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?

OP, you haven't said if you're son has tried coding?
I would suggest looking for the coder dojo organisation in your area. It is run by volunteers who usually work in the industry and likely to be more dynamic, enthusiastic and inspiring than a GCSE teacher wading through the syllabus.

I would also suggest looking out for STEM careers events that are aimed at this age group and might just help your son find his spark.

Game development is a catch all term but in reality game Devs are coders, artists or game designers. So all sorts of subjects are relevant depending on his interests.

Another option would be one of the btec courses for 16_18 year old in game design, game development or similar titles. Be careful though. Some are badly resourced.

You're welcome to pm me @RhodaCamel if you want to chat. I work in games education.

Just a random question for any programmers out there. Anyone else get mildly annoyed by the term "coding"? Whatever happened to calling it programming?

Seems to have become the hip term to use these days or perhaps I've just been doing it too long.

Ha @PhilCornwall1 I think I'm just lazy. It's quicker to type! Most programmers I worked with preferred 'software engineer "

@Mumteedum best one I saw the other day was "software artist". Gives me an image of someone coming to work, popping on their beret and staring into space for inspiration

DH prefers "App developer" or even "(senior) Developer"
"Coding" is fine by me.
He doesn't write code... he says he writes 'scripts'
It's like we used to go jogging but now we've been upgraded to 'running'. That's cool too.

The (modern sex-it-up) rebranding word I can't stand is "core" for abdomen. wtaf.

@Juliette20 That simply isn’t true. I enjoyed teaching it, I hated how many parents came to me at parents evening telling me how amazing their kids were with a computer because they knew how to switch it on.
ICT was a boring subject to teach however, without it being taught children arrive at senior school unable to create a folder and type effectively (I blame the abundance of iPads in schools for this) and so curriculum time is lost teaching children basic skills.

@PhilCornwall1 I use both if I’m honest.

he says he writes 'scripts'

That's an interesting one, I look on me as doing both programs and scripts. If I'm writing SQL I phrase them scripts, anything else like C,C++ or C# code I call em programs.

IT is full of weirdness, I think I'm just adding to it

I think it might be called coding to sound exciting to young people?

I did laugh at the abundance of ipads line : my school has about 50 computers in total for 1600 students!!

This is too close to allowing the younger generation to not have to bother with something if they don’t personally find it ‘fun’

Well, I think that's true, up to a point. I don't believe that any subjects should be compulsory after Year 9 unless you haven't yet reached a certain level of Maths and English.

In my software business people say coding because they can't spell programmer

I prefer the term programmer or developer only because people assume we code WordPress (like every other technical agency around here) and that's just silly

I also think that "coding" sounds cooler to the noobs.

I also think that "coding" sounds cooler to the noobs.

I think you're right there. I've been contacted in the past about roles and was told the company needed a "coding ninja". Hmmmm