Conflicted about whether I should email school: AIBU?

[Itwasntmeright]

I would like to preface this by saying that DS is not a snowflake, and I am not a parent that would indulge snowflakery, and neither is DS unfit.

DS has come home yesterday saying he was hurting after PE. Apparently they’ve been doing fitness and the teacher had them holding squats and lunges and god knows what all lesson. I just chuckled indulgently and said PE can be hard. Today they’ve had another lesson where, and I quote, ‘he’s had us doing stretches to fix it because he saw us waddling in like a bunch of penguins.’ DS has come home asking for ibuprofen because he says it hurts to walk.

I’m not happy about this. It’s fair to say that this particular PE teacher has a reputation for essentially beasting the kids, and being, for want of a better word, a bit of a twat. I have heard from current and past students that he teases the kids and frequently crosses the line into being a bully.

I’m not happy. Fair enough work the kids hard, it’s what PE is for, but there is such a thing as overdoing it, and the teacher has clearly overdone it this time. One should not be in actual pain to the point of needing pain relief after a workout, and the fact that the teacher has had the kids stretching each others’ muscles out today suggests he knows he’s overstepped. My natural instinct was to email DS’s tutor and raise my concerns, but she is also a PE teacher, and the teacher taking these lessons is known to be a bit of a power mad arse, and I don’t want them to just laugh about it between themselves and then for the teacher to take it out on DS tomorrow.

1. AI actually BU here and am I being that parent?

1. If the answer to 1 is no, would it BU to email DS’s tutor, who is also a PE teacher, and raise my concerns?

I know the teacher who took the lesson has been at a different school for a while and has just returned, and it’s my feeling that he’s on a bit of a power trip to reassert himself. Everything I’ve heard about him from several sources, some of them other adults, suggests this is not an unreasonable or unfair assumption to make.

PS. I’m bracing myself here, I’ve a feeling I might be in for a bit of a beasting of my own.

PPS. DS is in Y9.

Yes we do a lot of walking, which is good for cardio fitness but not for muscle development. I asked on here because I wasn’t sure, and I’m glad I did. I’m not that parent, otherwise I would’ve just gone ahead and emailed.

We’ve been out for a walk and DS is just having a bath. I’m glad they have good PE lessons, they were absolute crap at my school.

Save your emails until your ds comes out having broken his wrist at the beginning of PE and finished the lesson.

Tbf to the PE department:

1. Ds said he wanted to continue
2. Ds said his pain out of 10 was 2
3. Ds did all the exercises to prove he had full movement of his wrist
4. By 9:30am the next day I had two very heartfelt and thorough apologies.

I've told them that he has a high pain threshold and will avoid medical attention at all cost. I have now warned ds that he'll only have to have the ball near him and they'll be calling for an ambulance. He says doing PE with a broken wrist is far less painful than going to A&E. 🤣

Definitely complain! Your child has come to you for help.

If the lesson is all fine, your complaint will be ignored. If the lesson is not fine and the teacher is a bully who gets his kicks hurting kids, your complaint could be the one that starts to stop this.

At the very least, the tracher will know that parents are keeping an eye on him and maybe he will be less of a bully in future.