubting that the teacher did it for the right reasons - it was just bloody thoughtless and naive to announce that to the class and they need to be told how to handle these situations so I would still raise this as a concern

If kids are having a tough time then it helps to know as a teacher because you can avoid anything that might upset them in class and as a human sometimes you just want to give them a little bit extra TLC while they are struggling.

The caring teacher part of me says that the teacher just wanted to help, but really didn't handle it in the best way. Any 'whole class' convo in my experience is done with the knowledge of the child and parents if relevant at secondary. Might be worth an email/chat with the teacher saying that you appreciate they were trying to help but your child now feels quite singled out. Could anything like that in future be cleared with you prior.

It sounds like the science teacher is trying to take on a role she is not supposed to have, and be the one to help or be the one to "fix" your DD.
Even if the intention is kind, it is not the teachers place, and it is not helping your daugther.
Therefore I think you should tell the school so it becomes clare what responsibility each teacher have towarss your dd in this situation - and what responsibility they don't have.

I think it depends. When I was at secondary my mum was in and out of hospital with no clear diagnosis. My classteacher knew and would often take me aside and check, especially if I was a bit down again. No need to tell the rest of the class.

On the other hand, a friend was diagnosed with an illness causing her to be absent for tests and also required a special diet. In this case it was necessary for us other children to know a bit more so we didn't play up about something which would look like preferential treatment to another child.

It always depends on the circumstances, no case is the same but it can be helpful to keep people in the loop. Most teachers I met are more than bending backwards to keep information confidential and are willing to help.

I think I will just have a word with the pastoral team and find out exactly what has been told to the teachers.

My 15yo DD was reprimanded in front of her whole class for being off for a practice French oral test. She had been at her father's funeral. The school had not bothered to tell her subject teachers that her dad had died. The teacher was mortified when another pupil told her she was out of order and why Dd had been absent. Sometimes your child needs the teacher to know,