Teacher continually getting DD’s name wrong

[Magicshoppingtrolley]

DD mentioned when she started school last year that her English teacher was consistently getting her name wrong. I laughed it off saying she had lots of names to remember and I’m sure she would get there.

A year later and it’s continually happening. She teaches her 3 times a week so it’s not as though she rarely sees her, I’ve told DD to politely state what her name is each time she calls her by the wrong name. DD did so this week and was given a behaviour warning for being rude.

DD’s name is a standard name but not common so equivalent of the teacher calling her Jasmine when her name is Jennifer.

AIBU to say something to school or the teacher when we next have a parents evening?

Okay, another perspective. I am a teacher and I have a real issue with names and faces. It's a real problem called facial blindness. I hugely struggle. I teach more than 100 students in total. I do not know all their names. I am aware that it's a problem and do my best to mitigate it - eg seating plans. I do make errors though, even with children who I've taught for a year. When you teach 100s of kids, this is inevitable! The teacher is probably mortified about it.

The behaviour point, however, is not okay, IF your daughter was genuine polite. Are you sure she wasn't rude in correcting her? Laughing, smirking, rolling her eyes etc? I've seen that sort of reaction dozens of times. I'd ask the teacher politely before going in all guns blazing!

Thanks again. I will go for a polite email about DD being upset about it. I work in an area where I’m expected to remember lots of names but would be mortified if I got one wrong consistently. I do also appreciate that DD might have been a bit eye rolling if she was frustrated although her friend says she wasn’t.

I was a teacher and each year would teach over 300 different children. It’s hard to remember names when you teach that many, particularly when some children may look similar or have similar hair colour and features.
I wouldn’t go in all guns blazing.

I agree with @Jifmicroliquid I think you are hugely overestimating the average teacher's name recall ability, and forgetting that they will learn hundreds of new names every single year. It doesn't matter if the teacher knows your daughter's name or not. What matters is if her records are accurate. I have accurate records for hundreds of students who's faces I would not recognise

A baisc expectation of a teacher is to know who you are teaching. Especially when they are young kids and it isn't solely about marks. How can you fill in a progress or achievement report that asks about more than marks when you haven't got a clue who is who or what their names are. To not know the names of the children in your class is unexcusable and lazy. Learning names is an expected responsibility in the profession. Learning is relational. It is just about one directional spouting of information.

Ir probably wasn't accurate but you wouldn't know because you didn't have a clue who anyone was. How can you do an accurate assessment of kids when you don't even know who they are? Not possible beyond marks where they wrote their name on a paper and you can then transfer that mark to your book.

Of course I can - you don't seem to know how classrooms work

I have been in classrooms for 25 years. It isn't possible to do accurate assessments without knowing who they are. How ca you assess behaviour or effort or teamwork when you have no idea who anyone is? You can't. If a parent calls or emails about a student - you have no clue who they are talking about. If you don't know who is know and don't know their names - you can not accurately assess them.

Completely unrealistic to remember that many names when some classes you only see for an hour once a week or fortnight.
You can still know exactly what someone is achieving and how they are progressing based on recognising them, but you might not instantly remember their name.

One year I taught 370 children, some I saw once a fortnight. Do you really expect a teacher with that number of children to know the names of absolutely every one by early November without making the occasional mix up?
Why do you think secondary school teachers print out class lists with the kids faces on? Because it is so difficult, on top of all your other responsibilities, to learn the name of absolutely everyone within the first term.

When I was a teacher, I used to use the register as an opportunity to check I was using names correctly at the start of the year, as in “If I mispronounce your name, or get it wrong, please remind me - politely” and then make a note to help remind me at the start of each lesson. It just took seconds. It was important to get their names right. It’s basic respect and relationship building. I wouldn’t tolerate rudeness if I made a mistake, but for the most part they genuinely appreciated it. I’d never have sanctioned a student for a polite correction.

