To start this thread about teacher's experiences of OTT parents as there are frequent posts by parents about teachers!

[Mammajay]

I was in my class with a group of students when the door opened and in stepped an angry parent with an Alsatian dog pulling on the lead. The mum was demanding I returned her 12 year old daughter's radio which I had confiscated the day before due to her disturbing the lesson with it. I wanted to tell the mum to p... off but being a professional, I carefully removed it from my desk, returned it to the mother and asked her to ensure it was kept at home in future. That girl dropped out of school later. In the majority of cases, parents need to support teachers who are trying to maintain discipline so that they can teach and students can learn. Other teachers' examples of OTT parents???

I've never been to Ostend. Will going make me a better teacher?

@justasking too many little darlings at our school too. I can't wait until our spoilt year 5 and 6s go to secondary school. Hopefully they won't be so cocky then.

School sports day!

The acting around faked injuries gets worse every year. There seems to be diminishing knowledge of being a good sport and winning gracefully or being proud of doing your best or playing well as a team. Kids accuse the winners of cheating/knocking them over/pushing in front/knocking relay baton out of hands etc

Several children refusing to take part because they aren't the best and can't face not doing well. Tantrums because they are not in the winning team or the team they wanted to be in.

It's when the parents can see exactly what's gone on but still insist their child has been treated unfairly.

How did a parent get into a classroom whilst you were teaching. Let alone with a dog?!
Do they not have a secure school site, where all visitors need to sign in/wear a pass etc and who wouldn’t be allowed in during school hours unless meeting etc?

What time does the coach leave for Ostend?
Are there any places left?
Shall I bring a packed lunch?

I'm very fond of Ostend.

Very minor in comparison but in the days before controlled assessments, I'd had to chase and chase a student who'd only managed to hand in one out of six pieces of coursework. He wouldn't do it in class, in detention, even in an isolation room with SLT. The most we got out of him was a (spoon fed) opening paragraph, followed by "Miss Limpshade is a bitch". This was not a student who was struggling - he was actually very bright but bloody lazy, and stubborn to boot. Parents didn't show up to any of the three meetings I'd arranged to discuss it. Then unexpectedly the dad showed up to parents evening, so I finally got my chance to discuss it. Except that the dad's response was, "Well, he's just going to work on the [building] yard when he leaves anyway, so what's the point? You want to find something better to do with your time." Well he was right about that last part, actually. I quit teaching not long after

Lol where do I start! In one of my old jobs two parents in particular stand out. They never communicated with each other and apparently it was always the staff's fault they didn't know about their DC progress. The dad in particular was a bully he would when talking to a member of staff step right into their personal space and when they took a step back for some space he'd do it again until he did it to me! No way was I tolerating that I did it right back to him and kept stepping forward until I backed him out the door with a cheery wave saying "bye now, enjoy your day" 😂 unfortunately it backfired on me because he took a rather creepy interest in me 🙄

But for every bad story I have to tell I also have some good ones. One family I had a good working relationship with were so lovely I looked after both their DC and for two years I never had to buy any make up because mum worked for a designer store and was given alot of free stuff that wasn't her style so she offered it to me, every few months she'd bring in a bag full of expensive make up, eyeliner, eyeshadow cream, lipsticks, mascara, blush, foundation etc really expensive stuff as well I was sad when they left I can tell you they were really laid back parents they actually once told me "don't sugarcoat it Lucifer we know our darlings aren't angels just tell us the truth if they've been little buggers" 🤣 I could write a book of the stories of arsehole parents but the nice ones do make all the hardwork worth it they're so appreciative a simple thank you so much really does go a long way 😊

How did a parent get into a classroom whilst you were teaching. Let alone with a dog?!
Do they not have a secure school site, where all visitors need to sign in/wear a pass etc and who wouldn’t be allowed in during school hours unless meeting etc?

It's perfectly possible that this happened before schools were made secure. I'm nowhere near retirement and I was out of university and working well before Dunkeld. Schools weren't always so secure.

Not a teacher but work in course admin at a university and the parents can be nightmares! We are not even allowed to deal with them as their children are adults and it would breach data protection.

