AIBU to say something to the head

[Nobranothanks]

I'm wracking my brains over this one as I'm really unsure whether I should mention it to the head/deputy head.

My DC has just started school. It became apparent early on (through the WhatsApp group) that there were a lots of quite frankly insane parents. From talking to parents of other classes it seems to be only my child's class that's like this, around half of the parents in the class(bombarding the school with complaints about EVERYTHING, organising a witch hunt against the class teacher as she wouldn't spend 5 mins at the end of everyday discussing each child in private with the parent, that parebts should choose the school dinners at the begining of term - not from menu just by saying what their DC would like everyday, strongly disagreeing with the reward system.... I could go on)

It has been so relentless that class teacher is now leaving, her replacement has an unusual name but so far nobody has met her as she hasn't started it. They've now started on the new teacher.... Because of her name.

This doesn't sit right with me and I feel like I should raise it with the school however I do t want to be "that" parent. I did email them when the other issues were escalating as the group of parents were going en masse to the head to"state the feelings of the year" however it was only the feelings of 10 people.

So, AIBU to give the school a heads up about what quite frankly seems bullying behaviour toward someone they've never met!

I would report and then leave the group. It sounds vile.

We have a class WhatsApp group but there's never anything negative said about any staff at all.
Most recently it's been used for a collection for Christmas gift for teacher and TA.
Prior to that there was some chat about kids going for PCR tests and well wishes / offers of help for those isolating.
Prior to that a few people looking for a bit of instruction about a new process for homework.

It's a useful and positive group. I wouldn't stay in a group that was horrible and negative.

Reporting it wouldn’t make you ‘that’ parent, it would do the opposite! The school staff would thank you for sticking up for them.

Thankyou so much to everyone that's replied so far! I wanted to run it by some other people as I was concerned I was over reacting! I also wasn't sure if this is just the way that it is in all schools so very glad to hear that's not the case! The school is fantastic with lovely staff and a head who doesn't suffer fools gladly so I'm confident that if it were to continue and she's aware that something will be done about it.

I'm not a shrinking violet and have no issues in acting if something isn't right, hence drawing the schools attention to the previous issues so I will definitely be mentioning the latest development.

I've stayed in the group because, as someone else said, it's better the devil you know!

Definitely report! We had some silliness a few years ago on one of my children’s class WhatsApp groups when a few parents took against a teacher. Fortunately the head caught wind of it and sent out a stern letter telling parents not to use the WhatsApps for bitching or gossiping about staff. That was a few years ago and everyone’s behaved themselves since then.

We had similar on our class WhatsApp, not as extreme but lots of frothing regarding how certain things are dealt with (which seem perfectly reasonable to me!) it climaxed with someone suggesting that a collective letter of complaint should be written at which point myself and a couple of other parents stated that of we had any issues re teaching, bullying etc we'd deal directly with the school but annoyed being part of the group for PE/forest school/tombola donation/party reminders...it died down a lot after that...I do wonder if they formed their own WhatsApp group to bitch without is normies but I feel better not having to read it

Please do inform the schools head.
These parents sound vicious you'd be better well away from them.

Report. Ours was descending into a similar mess and several of us stuck our heads above the parapet to say we weren't happy about some of the comments, meanwhile someone had reported the nonsense to the Headteacher and a severely worded email was sent out. It needs nipping in the bud.

@EmeraldShamrock my thoughts exactly lol they hover round the gate like a large covern of witches. I don't think I've ever spoken to any of them!

Is there a parent rep for the class? They act as WhatsApp group moderators for my DCs classes (as well as fundraising for the PTA etc). I was a parent rep for a while and it’s part of the role to shut down negative gossip about staff or the school and direct the parents towards making complaints directly to the school. “If the school doesn’t know it’s a problem then they can’t fix it” is what we were told to say.

We have the same thing, though only a few mums. Every time they start I chipped in with something positive and others started doing the same. Eventually they shut up.

You can email yourself a WA chat, to save screenshotting. Go into group info and scroll down to bottom of page, select export chat.

Omg, just leave the group chat and ignore.

'bombarding the school with complaints about EVERYTHING'

So you want to complain to the head about them. How ironic.

If there's a group of particularly shit stirring parents it is better to step back rather than try and fix them. The school will be more than aware without you 'reporting' to the Head.

Complaining about a name? That’s close to hate crime territory.

gosh as if the head doesn't have enough to do with overseeing well-being of children and staff as well as all the education stuff, now she's got to be police officer on parent patrol. Mind boggling.

Someone needs to be the brave one and say hey I'm not OK with this attitude towards teachers. We need to support people who teach our children.

Honestly, in our school you'd all be trespassed.

I regularly used to tell the head the playground gossip, it used to give them the heads up, and often any real or made up issues were addressed in newsletters or school events where parents were present.