To think it’s about time @MNHQ stepped up and did something about the teacher bashing.

[SachaStark]

This evening has been AWFUL here on the AIBU board.

@MNHQ, at what point do you actually plan to intervene and do something about the sheer number of teacher bashing threads, and individual posts? Should we expect any kind of moderation?

Or, is this in fact, “all in the spirit of Mumsnet”? Because at the moment, you’re making it look a darn sight like you agree by proxy.

It’s probably because it’s the frustrated parents who post and the happy parents are just getting on with it. We’ve had loads of positive comments and praise from parents where I am, and I’m very happy with the DC’s school.

@Sinuhe exactly.

I really understand the difficulties of trying to home ed my kids while working. So I understand why a teacher will also find that difficult.

However, my understanding is that teachers are key workers. I would therefore assume that they are entitled to send their kids to school. I guess some choose not to for many reasons (lots of key workers choose not to) and some may not be allowed (lots of posts on here from key workers unable to get their kids into school).

It is difficult to read though.

This temporary situation really needs to be sorted. I really hope teachers are involved in those discussions. Partly because they are the ones who will have to deliver it in practice. Also because top down directions to teachers do not go well.

I actually think the conversation is moving onwards a little. Before and immediately after the conditions of return to school, there were a lot of posts about how whingeing teachers were, how they had a bad attitude, etc. I think it is now filtering through that the government are actually asking Primary school teachers to do the impossible (teach groups in half size class, have the whole school back before summer, not use rotas). Most people are being a bit more sympathetic to concerns.

At the same time, people are realising that for many years, online provision is going to be here for a good deal longer than we originally realised and are rightly thinking about what they can expect. I think that it would be really useful to have some guidance from the government to say, this is what you can expect at a minimum. It would be useful for parents and it would be useful for teachers, to show what we are aiming for.

Of course, what's the bet that if we got targets, they'd be totally unrealistic for many schools? But that's an imagined problem right now, and we have enough real ones to worry about.

No-one, including the teachers, have said that they have no basis, just that the only way to try and sort it is by contacting the school.

Some are and still not getting anywhere, hence why they are venting their frustrations on MN, this is not teacher bashing.

Just because an OP is venting ,does nt mean they are bashing a whole profession they are venting regarding their own situation.

Teachers aren't above reproach, as some seem to suggest on here, with any profession, there is good and bad.

When I say many years, I mean many year groups, not that this is going to continue for many years.

I bloody hope it's not!

HaudYerWheeshtYaWeeBellend

I agree

Venting frustrations about your child's school (or teacher/s) is not teacher bashing it is a valid complaint.

In many cases it hasn't been the OP that has been teacher bashing.

Teachers aren't above reproach, as some seem to suggest on here, with any profession, there is good and bad.

I haven't seen anything that would suggest otherwise.

I've been looking at retraining to teach in a shortage subject. But the amount of teacher bashing on this thread, in real life, and everywhere else made me reconsider.

I'd have to be a real glutton for punishment to put myself through this. No way.

I haven't seen anything that would suggest otherwise.

Just because you haven't does not mean it does not happen.

I certainly have over my many years on MN, some have been incredibly unspeakable.

I think as with any profession, there are fantastic, dreadful and anywhere in between teachers.

I’m sure some teachers are doing a great job trying to continue to educate their pupils during this pandemic, but my experience has been poor to say the least.

My eldest DC is in year 10. He is not set a huge amount of work from any subject and work is getting less and less each week. He is bright. I struggle to help with the work he is set because I don’t understand it.

He emails teachers and they usually take several days to respond. Some don’t respond at all. Pupils are calling each other and sharing resources because they aren’t getting responses from the school. We were given set days to contact teachers. It makes no difference.

I struggle to believe that all of his teachers are unable to work because they are single parents to toddlers or the other myriad of excuses that I’ve seen. I have seen teachers saying they are home educating their own DC’s so cant teach. Why are their DC’s more important than any other child in the country. Most of the country are trying to work from home and teach their DC’s. Why are my DC’s teachers allowed to opt out of the working bit?

DS is constantly worried about GCSE’s next year. This pandemic will have a huge effect on his life but I’m not allowed to express a negative opinion of his teachers who, as far as I’m concerned, are making very little effort to teach him.

And don’t get me started on younger DC’s schools because they are even worse!

The problem is that most parents take the view that they know what's best for their off-spring, as though the simple act of procreation gives them divine knowledge about education. Are these paragons as clued up on their children's doctora, dentists etc.. There are poor teachers as there are poor people in every profession, sadly but the majority give above and beyond what's expected.

@mrsBtheparker I think that is to misconstrue parents concerns. I think it is because we believe teachers are better at teaching and educating than us that we are so frustrated right now

In some cases those parents do know better as they know their child.

As a previous SW, and in my current profession working with vulnerable children, I have seen many cases where schools/teachers have failed these children. Some CORE meetings that I have attended, I've had to advise professionals including teachers to keep their bias out and these parents have been shouting to the roof tops about their concerns/issues.

Parents know their child better.
Teachers know schools and education better.

