What is this behaviour by teacher?

[accesstheinternet]

Class of 9 and 10 year olds, about to go into lockdown, the class is talking about what it will be like and asking questions. Suddenly the teacher says out of the blue, first time anything like this has happened "and who will miss Charlie and his bad temper?"

Charlie is shocked and upset and the class sort of murmured "me" and Charlie's mother asks the teacher what was up when she saw her and the teacher said that she had spoken to Charlie and all was fine, apparently Charlie had lost his temper because someone had pushed him in the playground.

Then the next day Charlie comes out in floods of tears, saying that he had written down an instruction he thought had to be written down, the teacher had starting berating him and saying only he would do that, and encouraged the whole class to mock him, he had become upset at the berating and some of the class had laughed.

The teacher is normally fine.

It seems I crossed posted with you replying to another poster who mentioned France, apologies. It's still fairly useful information and worth people having rather than it being a quick thing when someone else mentions it several pages in.

Can we please have some clarity on what your role is though. It makes a substantial difference whether you saw the situations you describe or not.

I don't understand why someone wanting advice on a situation is so reluctant to say whether they observed the situation they are wanting advice on.

lola France has been mentioned a few times, early on, by posters who read my posts. It is awful here at the moment - three of our close neighbours have covid, one is in hospital.

I have an update, the teacher is extremely stressed because of covid and personal problems, the head is lovely and the teacher will get a lot of support.

Charlie is getting lots of support.

Have a good Easter Sunday everyone.

I have an update, the teacher is extremely stressed because of covid and personal problems, the head is lovely and the teacher will get a lot of support

Charlie is getting lots of support

Unless you are the teacher, there’s absolutely no way you should have been given all this information.

I was thinking the same SmileEachDay.

@smileeachday it is a small community, everyone knows each other.

is a small community, everyone knows each other

Gossip, then? I’m going to assume that’s how you found out about the entire thing then, as you’ve been so coy.

The whole class is affected, by all of this @smileeachday.

In relation to me being coy, although the first few pages of comments were brilliant, in later pages most of the debate has not been relevant, and in fact one particular post I wrote about Charlie wasn't commented on by anyone - there was no point me posting more information.

It doesn't matter as the helpful posters were enough and gave me the help I needed, I am just pointing out that I doubt very much you have read all my posts carefully, and lola hadn't, and it is easy - you just press on the link at the bottom of any OP post and press "see all".

I am just pointing out that I doubt very much you have read all my posts carefully

I definitely have. Mostly they are agreeing with posters who shared negative experiences of teachers.

I think you’ve heard this story 2nd hand and you have widened the gossip circle to include MN. Let’s hope the teacher you have “quoted” isn’t on here, eh?

Mostly my posts were offering support to posters who had had bad experiences. One was saying thank you to a particular poster who had bothered to read the whole thing and posted a very helpful post. Others were joining in the general debate. Are you suggesting that I started this to bash a teacher, even though I said that it was out of character for the teacher to behave in that way? And in the awful situation in France and in my close neighbourhood with covid I had nothing better to do than start a teacher bashing thread based on nothing but gossip? And I have said i am upset and stressed about it all but you think it is perfectly fine to make assumptions and accusations that you have zero evidence for?

I don’t know why it is when someone criticises a teacher on here it’s taken personally.

I come from a family of teachers and so most people I knew growing up were teachers.

Most were lovely but it would be disingenuous to say there weren’t some unpleasant characters in there.

Also, isn’t bullying (of staff) a huge problem in teaching? Who does this? It’s not the local shop owner, is it?

And breathe....

@smileeachday if you have taken this thread personally, then I am sorry it was not intended to be a personal attack on you or any teacher out there. For me personally, I had some great teachers and some dreadful ones - the dreadful ones tried to pick up on weaknesses but the great ones were kind and inspiring and caring.

People generally bully because they have personal issues, but that doesn't make it any easier for the people affected to deal with it.

if you have taken this thread personally

I haven’t. You’ll see from reading my first post on here that I gave a perspective on PRUs after a PP made a ridiculous sweeping generalisation.

I dislike gossip - and “everyone” feeling entitled to know what has happened to a child or to a teacher. It’s very rarely accurate or helpful.

@daffodilsandprimroses

I don’t know why it is when someone criticises a teacher on here it’s taken personally.

I come from a family of teachers and so most people I knew growing up were teachers.

Most were lovely but it would be disingenuous to say there weren’t some unpleasant characters in there.

Also, isn’t bullying (of staff) a huge problem in teaching? Who does this? It’s not the local shop owner, is it?

