To think these teachers are unprofessional

[RescueRemedy21]

My friend is a teacher at my son's primary school. She teaches a different class to my son and has never taught my son. They have little to no contact at school.

I told my son's current teacher some information about extra support in place outside of school to help my son academically. It was useful for her to know so that they could share information/support etc.

Today my friend questioned my son about this at lunchtime at school. Therefore my son's teacher has told my friend. My friend has nothing to do with my son at school, there is no reason for this information to have been shared other than idle gossip. I think they have both been unprofessional. I don't know how to handle it though without upsetting the friendship.

My son is mortified as he didn't want anyone knowing about the additional support and my friend questioned him about it in front of his friends.

AIBU to think they are both out of order? Would you raise it? If so how?

@mytieisascarf can you confirm that what @4point2fleet describes happening in their school is wrong and breaking GDPR rules

I didn't claim that it was breaking GDPR rules. But I do have concerns about privacy and by asking what the exact purpose of the board was, I was trying to determine whether it's usefulness outweighed the lack of respect for children's privacy.

In our school the staff room is used by all staff, students, visitors, and parent helpers and it is often visited by pupils to pass on messages etc. I have been a visitor in many schools and this has been the case in most of them. Now a board with a photograph of a child, their name and details of additional needs/learning support needs gives me an awful lot of information about a child that I do not need to know. Given that @4point2fleet has said she has never used the board to provide support to a child then I would argue that the privacy of the child is being disregarded for no particularly useful reason.

Schools must have policies and processes for data management, from collecting and handling the data through to the ability to respond quickly and appropriately to data breaches.

This is not only good data governance, it is the law and effectively by revealing the information in front of other pupils, your friend has breached GDPR.

Schools are not excluded from adhering to general data protection regulation and it is worrying that your friend doesn't understand the concept of personally identifying information.

The only issue I would have with this is that your friend spoke of it to your ds in front of other children. That's not remotely on and I can't think what on earth motivated her to do something so pointless, unnecessary and potentially embarrassing.

The issue of the teachers discussing the pupils, particularly the ones who need extra support - well, that happens, usually without any disadvantage to the children. I can't see why the Y6 teacher felt it appropriate to mention your ds's tuition, but having done so, your friend should have used discretion and not mentioned it either to your ds or you. Very unprofessional of her.

There are lots of times when a teacher would need to tell other teachers about private tuition to clarify what support a child needs.

Provision maps, book scrutinies, pupil progress meetings, moderation meetings, not to mention the teacher's annual pay review. A child having private tuition outside of school would affect all of these.

The questioning in front of his friends was perhaps not the best move but it's normal and good practice for teachers to talk to other teachers about teaching.

As a teacher, I’d say the issue is solely with your friend for mentioning this to your son at all, let alone in front of his friends. Unprofessional IMO.

Re the issue of his class teacher sharing the information, there are a myriad of reasons for this to be necessary - as mentioned by a previous poster for observations, progress tracking, book scrutinies, subject leaders being kept in the loop etc. No teacher works completely in isolation.

Provision maps, book scrutinies, pupil progress meetings, moderation meetings, not to mention the teacher's annual pay review. A child having private tuition outside of school would affect all of these.

These are usually done with class teacher, HT, DHT, and SENCO (any combination) - not class teacher and any other random teacher from a different department. These fall within the sharing information for the benefit of the child, this was not the case with the OP.

I’d say it’s pretty normal for teachers to discuss pupils’ interventions and progress with other colleagues- we have a dedicated ‘keep an eye on’ staff meeting where we discuss children who are either struggling or could do with extra challenges, and think of ways to support them. Teachers who aren’t teaching those specific children may still be subject leads and so can offer curriculum advic, or may be running lunchtime or after school clubs which would benefit them, and so would know to extend an invitation.
It’s also beneficial for more experienced staff to share good practice.

Discussing it in front of other pupils, however, is not appropriate.

I think it's one thing discussing kids with colleagues - this happens in all staff rooms I've been in but why on earth your friend felt the need to question your son in front of his friends with information that obviously wasn't public knowledge is beyond me.

I'm not in love with the board TBH. I think the idea came from a group of London schools who were amazing at 'closing the gap' back in the day when inner London schools had money to burn and roaming staff looking for busy-jobs. I can't see anyone having time to act on it the way staffing is stretched now.

Anyway, OP asked 'why would this have been shared?'

Well, if in his 'What are we doing to help?' box in his school's staffroom there is now a line which says 'sharing info with home tutor' then all staff could know (theoretical- obviously I have no idea whether his school do this).

OP did you ask your DS's teacher not to pass the information on?

Well how weird that she'd be so thick as to mention it in front of his friends. Just grossly insensitive.
I'd expect staff to share relevant information about pupils, but then I'd also expect them to use their common sense and not discuss it with them unless invited to.

