To contact sons teacher and make her feel as shit as she has made him feel!!

[cherryberrymum]

I'm bloody furious and I'm counting on the Mumsnet massive to make me see perspective here.

Son is doing AS levels. One of his teachers who has been laid back to say the least all year has suddenly realised her entire class are not going to pass!!!!

I have done the subject previously and have been helping him the best I can but after a recent disaster in a class test I sent him to ask her for advice.

He said she sat back in her chair arms behind her head and just said he had written a crap answer and it only deserved 3 out of 20 but she felt generous and gave him 6 out of twenty. 😟

Who the hell is that benefiting???? He is home now feeling crap about the first exam which is next Tuesday! She didn't give him any guidance on how to improve his answer. Just told him to read the question in future. He finished tomo for study leave but I'm so bloody cross!!!

WIBU to contact her tomo morning and tell her she's a Knob! Or should I wait till parents meetings in October (assuming he passes AS levels and gets back to do A Levels)

I am sure the school will pick up on the fact that the teacher is seriously underperforming and change her for next year. Or you could complain if you feel she's genuinely that bad. However, you can't try and blame everything on her at the 11th hour - 3/20 or even 6/20 is so shockingly bad that your son can't have studied very much at all...

When he went to speak to her, was this during their class time or at a random time? I am. It able to give detailed help to a student in the two minutes (if I'm lucky) between one class leaving and the next arriving. It's also hard if someone hasn't done well all year and is finally motivated to ask for help a week before the exam. She may well be a knob but may also be tired, frustrated, and at her wit's end about what to do to make her class pay attention to what she's taught them. Stuff about where she puts her arms is really irrelevant though. Do you know where you son puts his arms when he's speaking or how he sits in class?

As someone who once answered a question about the wrong war, then i agree that reading the question properly is very good advice.

Luckily it was just a school exam.

Also, I doubt very much she said he had written a crap answer so your DS has summarised how her response made him feel but his summary might have missed out the detail.
Why do people always do this on MN? Refuse to believe that what a young person reports a teacher said is what the teacher said? It's over 20 years since I was at secondary school but I had teachers who certainly would have said exactly that.

The subject is Sociology and yes I have had numerous conversations with her about him. She insists on commenting how the girls are great in her class and the boys are all Lazy. (Ironic considering the content of the education topic!). She refuses to see that he doesn't understand or grasp how to answer the questions. Any past papers he has completed have been ones we (his parents) have downloaded ourselves. She prefers to use her own questions.

This is the first year she has taught this subject. His two friends also did poorly. He got 61% his buddies go 59% and 63 %. The highest in the class was 64% and having now spoken to a neighbour who's daughter is in the class it has become apparent I'm not the only one concerned.

He is 17 and while I'm prepared for the barrage of abuse about my parenting I feel as long as he's in full time education I should be supporting his learning.

The
School in question is a grammar school and he is doing very well in his other three subjects.

Where is your evidence to show that she is suddenly panicking? What has or hasn't been done in the year? How have his marks been before? Has he gone to see her before?

I'm astounded by some of the replies here. It's like a witchunt with replies suggesting to give it to the woman without any more information.

By all means contact her and ask her, but yes you would be entirely AIBU to try to make her feel shit.

I must explain that the 3/20 mark was on one topic in the subject. When he went to seek advice or clarification on the problem he was told he should read the question. When he said he did and answered what he thought they were asking she didn't clarify!!! Not helpful.

Sorry cross posted. In light of this I wouldn't contact her I would contact above her.

My evidence that she is suddenly realising they r all failing is that the highest mark in the class was 65%. Surely that's not right for a grammar school A level as level class

Grammar school teaching can be shocking for subjects where students struggle...! If she's making up her own questions just try & ignore that and focus on past papers. Do them to death. It's a hoop jumping exercise at the end of the day.

Mistressgigi the positioning of her arms was to illustrate how her laid back body language and not offering useful advice etc made him feel crap. He asked her this during a lunch time study session which has been organised to finish the syllabus as it hasn't even been finished yet

I am sorry I didn't mean to drop feed. I posted in anger lest I speak out of turn to someone who knows me.

She prefers to use her own questions

This may or may not be appropriate. Essay and exam questions aren't as easy to write as people think. Wording the rubric to unambiguously target a particular topic, while leaving room for the student to demonstrate their knowledge and outside reading can be very difficult.

She sounds dreadful - but I think you should have brought this to the attention of the school much sooner.

its funny, my sociology teacher was totally shit too. didn't teach us anything actually on the exams. Maybe it's a requirement for the subject...

I agree on hindsight I should have spoken to the "school" I really thought my talking to her it had helped but obviously not. Needless to say I am prepared for mammoth study sessions from now to next week.

I am surprised a grammar school offers sociology! However that is beside the point.i assume he has all the revision texts? The main thing I would say is to study mark schemes and any model answers you can find to see what marks are awarded for.
My Dc are at a GS and invariably in non stem subjects they mark a lot harder than the real thging to keep students on their toes.Also when your DS says 65% remember 1) these are not reall exam questions and 2)these will be the raw marks not the UMS

I am glad to hear this actaully. I teach at university level, Physics, and the amount of young adults that turn up expecting their hands to be held is unbelievable. He needs to take responsibility for his own education. I wish more teachers were like this one; it prepares the students better for university level.

As an exam marker the biggest problem I see every year is failure to actually answer the question as asked. It is a vital issue that your DS needs to do - even to the point of using his finger under each word of the question, highlight the command words i.e. describe, analyse, evaluate as well as the specific aspect of the question.

Has your DS actually put in the same effort to this subject as his others or did he think that like most of MN that is was easy so no worth the effort

If it was a lunch time session then the teacher is giving up their own time and she maybe fed up of the lack of effort and the sudden realisation by the students that the exam is in a couple of weeks and they haven't worked hard enough during the year

Awwlook what language was inappropriate.

The word crap.

He needs to take responsibility for his own education

I agree with you deluded - but not to gave covered the syllabus is unacceptable and smacks of poor lesson planning.

*have, not gave

Apologies for spelling/grammar mistakes - bloody autocorrect - I can actually write correctly

Oh yes, go in and make her feel shit. And when she quits I'm sure that there's an excellent teacher waiting in the wings to take her place.

Glad it's not just me the autocorrect hates with a passion Cricket

OP the general consensus on MN is that teachers can do no wrong.

Do all you can to support him now before his exam and in the meantime it would do no harm to speak to the teacher about her attitude and lack of planning.
Hope he does well