To ask if you’ve ever complained about a teacher

[Justwondering14]

It seems the view is that this shouldn’t ever be done.

I have complained a few times. Once about a male member of staff telling my fifteen year old she looked like she was enjoying that in a suggestive way when she had a lollipop.

Is it always ‘wrong’, then? I’m not a teacher ...

Thankfully she doesn’t work there any more, she doesn’t work anywhere because even her union rep told her she was a disgrace to the job.

Did the rep say that in front of you at the meeting?

No, she didn’t. The head (who has now left) and I remained friends and she told me.

I get that you are friends - but I don't think she should have passed this on - still, I suppose as it's anonymous here there's no harm done.

I get that you are friends - but I don't think she should have passed this on - still, I suppose as it's anonymous here there's no harm done

No she probably shouldn’t, it was in the context of a wider conversation, and I’ve never passed it on to anyone in RL (bar DP) to be fair.

Fork - the pupil wasnt expected to complete the missed work at lunchtime. They were offered the opportunity to stay in and have 1:1 help to enable them to catch up. They refused it. No problem. The pupil then proceded to refuse to engage with the work, did the bare minimum a d stropped and grunted their way through the lesson. They were kept in for that

Yes. I complained about DD1s Y1 teacher, who told her that if she didn't give up something for Lent she was not a good person. It is not a church school. We are not religious.

The teacher left the next term to work in a church school.

The overwhelming consensus here seems to be that an awful lot of teachers seem to be ill-equipped to deal with any sort of SN child. Can any of you who are teachers tell me how much training you have about SN? How often do you have refresher training?

Understandably SN covers a massive range of issues and nobody can be expected to know everything about everything so I don't know what the answer is to this problem but it does seem to be a big problem.

Yes @Staxers. The problem was that DD absolutely adored the (usually brilliant) teacher, and wanted her to think well of her. I found her sobbing in her room after school.

@Courtney - barely any initial training, and no refresher training specifically on SEN since then. There is little money and time for training and a lot gets devoted to meeting new govt policy (e.g. protect training so we all can stop radicalisation). It is not good enough. I’ve learnt more about teaching SEN from having a child with SEN in the last year than I have in teaching over the last fifteen.

I complained once but only to the head after I heard a TA talking negatively about DS who has sensory issues, she was talking to a random lady on the bus saying that my DS is a pain in her class as she has to do everything for him ( he struggles with touch ) and that if I as a mother pushed him he wouldn't have the issues she does and her day would be a lot easier ( he has a full diagnosis) and she clearly didn't know me as a mother as she was unaware I was sitting right across from her .

@comfycosy123 that’s awful! I hope the head took it seriously.

Thanks Scipio that's what I thought the answer might be 🙁

The issues I had with teachers were that they knew DD had ASD but had no idea what that actually meant.

@SoddingUnicorns she did she were fantastic really and took it seriously advised me to take make it formal so I did.

Yes, I agree about training regarding SEN, my DCs school is generally wonderful, unless your child has SEN! our experience with NT children there is diametrically opposed to our friends' experience, their child is on the spectrum and he has been failed miserably

teachers need more support

Our Senco and LSA's all complete external training and then train the rest of the staff. At least 30% of training has an SEN focus. Sometimes it is general learning difficulties and strategies that will help. Sometimes it is specific pupils needs. Ive had training on dyslexia, dyscalculia, elective mutism, ASD (not that I need this with two brothers on the spectrum), training for pupils who are colourblind or sight impaired,training for pupils with a diagnosis of oppositional defiance disorder, self harm and mental health, diabeties/epipen/epilespsy/colostomy bag training, mental health training specifically for children who have had cancer. Im sure there is more. I work in a mainsteam secondary school.

@comfycosy123 I’m glad they supported you, what a horrible thing for you to hear (and to be said in the first place!)

I agree that funding/training for teachers with regards to SN/disabilities is woeful, and that many work extremely hard to combat this. It must be exhausting, and for the ones who want to make a difference (rather than some described on here) they should be fully supported by school/LA.

I was a teacher and am a parent.
I have been complained about and, tbh, I had done the wrong thing (difficult child, bad day after a bad week and I said something I shouldn't have done because I was at the end of my tether. Mother complained, rightly so, and I apologised to the child and the mother. Mother and I developed a good working relationship and the child and I also worked out how to work together)
I have also complained - I have children with ASCs, there are a lot of misunderstandings but there are also incidents of sheer fuckwittery. I complain about the fuckwittery.
People should complain, after finding out both sides of the story.

As a teacher if I have done somethig wrong I want to put it right and learn from it, I'm human after all.

I have had complaints made against me when I have stood up for pupils who were being bullied. Parents said I had no right to call their darlings bullies when I knew they were and had the evidence. The victims' parents were very grateful I stood up for their children but I will be reluctant to do it again as it made my life terrible for ages.

Can any of you who are teachers tell me how much training you have about SN? How often do you have refresher training?
As a trainee, a cursory 'here are some needs you might need to think about worksheets for differentiation' but such was the model of teaching when I started (all blue/yellow/red tasks and millions of sheets).

In my current school, we do refreshers every year on rotation e.g. ASD, SpLD, SEMH etc and have additional time slotted into staff training to feedback things for specific students or outcomes of reviews. SEND students have their own part of staff meetings and we are made aware of strategies to use with potentially difficult or vulnerable children.

SEND is up there with safeguarding in our school. I think we do a bloody good job. Sadly I don't think we are the norm

I think lack of information about SEND is a real problem at secondary. I have had timetables where I teach 100s of children each week and know nothing about them except what is given to me by the sen department. I have been given bits of training here and there (an after school session for a deaf child, epilepsy training, a booklet on asd...) but it’s embarrassingly minimal in my view. I think teacher training and school budgets haven’t changed to deal with the much higher levels of inclusion we now have. Inclusion is a brilliant thing but it does require more skilled teachers with lots of training.

A few years ago I had a mortifying incident a few weeks into the start of term when we still hadn’t received any information on our classes from the sen department. A new Alevel student appeared to be shutting his eyes and zoning out while I was talking. I knew him fairly well, although I’d never taught him before, so with typical low grade teacher humour said “I’m very sorry to see I’m so boring today I seem to have sent Jonny to sleep”. He startled and looked very confused and then later said “Miss, do you know I’ve got narcolepsy?” Luckily he was a sensible 16 year old, we got on well, I apologised immediately and all was ok but in other circumstances that could easily have ended up in a complaint. I should have been aware of his longstanding and serious neurological problems and have been given advice on how to manage them.

I’ve been lucky to teach in a range of schools for 15 years without a parental complaint so far. Good humour and not being too quick to assume you know what’s going on will diffuse most situations.

Initial training in SEND was very basic: more aimed at helping teachers-to-be understand the principle of inclusion than helping you with strategies, and I think this is right, because there is so much to get on top of during ITT and too much detail just gets lost in a bigger picture.

We have annual training on SEND, termly refreshers, drop-in sessions, etc. It's an integral part of our jobs.

That was my break

Only read to the end of page 3, but a few people have said after they complained a teacher was sacked. One person said they'd complained about three teachers and all three were sacked. Just wondering how people find out teachers have been sacked? I'm guessing the school doesn't put in the newsletter "Mrs Jones is leaving us at the end of this term as she's been sacked."

Autism and ADHD training,mental health training,de escalation techniques,inclusion,asthma,epi pen,epilepsy and that's just a few.