Also- did you ask the teacher to provide the half termly report? If so, I think YABU to expect her to do this extra piece of work in secret.

They spoke to each about your son...I wouldn’t have major issues with that. Teachers talk etc etc. where your friend went wrong was then talking to your so about it and questioning him unnecessarily.

Question: when you told the teacher did you explicitly say “ don’t tell others etc as he doesn’t want anyone to know etc”??

It is normal in primary schools for teachers to discuss pupils between themselves. I guess it depends on the type of school but we work fairly closely with other classes and other teachers. Teachers support one another, offer guidance and advice, chat together to come up with plans, discuss interventions that do and don't work, share resources and sometimes work in one another's class either observing, teaching specific aspects of the curriculum, covering for one another, etc. We have staff who take charge on all sorts of things, so sometimes that kind of information may be useful to others in school and it may not be obvious to parents outside of the school o know who does what behind the scenes.

I don't think it is unusual for teachers working in the same school to talk to one another. There are some things which are very much need to know basis only, but these tend to be safeguarding issues or things happening with family outside of school, not just that x goes to Kumon on a Monday night type things. If a parent specifically says I do not want anyone else to know, then depending on the circumstances we will say if this is possible or not.

However, your friend was wrong to speak to your son about this, and even more so in front of his friends.

Is your friend ever in a position of responsibility for your son? Such as supervising break times or lunch times?

Question: when you told the teacher did you explicitly say “ don’t tell others etc as he doesn’t want anyone to know etc”??

I am completely baffled as to why a parent should need to do this. If information sharing is vital to the welfare of the student (as many on this thread have mentioned) then so be it. However, all staff should be aware of the processes by which they are permitted to use personal information, and be clear of the scope of the permitted usage of that data.

The OP would be none the wiser about teachers legitimately sharing information had her friend not behaved in the manner she did. Using the information for a playground chat with the pupil in front of other students would not constitute permitted usage and would absolutely be outside of scope.

Some on this thread have said this is misjudged action. No, this is a breach of data regulation.

No, I didn't tell her not to share the information with other staff, but I did mention that my son would not want peers to know.

Sin has said friend asked how tutoring was going, name of his tutor, what they studied... He answered everything honestly, but is mortified.

Son*

'friend asked how tutoring was going, name of his tutor, what they studied... He answered everything honestly, but is mortified.'

It's incredible that a teacher wouldn't realise there a time and a place for these chats and in front of friends isn't it. Doesn't instil confidence does it.

'I've got this student who is really struggling and I'm not sure how best to help him'

'Well, RR21Jnr in my class has similar issues and what seems to be helping him is that his Mum has got him tuition'

'Isn't that adding extra pressure on? Do you think he likes it?'

'He seems to be doing well with his tutor, as it's apparently not a cram-for-SATs tutor. Sounds like a nice lady/gent, was working with x/y school until recently. But I only know what his Mum's told me, and he's not one for sharing when something is stressing him out'.

'Oh, right. Thanks'. [sound of the bell being rung in the playground]

'Crap. That was a really good cuppa, too. Oh, well, maybe after school...'

I would raise this with your friend-tell her his embarrassed your son was.

Sin has said friend asked how tutoring was going, name of his tutor, what they studied... He answered everything honestly, but is mortified.

Yeah, whatever need there was to share (or not) there was no need for your friend to do that.

I'd want to know in what context it was shared with your friend and also explain it upset him. Is it reasonable to assume she should have known it would upset him?

Ie. DS uses a different pencil at home, how is he finding it?

Or DS goes to play therapy to manage temper tantrums, how is he finding it?

A lot of this depends on the detail and context.

I’m baffled by all the posters saying it’s wrong to sharethis type of information unless someone has direct contact. In my school this happens ALL the time. Literally 100 times a day. The weekly morning meeting where the whole staff is present is where this might be raised for all teaching and support staff to hear. We literally go through every class in the school in turn seeing whether there’s something to raise - and “so and so is struggling and as a result mum has organised some tutoring...we’ll keep an eye and see if his confidence improves..” is exactly the sort of thing that comes up. Along with “x pupil’s parents are separating”, “x’s grandfather has passed away”.
We think of the school as a community. I often chat to children from other classes in the corridor (not about anything raised in meetings though!!), sometimes teachers cover for each other (often in my case as I supply to make up extra days) - it’s genuinely useful to have an idea of what’s going on and any issues.

HOWEVER She definitely shouldn’t have raised it with your son. I would have a quiet word about this...personally I would raise it with your friend directly, but I don’t think you would be totally out of order to have a quiet word with either your son’s teacher or the head so say you weren’t happy.

I kind of agree that I'm not sure there is a point in 'complaining' as such. I do though think I'd be saying to both the teacher and your heads 'just a bit of a heads up that x was...well mortified...that the fact that he has a tutor was mentioned in front of his friends. Could you keep an eye on him that there is no come back please?' They might just both think twice before passing on information and using it.