To ask how do I complain about this without getting tbe teacher in trouble?

[Housesofhistory]

DD is doing a subject in school in GCSE year which requires a lot of practical work.
They haven't got any of the equipment to do the lessons and for the last few months they have been revising for other lessons in the class and basically doing homework because they can't do it.

The teacher of this lesson has basically said she ordered the equipment 18 months ago but never gets it , that certain other teachers get what they want but you have to be 'in the group' to get anything you need and she isn't. She says she is only staying for the kids but she has had enough of how the school has changed, how certain people are ruining and how it is letting the children down.

Help!

You don't repeat what she said, you focus on the lack of resources. Have a look at the school complaints policy on their website and send in a formal complaint ready for the start of term. Your complaint is that your DD isn't actually doing the work required for this subject and as a result is likely to fail a GCSE. The solution you want is for the classes to be used for the subject that they are supposed to be used for. And you want to have information on her predicted grade in this subject at GCSE.
You can't force this straight through to the governors at this stage, but this is an urgent issue because it is going to affect results. They won't want that for your DD or the school. So on this occasion I would also send a copy of the complaint to the Chair of Governors. In an envelope left in the school office - Private and Confidential for the urgent attention of Chair of Governors. You'll likely get a letter saying that at this stage the HT deals with your complaint but, if the Chair is worth their salt, they will want to keep an eye on this one and find out what's going on.

Apologies for any spelling mistakes. My fingers are clearly fatter than the keyboard

How can the school offer a GCSE subject without the appropriate resources? Where is the Head of Dept and what are they doing about it?
Isn’t anyone doing lesson obs, book reviews etc?
What about the theory work how is that being taught?

Cross post , thank you Regnamechanger that is most useful.

It's a small subject area so only one teacher in that area.
It is heavily practical they have done the theory side. They however are meant to be writing theory based on their practicals which they can't do.

Say it was cooking (it isn't) it's as bad as having no scales, oven trays, cooking ingredients etc.

I'm surprised it was offered with no equipment. You have to complain about the lack of practicals.

Don't go the complaints procedure without speaking to someone above the class teacher, you have to go through the proper steps first.

I'm not clear if you've spoken to the teacher directlt or your DD is passing back what she's said but either way why haven't you had a conversation with a HOD or the HT?

I think that, before I made a formal complaint, I would ask for more information. The teacher sounds thoroughly fed up, but it’s unprofessional to transfer that to the students. You don’t know the reality, only what you’ve been told and it would be better, in my opinion, to find out a bit more first.

You could email the HoD and say that you are wondering if your expectations about the amount of practical work expected for the subject is accurate, because you feel that there doesn’t seem to have been what you and your daughter expected. The response to that will indicate your next step.

I feel that going straight in with a formal complaint, could alienate the people you want to keep on side.

Cross post with PattiStanger

The subject must sit a department - and the subject teacher must have some kind of line management structure. In the first instance go to the HoD/line manager to say you’re concerned as ds isn’t doing/making whatever task/thing/process he should as part of the practical teaching of the subject.
If you’re not happy escalate it to the HT and if you’re not happy escalate to governors.

I think the teacher is being extremely unprofessional relaying this information to the students. School politics should be kept away from children. As a senior leader in a school I would want to know if one of my staff was behaving like this. Make an appointment to see a senior member of staff and make them aware of this unprofessional behaviour, as well as the lack of teaching. If it isn’t addressed, then go through the steps in the complaints policy.

Speak to the school immediately!! Your complaint should be that your son will more than likely fail his GCSE through no fault of his own - the school are blatantly failing in their responsibility - get angry about it & don't worry about getting the teacher into trouble!!

As a former CoG, exactly what @Reg said. Any decent Chair will want to know the outcome....

You've only got the teacher's side of the story. I'd be making further enquires about all this to get the full facts for myself before escalating to a complaint. Start with a meeting with the subject teacher and the HoD in the room together.

Also ask local schools (independents) if they have facilities that can be shared. I think the charitable status for independents is they can help the wider community. If it’s DT for example they may have a laser cutter, your school could email the files across and they could cut them

"Don't go the complaints procedure without speaking to someone above the class teacher, you have to go through the proper steps first."

I'm a clerk to governors in 3 schools and a chair of governors in one. I advise going through the complaints procedure because it will a) be quickest way to get some action and b) the procedure will have stages within it and the first stage will be for the complaint to be dealt with someone who is above the class teacher. Depending on the procedure that will be someone like a Head of Department, or the HT of DHT.

In this situation every day that this course isn't being delivered threaten's DD's chances of getting that GCSE. There's no time to faff around.

BTW - for those who are saying don't do a formal complaint - what's the worse that can happen? Everything Op has been told is found to be untrue, all is well with the course and no need for action. That would be brilliant but Op already knows that the students are doing revision for other courses in this class - so it isn't going to happen.

Many of our schools are chronically underfunded and it's no surprise surely to anyone that this might happen.
The only surprising thing is the desire to shoot the messenger.
In my school we have teachers paying for their own materials and 3 classrooms out of use because a ceiling just fell in.
Do we talk to the kids about it? You bet we do. As do they to their parents. Then we all complain to the authorities and try and get things done.

Pud2 the fact that as a senior leader in a school your only concern is for the (admittedly unprofessional) behaviour of the teacher is one of the reasons I left state school teaching after 25 years. The important thing here is that the children aren’t doing the work they should be, not that the teacher is making leadership look bad...

Cardibach - just to clarify, I think there are two issues here. Firstly, the lack of resources and teaching is a huge concern and needs to be addressed. Secondly, there’s a teacher who is being unprofessional by oversharing information, and their frustrations, with pupils. Both of these factors mean that these pupils are not receiving the teaching that they are entitled to. One may be symptomatic of the other but both need to be addressed and I would want to know about both aspects.

What's the subject area?

Write letter of complaint to the school about the equipment.