What to do when the teacher doesn’t want to teach your child?

[RhodaCamel]

Ds is 14, in year 9 and working towards his GCSE’s in the subjects he has chosen.
Last week we had his parents evening. He is mainly doing ok with most teachers saying he is progressing on an average level and a nice pupil to teach.
He would like to be a gaming developer as a career and really has closed down all other career options as this is all he says he wants to do.
He chose computing as one of his subjects and as far as I was concerned he was enjoying the lesson and doing ok.
During the parents evening we met with the teacher who teaches the computing lessons. I had high hopes for the feedback as like I say ds loves all aspects of computing and sees this path as his future.
However, the feedback from the teacher was completely and utterly negative. He says ds isn’t interested, he says he has tried to engage him and is not getting anywhere with him (this is the first I have heard about this since he started this lesson in September, no contact from the teacher at all!). Everything was so negative and the teacher seemed totally uninterested tbh. I said to him that if this is the case then I really don’t think it’s worth wasting his or more importantly my ds’s time or future and that maybe ds would be better off moving to a different lesson/subject all together. The teacher virtually bit my hand off at that suggestion and said absolutely that was exactly what he had been thinking.
I just don’t know what to do now tbh ot only because this is all news to me but because ds is distraught, he says there is nothing else he wants to do and he really wants to continue with this lesson, I’ve said he needs to up the game then but he is adamant that the teacher is of no help to him.
Imo, the teacher did seem totally disinterested and at this rate it will be a complete waste of ds time to spend the next 3 years with this person.
I don’t know what to think, surely a good teacher wouldn’t be writing off a pupil 4 months in and should be doing everything possible to help and encourage learning and bringing the parents to attention if this is happening. He really appeared to have no go in him, he appeared tired, lethargic and discouraged tbh.
Where do I go from here? I have ds digging his heels in saying he wants to stay in the class but in his opinion the teacher isn’t teaching well or giving him any encouragement.
What shall I do now? What would you do? What should be my next step? Talk to the year head?

How did his last report in this area read ? Achievement level ? Amount of effort he is showing ? Have you looked at any of his files ?

I’ve found that wanting to be a game developer, along with YouTube guru and influencer has replaced pop star and footballer in the career aspirations of the young.

'fraid so.
He'll need to be exceptional to actually get into it.

I am not sure the actual uni entry advice on here is accurate or helpful. As someone upthread said who is in the industry, the actual design of games requires , obviously, software designers and so on, but degrees in games design now exist with no specific entry requirements . Students often have media, film and graphics A levels in fact. Creative Imedia is also a route in pre A Level.

I taught a lad who already designs his own games (and associated fashion range..) He is at Loughborough uni now. His A Levels were graphics, film and physics.

For example, here are Southampton's entry requirements:

BBB including an art, design, media, humanities or creative IT based subject

Disclaimer here: I am a Computer Science teacher.

A couple of things jump out at man do based on my experience, here are my thoughts:

1. You say your DS wants to be a game developer. Does he play a lot of video/online games?
2. Has he truly researched what is in the content for GCSE Computer Science and does he realise it’s not much to do with gaming?
3. Is he bored with the content as a result?
4. Is the teacher saying he doesn’t want to teach your DS specifically or just giving his professional judgement that he might want to consider another subject if he wants better grades (which he will need to in the highly competitive world of Game Developing)?

I suspect that the reality of learning code and computer science is not quite what your DS had pictured in "game development".

This. My 13yo stepson wanted to be a “games developer” but swiftly lost interest when he realised that coding is difficult and boring. I would ask your son a bit more about what they cover in lessons and whether he enjoys it and finds it interesting. It might not be the teacher!

Definitely HoD not HoY if there aren't problems across the board.
My German teacher hated me, said I was a doubt for A Level, I got an A in my gcse and the highest listening score for the board at A Level. My point is, sometimes a teacher does take against a keen student. My mum pointed out to her that as the adult, it was her responsibility to maintain a positive relationship.
Another thought: is the teacher a specialist? Or so they normally teach something else but have thAt class?

I really understand how you feel op.
I had similar with my dd we changed area and she moved school in GCSE year. She was top set Spanish in her old school the new school Spanish teacher constantly at her makes her afraid at parent teacher meeting I told the teacher this and she said shes going to fail her GCSE spanish. I asked for dd to be moved to another Spanish class but because off timetable this is not possible she has now moved her to foundation level Spanish and she always wanted to do it for A level but there is no chance of that now.
Get your Ds outside off school help with this help him not give up on his dream
There is online coding he could do

I'd get him a tutor for a couple of sessions. They can probably gauge whether your DS is struggling (and help you plan how to fix it), disengaged or not getting on with the teacher for some reason. An independent perspective could be very helpful.

but degrees in games design now exist with no specific entry requirements

Listening to ranting family member who is Lecturer in Games Technology and has worked in the games indurtry game designs degrees can bit like the foresic science undergradate degree which were popular after csi when biggest employer in that area wanted chemistry degrees.

So best advice is research - find out what is actally being taught behind the titles and see check that's what the employers want and look at the stats as to where their graduates end up.

Maths and phycis will give an edge especially if it the coding rather than art side but I'm sure there are ways in without them.

I just doubt GCSE computer science is that important in the end for this career.

I have been at a parents evening where the form tutor talked to me about the other boy with the same name for the whole interview (my DS was sat next to me).
Is there any chance your son could be swapped to a different class with a different teacher? (With my DD we did discuss this for one of her subjects.)

But yes from my experience (I live in the centre of the UK Games industry), Maths, Science and maybe Art are the most sought after subjects at school level. And playing around/teaching himself at home.