On most of the threads about teachers on MN, the majority of posters refer to teachers as a collective and refuse to believe that their anecdote can only be applied to the teacher they know and not all of us. The pandemic only reinforced this habit as every other thread was about how schools were failing the children by providing too much/not enough work. That they could/should only comment on their own child’s school was lost on many posters.

Can you really blame teachers for being defensive of our profession when so many people weigh in on how they think schools should be run even though their experience has only been from the side of the child or parent?

@SmileEachDay

is a small community, everyone knows each other

Gossip, then? I’m going to assume that’s how you found out about the entire thing then, as you’ve been so coy.

Well there are various people who might know, Head teacher who received a complaint and investigated, a TA, someone in HR who has had details of meeting to put on file, safeguarding lead, teacher in an adjoining classroom who could hear what was said, someone in school office who received the complaint and dealt with the paperwork.

In most workplaces there are more people who are aware of what is going on than you might think.

ancientgran

Other than the teacher - and possibly the head - none of those people would know both the details of exactly what was said in the classroom AND that the teacher is having “personal problems” AND that the teacher is being supported AND that the child is being supported.

It’s a side issue anyway. OP has made it clear she doesn’t want to explain her place in the picture. Posters may or may not draw their own conclusions from that.

Oh - and this person has had an “update” on a Sunday.

Come ON....

can you really blame teachers

Who else would I blame?

If you don’t have the maturity to see it’s not all about you then that’s ridiculous.

@SmileEachDay

ancientgran

Other than the teacher - and possibly the head - none of those people would know both the details of exactly what was said in the classroom AND that the teacher is having “personal problems” AND that the teacher is being supported AND that the child is being supported.

It’s a side issue anyway. OP has made it clear she doesn’t want to explain her place in the picture. Posters may or may not draw their own conclusions from that.

Really? As head of HR I've had meetings with staff about complaints, the meetings were minuted and would include those details i.e. what the complaint was, the teachers response, the outcome.

Obviously a TA in the classroom would hear what was said, as the teacher in the next room might, the teacher might also tell her colleagues that she had issues because people do that. They might know she is being supported because they are involved in the support e.g. covering some lessons for her as she needs a break, and clearly other staff would know if a child was being offered support.

Who knows what her role is but to say no one would know those things just isn't true.

it is a small community, everyone knows each other
I have lived in a similar small community in France.
There were two teachers for the whole school, no TA's, and the villagers did know each other well.
It isn't surprising that people knew of the teacher's personal circumstances. The OP is not talking about a UK school.

I'm very confused OP. Of course you don't have to explicitly state your connection to Charlie if you don't want to.

But your posts & way you shared the details were really confusing & meant it was hard to give relevant advice.

I read all your posts. Very few elaborated on your first post & mostly commented on others' experiences, as they posted them - fine. But it did mean it was hard to know what you wanted from the thread?

You spoke about a stressful situation & you were wondering what to do (in your later posts) which sounded very much like you were Charlie's mum. And got advice then on that basis.

Then you coyly say that you haven't said you are Charlie's mum, not making it clear if you are or not. Your role is pertinent to the thread, and the advice people can give.

Your latest posts where you've direct insight into the teacher's well-being are really odd, notwithstanding it's a small community in France. 🤷🏻‍♀️

You say you found some posts helpful which I'm glad to hear. In fairness to those engaging with this, it would have been useful to know where you were coming from on this.

ancientgran
In all schools I've worked at, discussions about a member of staff's personal issues and performance aren't held in classrooms where they can be listened in on, nor are they discussed widely with staff.

Maybe some schools are better at having appropriate boundaries than others.

'' I’ve never had a single complaint from a child or parent. In fact, I’m the teacher the kids beg to have. Because I create a classroom where they feel safe, they have fun, and they know they’re loved. I know them as individuals and over time we become like a big family.''

Yea the teacher who 'joked' with me at school too openly told people he was the teacher the kids 'begged to have'. And the kids aren't there to be 'loved', this is the whole problem with teachers like you. You think you are the kid's friend etc. Really get over yourself. And I say that as a teacher, I bet you tell everybody too that 'he is no problem for me.'

In all schools I've worked at, discussions about a member of staff's personal issues and performance aren't held in classrooms where they can be listened in on, nor are they discussed widely with staff

The discussions probably don’t take place on a Saturday with mysterious involved individuals being updated on a Sunday either.
Particularly at the start of a lockdown.

But we are in the UK Smile, and IIRC, the fact the situation and most posters are in different countries is irrelevant.

Maybe in France they do have Saturday staff meetings about confidential information, with half the community and/or in school with other staff who can hear confidential conversations about a colleague's personal situations.
🤷‍♀️

Anything is possible Lola