Recently I had a student's mum on the phone complaining that she has to get a bus to her placement at 7am and it's "not safe" and that someone should pay for a taxi for her

Mammajay I'm curious how mum and dog got to you , as most schools have security tighter than some prisons these days?

A school I worked in a few years ago only made the site secure this year. It’s not an indicator that a person isn’t telling the truth.

I believe Mumsnet plays a part in fostering really unpleasant attitudes towards teachers. It is a popular site with many members and there is pretty much always an anti-teacher thread running. Go figure.

I think teachers in general do a great job under tough conditions. So thank you, and Sorry about all the twat parents you have to deal with!

I was waiting I reception yesterday to take my daughter out of school to get a brace fitted. There was a boy and his mum sat opposite me and I the woman said he would have to keep his phone off if the teacher said so. The boy was saying no it’s not fair. The mum then said to me she hated the school. I replied I have no problems with it and asked what year the boy is. Yr 7.

I said to him imagine how I coped at school as mobile phones weren’t even a thing then.
And for added measure told him that when my husband was at school the teachers could hit you and how would he cope with that! They then got called in by the teacher in charge of behaviour.
Just showed me how parents are quick to blame the school and not their precious brats for not following the school rules.

In the school my family member works at you could walk into any classroom with a dog and not be stopped, it’s not remotely secured. Not sure why people are obsessing over that - not all schools are like the ones you’re familiar with.

BUt the OP situaton wouldn't happen at my DC's school. They have locked gates, you can only access the site by pressing a buzzer and reception letting you in. All visitors to site (except a quick trip to reception desk) wear lanyards at all time, and anyone without one is quickly intercepted - it is a pain when you have to collect a sick child (the medical room is the other end of the school).
And just about all schools I know do not allow animals on site, so someone with one would be even more quickly escorted fro the site.

Is it only teachers who can go to Ostend or is it parents too?

My hats off to you teachers, I think you do a brilliant job under extremely difficult circumstances and get far too little appreciation.

In my school you can get in with a dog - plenty of places to walk through. Easier still if you know where you’re going. Agreed, Vivienne - not everywhere is locked down! our very expensive electric school gates which apparently will keep our children super safe have been broken for months...

A girl in a music lesson used her instrument to hit another pupil so hard that the instrument broke. When I saw dad at the end of the school day, he hugged her to him and said 'yes I've been meaning to talk to you about how bored she is in your music lessons.' They walked off laughing about it.

I believe Mumsnet plays a part in fostering really unpleasant attitudes towards teachers. It is a popular site with many members and there is pretty much always an anti-teacher thread running. Go figure.
I agree. I also suspect most threads are not very accurate. They take the child's word as gospel and post it as fact. Then hundreds of people read and form an opinion about how unfair etc schools are.

That's not saying kids are liars, but from my (extensive) experience, when there has been an incident in school the parent rarely gets the full accurate story from the child.

A prime example. Someone has just posted this on another thread:
Mums know their teens better than teachers and if op says he is innocent he is innocent.
I was a relatively good teenagers but as a teen, there were thinks my mum would never expect me to do that I did. I regularly have to show parents CCTV of their child doing something their child has sworn on that parents life they did not do. It's a fairly natural reaction from some to deny something if they're worried about getting in trouble, and it's something we have to teach them about honesty and consequences as they go.

Before schools were turned into fortresses, I had a parent barge into school, walk up the corridor to my classroom, come in and grab me by the throat threatening to kill me. My crime? The evening before I had refused to let her son walk home alone as she hadn't come to pick him up. After a phone call home his brother appeared, still wouldn't let him go, then aunty appeared to take both boys home.
It was a Reception boy, and his brother was in Y2 and had been off sick! They lived about a half an hour walk away across a couple of majorly busy roads.

Thank you OP for balancing the views on teachers.

What gets me (primary) is the number of parents who use Dr Google to diagnose their children with ASD/ADHD because they can’t understand where their behavioural problems have come from. I’ve even seen one email from a mother listing all of their DD’s ‘symptoms’ that was lifted directly from an internet site. She has to date attempted to diagnose all four of her children with varying disorders 🧐

Trust me, if we have concerns about a child in that respect we start referring as early as we can to get some support!