You can't tell how someone is progressing or achieving if you don't know their name. Records are name based so you can't translate your observations to a specific individual or record. Sure you might know that the kid with brown hair who wears pink bows all the time never pays any attention in class and seems overly distracted and doesn't interact with others but since you haven't got a clue who that child actually is and don't know their name, there is really nothing you can do with that information. When a parent calls about Julia - you don't know who that is so you can't report your observations, when you are writing reports, you have no idea what report you would put that on. If the headmaster asks you if you have had any issues with Julia, all you can do is say no idea who Julia is - sorry. When the children in your class are nameless to you, there is really no relationship. You can't call on anyone, you can't put kids in specific groups, you can't support them as an indivudal, you can't do much. And while you can give information - that isn't really teaching. When you are so disinterested in who someone is (that you interact with often) that you don't bother to learn their name, they may do self directed learning, but you aren't going to contribute much. Same as if you taught in a school for the year and the headmaster never learned your name, didn't have a clue who you were other to recognize you as a teacher who is employed in that school despite seeing you day in / day out or week in / week out - you aren't going to see them a real contributor to your teaching experience.

This is the 4th term, not the 1st. And a pupil the teacher sees 3 times a week, not once a fortnight.

Yes I do.

That's part of your job, to know the names of the kids you are teaching. That is why it is rare and noteworthy when constant mistakes are being made of this nature.

It also wouldn't be that bad if the teacher apologised instead of giving behaviour warnings.

It is Rebecca and Rachel because my DD has a huge issue with this with one of her teachers?

I think your daughter should just not respond to the wrong name. She can say she didn't realise she was being spoken to as she wasn't named.

I think it s quite funny that so many posters actually think teachers know all your childrens names.

It's understandable that they don't know all the names.
It's not ok for them to punish the child for correcting them.

What is a behaviour warning and what's the result of getting them, that's awful

The vast majority of teachers do know the names of their students. I have encountered one or two like you who don't give a flying $*%& about the students and don't bother to get to know them at all but that is pretty rare. Classrooms function much better if the teacher has some basic rapport and relationship with the students and not even caring what their names are or who is who is going to lead to lots of problems in the classroom.

most teachers do not know all their children's names, how on earth could they? You are talking about multiple hundreds of new faces every year - be realistic!

Very few teachers teach ‘multiple
hundreds’ of students a year.

I am not even sure what kind of teaching position you are thinking of with young kids where you are with the same class multiple times a week but still see ‘multiple hundreds’ of kids a year.

Give there's been a whole year of the teacher getting the name wrong, not just a few weeks of term I think it's only polite to let the teacher know. Otherwise your DD runs the risk of being marked down for participation if the teacher isn't really aware who she is.

I had a teacher call me Angela as opposed to Ariela for an entire year, by the last half term of the year I declined to answer to Angela, and would wait for a slap round the knuckles with a ruler " 'Angela' I'm talking to you'' so I kept saying 'Oh I AM so sorry I thought you meant Angela (another girl in another class) not me, I am Ariela'. I think it no coincidence I got grim marks since the teacher had no clue who I actually was.

At first I thought it was something like mixing up a part of the name. Like calling someone Abdul rather than Abdal.
But if it's something like calling them Jasmine, when it's Jennifer, or Thomas, when it's Teddy, then it's time to flag it with the school, most definitely!

If you have trouble learning names as a teacher (like me), then you find ways to help yourself! Seating plans are the obvious answer. I have a seating plan in my hand to help me with names constantly for the first few weeks of the term. It is not acceptable not to address kids by their actual name and I am quite frankly shocked by the attitude of some teachers on here. Being seen by the teacher and known by name is important, otherwise you might as well just call them boy or girl!

If the teacher is aware they have a problem with getting this particular students name wrong they should make an effort to remind themselves. If your politely worded email about it doesn't work, I'd suggest DD does something similar. Eg teacher is called Miss Smith, so DD calls her Miss Sims until she can gers DD s name right