It would be nice if parents and teachers joined forces to place the accountability where it needs to be: at the feet of those in government who are failing to have clear oversight of the situation, and who are relying on the Daily Mail and political soundbites to create parents Vs teachers conflict to hide their own failings.

A question for high school teachers...is it unreasonable to think form tutors might contact students to see how they are from a wellbeing point of view? Or am I expecting too much?

Only wondering if this would be expected or not, as my Sons form tutor knows we've had a lot going on at home (his Father has brain injury)and even pre-covid, never spoke to him or enquired how he is. She teaches drama, and no drama work has been set, so no contact been made.

TabbyMumz have you had alternate contact from someone instead of his tutor?

It's possible his tutor is ill and so not working, not even working from home. But in that case it would be expected that the school would have someone covering her work. That would likely be Head of Year/House for the wellbeing check-in and then other class teachers in the subject area.

For reference, I've had a wellbeing phone call every 2 weeks from the tutor of my Y10 DD and Y9 DS. Plus a weekly email from the tutor of my DS, because he's not too diligent with his work so I asked for updates on the quality of work he's handing in. No such emails for DD, she is much more diligent and hard working.

TabbyMumz

I would say that given your situation someone from the school should be in contact.

Depending on the school it could be Head of house, head of year, pastoral lead, SLT or form tutor.

We have had some in place from the start and some due to requests from parents.

And some due to teachers worries about the pupils.

But to give an alternate view, some poster on here are complaining that their DC's teachers and schools are contacting them at all or just too much.

No Fate, weve had no contact from school, except he gets work through from some subjects every so often on "teams". They have switched off the chat function, so he can't message the teachers to ask questions.

I just wondered if it was something form tutors would be expected to do, or even want to do, ie the wellbeing side, especially for students who have caring duties at home etc. Pre covid, I asked him if he was getting any support from school and he said he thinks the teachers know about his Dad but noone asks him about it and his form tutor barely speaks to him, which I found odd.

Yes Fripenos, I think it will differ from school to school, and understand we are living in a different world at the moment, and teachers will have all sorts going on. I think perhaps we've fell off the radar.

Tabby Ideally it would be form tutors who make contact, but they may not for personal reasons. In those situations someone else in school should really.

I'd have said the first couple of weeks were getting established and then last week and onwards I'd have expected contact.

It's also worth checking what the school policy is as some schools seem to have (unfairly in my opinion) shut down some home school communication and in those situations the teachers have to do what their SLT tell them to. No contact wouldn't automatically be a decision from the class teachers.

That is bad, TabbyMumz.

I said previously that I have every sympathy with teachers not going back to work in schools, but no sympathy with the ones who are failing to provide any work for pupils or who have "gone dark" . As someone else noted, the ones who trumpet the loudest about equality and disadvantaged pupils are invariably the ones who have done a disappearing act.

My dn's teacher refused to engage with any online work as she said it disadvantaged the least able pupils - eh? Dsis and some other parents are helping the kids of parents who are not English as first language as the teacher says it's not in their contract to do work outside the school setting. What a gem.

I think I can say, with confidence, that my six year olds teacher won’t be submitting any data to the exam board.

Maybe not an exam board, but teachers will be trying to work towards end-of-year data. At the end of Reception and Year 2 it is submitted to the LA but other year groups also have to submit data to their SLT. This year I'm not sure if anything will be submitted to the LA as I'm not in those year groups currently, but data will still be given to SLT in my school as it builds a picture of need to inform interventions for next year. It will be even harder this year to collate this data, as there are no Summer term assessments to use to inform decisions.

Plus, data is worked out and put on end-of-year reports for parents.

It does take time because it's mostly teacher assessment, with some subjects informed by summative assessments. All those 'Working At' etc. on your child's end-of-year reports take hours to collate for a whole class.

Not saying this means I'm working harder than any non-teachers, just trying to show you the side of teaching you don't "see".

SallyLovesCheese I fully understand teachers will have end of year data to submit regarding pupils. My sarky response was specifically in response to the OP who brought up GCSE’s.

I said previously that I have every sympathy with teachers not going back to work in schools, but no sympathy with the ones who are failing to provide any work for pupils or who have "gone dark"

It will not be the individual teachers' decision to not provide any work - they will have been directed to do this by their SLT. Please do not let decisions made by the headteacher colour your view of any teachers!

the teacher says it's not in their contract to do work outside the school setting. What a gem.

Perhaps worded badly, but the teacher could mean that they have been advised by their SLT not to have individual contact with parents. Now, I don't agree that this is the right thing for that school to say, but again, this decision is very possibly not down to the individual teacher.

For posters who are talking about not having teacher email addresses - it may be some schools give them out and are fine with that. However, I've never worked in one. It could become unsustainable to constantly have parents/carers emailing direct to teachers as there is often little time for checking emails and responding and one teacher could potentially have 30 daily emails with questions or concerns, let alone emails from other school staff, visiting professionals like Speech and Language Therapists etc.

However, I do agree that schools need to be contactable, especially in these times! It seems crazy that there isn't someone responsible for checking and responding to the school admin email daily.