To be really cross about this feedback I’ve received at work today?

[BiscoffAddict]

I’m a teaching assistant and am working on supply via an agency at the moment. It’s obviously been a tough year but most schools are just glad of the help. This week I’ve been working everyday at an Infant school. They seemed lovely, I was only supposed to be there four days but they asked me to do an extra day. Of course I was happy to help. Today as I left the teacher thanked me profusely and said she hoped she’d see me again soon.

I then get home to a message from the agency asking me to ring them and it turns out that the school had some ‘concerns’ about me. Apparently there had been ‘incident’, which I have no recollection of where I told a child with additional needs to stop dancing during circle time. They also accused me of using my phone whilst in the classroom, which I couldn’t have done because my phone was in my bag in the cupboard!

I was and still am absolutely gobsmacked! They were so nice to my face, and I came away thinking what a lovely week it had been.I just can’t get my head around it. This has never happened before ever, and even my account manager admitted she didn’t understand it because I always get good feedback and no one has ever had a problem with me before.

The whole thing has left me reeling and actually and I’m really fucking fuming! I can’t understand why they didn’t talk to me directly if they were unhappy with my work? I also don’t understand why they kept me for the whole week?

AIBU to be furious about it!

They won't do bugger all, they are there to look after your interests
You should be in one, precisely for things like this
It will probably be the best money you've spent

Do challenge it, you dont want lies on your record. Can you or the agency check their use of phone in break time on school premises policy, I would join the union, they are there to support staff.
People do lie and just make shit up, in the NHS I was accused of getting in my car on a night shift and going home for a 3 hour break leaving an HCA in charge of the ward. I dont even drive, get a bus, people can be very vindictive.

In your situation I would speak to the HT just to clarify that they made a complaint about you. I’m not sure what I would do if they admit they complained about you and there isn’t a mix up somewhere down the line.

However, if there is a mix up either from the school or the agency at least it will clear your name. I would have to, at least, try to get to the bottom of it.

I would challenge by sending an email to the Head and agency and say something like:
Dear Karen & Julie,
I am concerned I have been mixed up with another TA/received someone else's feedback and wanted to clarify a few points.
My phone was kept in a bag in the cupboard and I only accessed it in the staffroom during my break
I was informed by the agency of an incident where x happened and I did y, however this incident did not occur in the class this week.
I received positive feedback from Mrs Smith during the week.
Please check your records and ensure this feedback is passed on to the correct person.

Although I want to go in all guns blazing I think what @DarcyLewis has said is probably right.

Seriously OP, whatever you do, please join a union. You are so vulnerable working in a school without that backing.

I'm glad you are going to challenge it. When I was on my 2nd teaching practice, I was in a department which had one main teacher and one who did around 4 lessons per week. The HoD was very rigid in her ways. I worked really hard. I resourced all my lessons myself, I helped her with her orchestra & choir, I showed her how to use the software she had been given but didn't know what to do (this was in the early 90s) etc. The other teacher and my 2nd subject department were really positive and supportive. On my final feedback form, the only positive comment she could make about me was that I am a string player - what that has to do with teaching classroom music, I am not really sure. My tutor read it to me and we both laughed at the stupidity of it. Luckily my tutor was really supportive and read the report from the other department and my mentor and realised that this woman was just a vindictive slave-driver, but I was lucky to have that back-up. Anyway, my revenge is that I have taught very successfully for almost 30 years, including running a department, so she can shove her nonsense reference up her uptight posterior.

I'm a teacher, and currently have a supply agency TA. She is amazing. I would be so upset if I found out she had been given poor feedback, as ultimately she is linked to me and my class, so any real feedback would have to come through me or be checked by me.
I am pleased you are going to challenge this OP, please do it with the agency and ask them to challenge the school on your behalf, and don't go directly to the school, this way you have another layer of protection.
Please point out to the agency that you were booked for 4 days and they asked you to do a fifth day, surely this wouldn't have happened if they had concerns about you (which they clearly wpuld have had from earlier in the week if the incident was true). Stand up for yourself, and this will help you see if this is an agency you want to work with in the future too.

Contact the headteacher and ask for an explanation - say you want to clear your name with the agency as this could not have been you

Hope you get sorted Op as this sounds most unfair.

All the best op

I would do as @DarcyLewis suggested and as other posters have suggested, join a union. It's probably been a mix up but could be the school trying to get the bill reduced for having you.

Definitely not being unreasonable! As others have said, mistaken for somebody else OR you are attractive and the other women didn't like this, I witnessed this first hand at work once. A very attractive girl started who was an instant hit with the males there, a couple of women were not impressed with this and used to run to the boss at every opportunity with tales of how she was always on her phone, lazy, blah blah blah, all crap. I told the boss otherwise but unfortunately they still got rid of her (she was agency)

I think you're doing the right thing in challenging it. If this situation means you wouldn't be going back there anyway, then you have absolutely nothing to lose. And what's wrong with telling a child to sit down during circle time?!

Don't say you don't remember the dancing incident. On Judge Judy, if one person says something happened and the other says they don't remember that happening, JJ always sides with the person that remembers. Saying you don't remember gives room for doubt.

@Leftphalange

Came on to say the same as above- wrong person?

This my first thought. Double check probably agency’s mix up not school!!

Definitely confront it op or it will really niggle at you. I wish i had challenged the school at the time but i did tell the agency the school were lying and i think they believed me and hinted the school had done this before. So call the agency and tell them about it as you never know the school could have form for making complaints. If it also makes you feel better my agency eventually found me a long term place in a school that gave me excellent feedback and constantly requested mw back by name. Hopefully you will find a great place very soon.

Work colleagues can be really awful sometimes- lovely to your face, but stabbing you in the back.

I think that it may be the school was annoyed with the agency or was maybe trying to knock some money off their charges, and have perhaps said these things to the agency because of that. Or the agency has confused you with someone else x

I’m very sorry that you had this horrible experience.
You seem so proud of your work and so pleased to help out.
You are clearly very professional and take your work seriously.
I would challenge it for two reasons, the first is your professional reputation and the second is, your work may put you in a situation where you have to stand up for a child, who is wrongly accused of something someday.
You sound like a lovely, capable and caring person and I hope it all turns out well for you.

Could you email the Head and ask for clarification? Explain you're confused between the feedback you were given in person and the feedback the agency gave you? It could be malicious on the part of the school or the agency or hopefully just a miscommunication.

Even if you had asked the girl to stop dancing, why would that be considered wrong?

A manager once told me (in front of her manager) that a senior member of staff found me unapproachable. I'd been seconded for part of the day to work with someone else. At the end of my time he gave me a very nice thank you card and a bottle of wine, both lovely but unnecessary. She was lying, she didn't want me to work there again so lied about me so I wouldn't be seconded again. I reported her then left for a better job.

Go back to the school in person and sort it out, in a calm and professional way of course.

Thanks for all your comments. I don’t want to think the school could be so malicious, but I can’t really rule that out either. Yesterday I actually chatted with a family member who works in childcare about what had happened, and when I mentioned the name of the school she said knowingly ‘oh, say no more’, but didn’t really elaborate. So I’m getting the impression they have a reputation. I also now recall an incident where the head was very rude to some workmen who came in to do a job, which at the time I brushed off.

I’m very lucky in that I’ve been doing supply for a while and have had several long term assignments and also get asked for by name by some schools, and because of this the agency believe me. Someone who was just starting out could have their confidence ruined and end up not getting any more work. I feel like I need to challenge it and tell them it’s not ok, but I’m also way about them kicking up a stink not just to the agency but telling other schools about me.