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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be annoyed at this teacher regarding parents evening?

221 replies

Blownspeakersandvolcanos · 20/04/2017 20:47

My dd is is in year 9 and had a parents evening tonight which she came along to.

When it was our turn to approach her art teacher, he had to ask dd what her name was again.

There was an instance in his class where she asked him for a fresh piece of paper and he had a go at her because he had assumed she had come in from the classroom next door and should have therefore asked her teacher Hmm

I get in secondary school that you obviously teach many children, but he also taught her during year 7 too.

I just didn't want to listen to his report on her because he doesn't seem to have a clue who she was!

OP posts:
RaspberryIce · 21/04/2017 00:15

Dd got a merit for "effort in lesson" the other day for a lesson she wasn't in as she was at a rehearsal. [Proud] Grin

Dixiestamp · 21/04/2017 00:23

Edwin, but do you recognise everyone of them (maybe there are hundreds) instantly at sight?

RaspberryIce · 21/04/2017 00:24

How can we make it easier for teachers to know who our child is at parents evening? Maybe introduce ourselves by saying "Hi I'm Joe Blogg's mum?"

Dixiestamp · 21/04/2017 00:24

(And there should be a space between my every and one- stupid autocorrect!)

noblegiraffe · 21/04/2017 00:27

Wow, I didn't know that bankers only dealt with their clients in groups of 30+ then after a long hard day banking be expected to do 3 hours of intensive 5 minute speed dates with their clients (looking totally different) and their parents.

I thought banking was totally different to teaching making such comparisons pointless...

edwinbear · 21/04/2017 00:27

Dixie yes. When I answer the phone and they say "Hi Edwin, it's Mr X from B' I am of course expected to recognise them. I don't even get the visual stimulus. It's what paid to do. I'd be mortified if I didn't recognise a client.

edwinbear · 21/04/2017 00:32

noble I work on a trading floor. I work from 7am-7pm in fast moving markets where clients often want to deal multi million pound deals. I often have calls in the middle of the night due to time differences. How often do you wake up at 3am to take a call from a client? And yes I know who they all are.

noblegiraffe · 21/04/2017 00:32

But the teacher doesn't get given the name. It would be totally easy if the kid said 'I'm josh smith from class 9z'

Dixiestamp · 21/04/2017 00:37

But that is kind of different from plucking a name out of the air from just seeing someone, Edwin (really sorry I don't know how to do the capitals for the name thing, I feel a bit silly!). Personally, I think I was always pretty good at remembering names; there was one year (when I was still teaching full time- non core subject) that in a week I had 6 yr 7 classes, 5 year 8 classes, 4 year 9 classes, as well as a yr 10, 11, 12 and 13 class. Most of those were only one hour a week and many had over 39 pupils. That's one heck of a lot of faces to remember! I'm sure I've got worse at it as I've got older!

Dixiestamp · 21/04/2017 00:38

Grrr, over 30! Over 39 and I'd have been having words with my Union!!

RaspberryIce · 21/04/2017 00:39

That is a lot. Think i will try and slip dd's name in when I see teachers at the next PE.

edwinbear · 21/04/2017 00:40

Ahh yes, OK I agree. If you are meant to recognise by sight each of every 300 clients/pupils without a name, I'd struggle with that. At conferences I'm f hopeless.

TalkingofMichaelAngel0 · 21/04/2017 00:41

edwin do you know by sight without the name being said who all your clients are?

TalkingofMichaelAngel0 · 21/04/2017 00:42

Cross post.

edwinbear · 21/04/2017 00:42

OP as long as the the teacher could discuss your DD once they had her name, I think that's fair enough.

Dixiestamp · 21/04/2017 00:43

Raspberry- teachers will secretly love you for that (I love a clue!).

edwinbear · 21/04/2017 00:47

Maybe the school should have name badges - just to avoid the embarrassment on all sides.

noblegiraffe · 21/04/2017 00:54

Fair play Edwin, for changing your mind! :)

edwinbear · 21/04/2017 01:01

I firmly believe in the principle of 'knowing your clients'. Should you know them as they rock up, randomly, en masse in their own clothes, without so much as a hint? Hell no.

edwinbear · 21/04/2017 01:08

In fact I'm shuddering at the thought that all my clients suddenly descended on me demanding an appraisal of their annual performance, alongside their bosses, without a name badge. OP YABVU Shock

mathanxiety · 21/04/2017 01:23

I have sent all 5 of my DCs to a 3,500+ high school and have been to numerous PT meeting evenings. Only once did a teacher get one of my DCs mixed up with another student. My DD and another girl with red hair sat in the same general area of a particular lab. The teacher would have got away with mixing DD3 up with this other girl if he hadn't told me right at the end of the meeting that he looked forward to seeing DD on Cross Country again next season. Obv all petite red haired girls are interchangeable. I had introduced myself and said whose mother I was...

People don't just rock up willy nilly to PT meetings in my DCs' school. Everyone has a time slot of 6 minutes and 99.9% of the teachers have their vital stats papers ready in the order of appointments and can double check on their computers too. And of course parents introduce themselves.

You don't get seen if you show up out of order. You can wait around until the end and hope that the teacher has some time left over, or just email or have a phone conference afterwards.

Last time there were meetings someone set off a fire alarm and I still got my appointment in because the teacher in question told everyone sitting outside his classroom that he would be talking to parents at X corner of the tennis courts for the duration of our exodus. We all trooped out and he got through about ten meetings before the doors were reopened.

Dixiestamp · 21/04/2017 01:25

Hehe! Kids do look different 'in their own clothes' too, yes. Do you know, though, that if I met someone in the street now that I taught in 1997 I could probably give you their name and which form they were in. Ones from 4 or 5 years ago, not a chance- it's really odd! Online registers with pictures attached are a great help, though ;-)

user1489179512 · 21/04/2017 01:27

He sounds like a poor specimen. Imagine having to ask a child you teach what her name is. Ridiculous. Maybe you should point his ineptitude out to the school.

mathanxiety · 21/04/2017 01:28

Kids don't come to PT meetings here. So it's all unfamiliar parental faces.

I think this teacher the OP encountered was really out of order.

Trifleorbust · 21/04/2017 01:31

He probably teaches hundreds of students - literally 500 or 600 kids. Of course he sometimes forgets names.