I have a friend who produces video games (she worked for Sony for maybe 15 yrs & now works for smaller indie companies). She had a role in EverQuest. The programmers never seem to have Uni degrees. I don't think OP's son needs a degree or even computing GCSE.

A side point I know, but will the school actually let him swap options now we are basically half way through Year 9? DC's school wouldn't unless there were exceptional circumstances, and even then the onus would be on the student to catch up all the work that they'd mixed.

If he's genuinely interested in game development (as opposed to thinking it's a cool idea) is he coding at home? That's what will be looked for as much (or more than) qualifications.

Teacher sounds very poor - especially the not contacting you before now but jumping in at the idea of your DS dropping the subject.

While following up with head of department is the next step in trying to improve his experience of the compsci class in school, to help your son with his career aspirations there’s a fair bit you can do regardless of the outcome with the compsci teacher at school. I agree with those saying he needs to put a focus on maths and physics (other sciences also useful but physics is the one that will help the most with coding) and code at home. With coding at home he can work on the stuff he enjoys but he will need to learn to power through the tricky bits that aren’t quite as fascinating in order to complete something worthwhile. That’s a key skill in almost every profession and one many teenagers have trouble with! Maybe invest in some arduino kit so he can start playing with building his own hardware cheaply. There is a huge amount of stuff and community on the Internet for kids doing this as a serious hobby.

But try and get him to keep his education broad and, especially, don’t focus narrowly on just game development. He is far more likely to do better in game development with a good computer science degree from a good university than he will going down a specialised game developer route. There are an awful lot of people with qualifications in game development who can’t get jobs in the field.

@RhodaCamel - as an ex-teacher, if I had to write to EVERY parent whose child was not engaging, I would spend hours and hours and hours writing emails and ringing home. I'm sorry but this is the sad realisy, with 30 kids in a class and 10 classes or more to teach, it's absolutely impossible to reach out to every parent- and we also want to email parents to say their kids are doing well. Maybe your child is different in class and when they are at home, and their perception of their input in class is different to reality? I taught a few who thought they were brilliant, but, well, were not really.

Obviously it's also possible your ds has a pointless teachers, those happen too, just offering a different view here. Definitely speak to HoD, is it 100% sure that this teacher will teach the GCSE class? Is there a possibility of there being more teachers delivering the subject?

The programmers never seem to have Uni degrees. I don't think OP's son needs a degree or even computing GCSE.

I worked as software developer - not in games industry - and while most of coders did have degree some weren't in computer science (my undergraduate wasn't) and some had none.

A side point I know, but will the school actually let him swap options now we are basically half way through Year 9?

I think OP will a have to talk to the Head of Year to find out and to her DS to see if that's what he wants to do.

Don't have kids of the right age to comment on the issues with the teacher and handling that but I do know lots of developers (though admittedly not gaming so don't know the art and design side), I don't think any did computer science GCSE and most didn't do the A-level. At university it is a mix of maths, maths and computer science, physics (with a master's specialism) or electrical engineering degrees that most did.

I suspect he should probably concentrate on his maths and science core subjects (possibly with an additional design/art option) and then do coding in his own time - there is lots of free stuff. All the developers I know will code for fun, do hackthons and things like that (or certainly did during school and uni) and will know more than one computing language.

Have you had a school report? What are your son's grades like so far?

My concern would be that the teacher says he's not interested rather than he's struggling with the subject matter. It sounds like an attitude issue rather than ability.

Can you review it in a month and see how it's going? Maybe get a meeting arranged for end Feb/beg March?

Thank you all for your input and experiences. Tonight I have emailed the HOY to arrange for a meeting to see what our options are.

Maybe he is bored and disengaged because it's not what he expected from the subject. Not all of computer science is coding etc and can be boring. My son has said similar and he also loves computers. I take my son to see a computer teacher out of school to do all the game coding stuff and this satisfies that side of things. It's a shame the teacher seems to have given up trying to spark interest and enthusiasm.

This happened to me. Only I persuaded my IT teacher to let me take the GCSE and he agreed but put me on the lower IT paper meaning the highest grade I could obtain was a C. I was gutted. Got my grade C and very quickly became a programmer with the support of further and higher education.

I also had similar in the sense that the French teacher refused to have me in her class claiming I was too chatty.... The Spanish teacher then piped up and said "don't worry! I'll happily have you in my class". I did very well in Spanish actually but the French teacher broke my heart.

I wasn't chatty. But everyone who was allowed to take French had extremely high grades beforehand

Good luck to your son. I highly recommend an apprenticeship in programming. Our very best coders come from apprenticeships

Ds is doing GCSE computer science, we have had similar problems. Turned out that the teacher is not a specialist computer science teacher, he actually teaches another subject as his main subject & computer science is just a fill in. Nobody in his class is likely to achieve much more than grade 3 or 4 at the most. Problem is that this year is Y11 so most of them have wasted 3 years with a rubbish teacher. Ds isn't interested in working in the games industry, he is looking at Journalism if he passes high enough to go forward to doing English, History or Geography & Politics at A level or train driving if he decides not to go to university will need to do something until he is old enough as they don't take anyone on who is younger than 20.

How can he be five months in and never had a test or essay or project to complete? Surely, you should be able to look at his homework and his grades and see if it's likely the teacher is correct or mistaken?

DS was interested in being a game developer for a while. He did coding and read books on developing games, creating characters and storyboarding. He used to write complex character profiles, game rules, scoring systems, etc. How much time is your DS putting into being a developer? Or is he using it as an excuse to play games?