AIBU Teacher plays "Boo the child"!!

[BubbleBath365]

Looking for some straight-talk please. Name change here, as post possibly outing.

My child is a 10-year-old in year 6.
Her class teacher has form for being rude and has a weird sense of humour. DD happens to be in the top class for maths, where they are pushed to work hard.

Today the teacher invented a game where at the end of the class, she picked on different children to call out answers to the maths questions set. If you had not completed a question (this may be either because you did not know how to do it or because you were slow), she told the whole class to boo the child, which they did with great gusto.
2 children got booed - DD and another child, who shrugged it off. DD is a gentle, mild-mannered and well-behaved child who really tries hard at maths, as she knows she needs to work at it. DD came home in tears, but did not cry in class (of this I am glad) - she was completely thrown as she had never been booed at.

Teacher is aware that DD lacks confidence in maths and has said so to us at the term-end meeting with parents - 3 weeks ago. Why would she pick on her to answer the question?
She has humiliated DD (and others) in class before (I am speaking of academic achievement - not bad behaviour) - so there is a pattern here.

I am furious. How can this be the right way to 'teach' a child? Is this a normal 'game' to play in class?
I plan to complain to the school - to me this looks like bullying.
I have spoken to the teacher on previous occasions, but she is very convinced her 'teaching methods' are fine.

Sorry about the long post - any advice appreciated.

YANBU - go and speak to the school. This is not the right way to teach a child.
YABU - shrug and let go

Completely unacceptable. Complain.

Yep. This needs reporting. As others have said you don't assess children this way. By public humiliation!

I would be complaining to the head directly. This is not acceptable and could make dd lack confidence. She sounds like miss trunchbulls star pupil in the school of how not to teach!

What sort of school is this? What sort of primary has sets for maths?! Surely that's unnecessary even without the booing.

Ds1 had a teacher who lined them all up and called out times tables. If they got it right they sat down if they got it wrong they joined the end of the queue. It was always the same few kids that were left standing all the time. I thought that was bad enough but what you describe is much worse. Definitely speak to the teacher about it.

We recently looked round about 5 primary schools as DD starts in September, and they all had sets for maths in the older years.

Ugh! No... if I were your DD in this situation I'd have told the teacher and the class to go fuck themselves and walked out.

Well done to your DD for having more self control than that, but this is AWFUL, what the fuck is it meant to teach. This sort of aversive experience would make many kids far LESS willing to offer an answer, which creates stress about solving the problem, and about speaking in front of others... and thats the tip of the frigging iceberg.

That’s very 1994 and not at all acceptable.

I honestly don't think I'd be able to contain myself at drop off in the morning if this was my kid!

Are you sure they had different classes depending on ability? I worked in schools for years including as a year 6 TA. It is completely alien to me that you would have a "top class". Even at secondary kids I worked with didn't get put into separate classes till year 8 or 9

What the actualllll fuuuuck!! Im fuming reading this.. this so called teacher needs sacking!!! I wouldn't let this go! This is PTSD level

@HelenaHurricane umm not 100% sure but that's what it sounded like - they talked about it as something they only did in the top 2/3 years, and as being different to what they do for English. I assumed they meant separate classes as that's what I had when I was at primary school.

Similar thing happened to me at school and I never forgot it and it knocked my confidence (wasn't booing, the teacher wouldn't let anyone leave until I got the answer right).

It's nasty and a shit thing to do

It's not the sign of a broken system, ffs. It's one lapse in judgement from one teacher. That's all.

This would destroy my daughter's fragile confidence. This is awful teaching practice and I'm glad to say not something I recognise from my children's experience.

Personally I'd be insisting on a face to face meeting with the headteacher and following it up with a written complaint.

I'd be fucking livid if this was my child. Best of luck escalating this.

Teachers need to be reminded that girls in particular feel that theor ability in maths is inferior to that of boys and they begin to feel that from the age of 5, despite there being no difference in actual ability. By the end of primary school, many girls do start to fall behind in part due to lack of self belief. The reality is that many just need to find their own way, in their own time. Due to social conditioning, many girls lack the confidence to take risks and have a go at difficult maths questions for fear of getting the answer wrong whereas boys, who are encouraged to take risks elsewhere are more likely to forge ahead and shrug off wrong answers and lower grades while girls drop out of maths because they see themselves as struggling and knowing they have to work hard, whereas boys celebrate achievements that might be either just as good or less good than the girls who believe they are struggling.

Long winded... but I see it over and over again, in different schools, discussed at girls in stem evemts where schools, universities and employers come together to reflect on why girls don't have confidence in their abilities in Maths and how to retain girls who are doing well in these subjects. We need to make them welcome and make them feel like they belong here, not cut them down.

Has this teacher ever booed a male student for poor handwriting or poor reading? Though the ripping the picture story makes me think that perhpas she has...

This woman sounds unhinged go straight to the head

"A broken system"

"I get no pleasure in putting teachers down"

Hmm.

Of course this teacher has treated the kids unacceptably IF this is true.

That is so bizarre, is there any way your daughter could have been mistaken?

Agree

What a sick sadistic teacher!

Public humiliation is revolting, even more so when it's done to children!

Maybe she'd like to put them in a pillory next?!

Raise hell.

Seriously weird, and not OK.
Contact the school.

My god, I thought that sort of humiliation at school ended in the 70s! I'd be livid.

That teachers a horrendous bully.

If the teacher also ripped a child's Mother's Day painting in half there's absolutely no reason to not believe she's fully capable of doing this too.