to ask that my daughter be removed from a certain teachers lessons, but remain entered for a GCSE?

[LolaLouise]

Not that im even sure that is possible?

My daughter has issues with a specific teacher at school. She is year 10 GCSE age. She has zero issues in any other lesson. She regularly gets the class award for most achievement points achieved that week, she got the house leader award for the half term, she is a student voice rep for her house, she has positive feedback, and is working at grade 7+ in every subject, including the lesson being discussed.

My daughter and this teacher had a "falling out" last school year when the teacher, accidentally, opened an email concerning my daughters private life onto the whiteboard for the whole class to see. My daughter was very upset and angry about this, and quite rightfully in my opinion, voiced this upset and asked that the teacher apologised. The teacher took the stance of "Im not apologising to a student" and for the remainder of the year my daughter did the bare minimum for this subject and work in lessons, and her homework was half arsed. This school year, after talking to my DD at length over summer about how sometimes you may feel you are owed an apology, but you wont always get it, sometimes you need to draw a line under events and start a fresh, my daughter tried just that. Her school book is very thorough, very neat, homework was taken seriously, and she is doing extra revision or pre reading as the focus of the lesson changes. However, the teacher has not done the same. She continues to pick my daughter up for anything, handing out detentions etc for minor situations, shouting and screaming at her (and the entire class by all accounts) for no reason. My daughter has come home in tears multiple times over how this teacher has treated her in the lesson. She posted negative feedback on the parent portal that is so unbelievably petty. The only negative behavioural points my daughter has had all school year are from this one teacher.

Despite this, as i said, my daughter does all her work in this subject, homework up to date, and high predicted grades. The teacher has now expressed she wants my daughter removed from this GCSE entirely subject (which i have been made aware of by the head of year) and placed on another she has no interest in at all, and is more vocational than academic, and also doesnt lead into what she wants to do at A level unlike this subject. I have stated categorically that my daughter is not to be removed from this subject against her wishes, when her grades are good, if they cant provide an alternative teacher - ill tutor her myself as it is a subject area i have an MSc in already. It is clear to me the relationship between her and this teacher is beyond repair, if it is causing this much upset for my daughter, and the teacher if she is requesting my daughter is removed from the course, surely having her remain entered, but privately tutored is a workable solution?

Is there not another teacher in this subject? You can enter your DD for any exam if the school allows it but much better for her to stay in school, especially as she's happy elsewhere in lessons.

I’m amazed the teacher was allowed to not apologise - can you escalate this at school? She’s supposed to be the adult/ professional in this situation!

No, it is a small secondary with most subjects only having 1 teacher, except Maths and English which have 2 or 3. Theres less than 50 children per year group.

Is there not another class she could move to?

my DC sounds similar to your daughter, excellent student who has a clash with one of her teachers, school has been very accommodating, at the moment she can go to a study room & work independently during that subject, but we have discussed moving to another class.

Is this a private school?

Ive spoken to them alot regarding this issue, the short story is she is allowed to do as she choses as the teacher, as she has explained it was an accident, my daughter should just have accepted that. However i have always taught my children that even if you unintentionally hurt or upset someone, you should apologise. So my daughter felt very strongly she deserved an apology and stopped engaging with the teacher and subject as she is incredibly stubborn when she wants to be. However i can see she has put much more effort into it this year and has tried to move on from the email situation.

If its the entire class then your daughter is not being singled out and no, the school won't enter a student for an exam if they're not sitting lessons. But a teacher that won't ever apologise or own their mistakes is never going to be a decent role model.

No, just a small state secondary school in a small town.

She shouts at the entire class alot, but my daughter is singled out for detentions and the behaviour points on the portal

Yanbu.

But you'll need to sort out the gcse entry independently (this is fine, and easy to do) - you can't expect the school to enter her for the GCSE when her success or otherwise aren't anything to do with them. But loads of independent candidates take gcses having self-taught, it won't be a problem.

Agree to her being removed from that lesson and insist that she is timetabled to spend those slots either in the library or in learning support rather than studying a different subject. You can teach her yourself at home and set her "homework" tasks to do at school in those slots.

Have you been in for a meeting with the teacher and perhaps head of dept or line manager to try to sort it out?

The problem with taking a kid out of a lesson is what does that kid do when they're meant to be in lessons? They can't be left unsupervised.

You need a meeting with the Headteacher and teacher

This. I can't believe that hasn't happened. I couldn't stand by and watch my child be singled out this way day in and day out.

Then you need to raise it again as her behaviour is very unprofessional

Im sure they can as students can sit for languages etc.

One school has 1 child doing latin.
But they probably wont want to in this case as it would show the student did better than those having lessons.

Plus the teacher wouldnt be getting revenge by stopping the student studying it if they sit as an external candidate.
We had a slightly simiar situation where ds annoyed an out of school activity leader - minor things. But even though i told ds off he persisted. Ds ended up chucked out (and his brother wasnt allowed to do activity even though the leader didnt know him! )
DS1 one asd/adhd waitlist now and ironically this issue has actually helped a lot with that.

I can see why the teacher wouldnt apologise in that it obviously wouldnt have been intentional to show the email. And should have automatically apologised.
But alsio your dd probably cant see how easily stuff might happen if you have to share your laptop screen.

Wow!!
Teacher sounds ghastly and unprofessional.
Hitman? <constructive>
Solidarity, that's dreadful.

I don't think the teacher needed to grovel for something that was clearly an accident - and perhaps she felt the information shared wasn't that serious in the grand scheme of things?
I would have thought a quick' oh sorry about that' when shutting down the email would have sufficed... I may be wrong but sounds like your daughter expected something more grovelling, which may be OTT.

Anyway, it's equally clear that the teacher cannot bar a student from the classroom on spurious grounds, if the child is up to standard, delivering the work etc - this could impact her entire life, if it is a subject she needs to study later. So I would definitely have a meeting with the head and the teacher to try and clear the air and resolve the situation. It's always better to study in class than out of it. You may have an MSc but it doesn't mean you know the GCSE curriculum, or what exactly the teachers are looking for in particular answers on this topic. If you take her out, I would at least get a tutor who is very up to speed on this to teach her. (you can supplement and help with the revision).

Have you approached the school governors?

I don't think the teacher needed to grovel for something that was clearly an accident - and perhaps she felt the information shared wasn't that serious in the grand scheme of things?
I would have thought a quick' oh sorry about that' when shutting down the email would have sufficed... I may be wrong but sounds like your daughter expected something more grovelling, which may be OTT.

Blimey, I hope you don't work with young people! They are very vulnerable and being humiliated in front of their peers will be a massively big deal, accident or not. A decent teacher (person) would accept responsibility and apologise wholeheartedly and sincerely for the error.

What reasoning has the teacher given? Because if Pupil A gets good grades, works hard, and wants to do the subject, theres got to be a strong justification to remove her from that subject - it wont be "I dont like her" from the teacher.

IMO you need to arrange a meeting with this teacher and HOY. Specific examples of whats been happening in class and what has been done about it up until now. Constant interruptions etc hamper others learning, even if DD is doing ok, so it may be that DD needs to be told to quit the eye-rolling grumpiness, poibtless questions, nitpicking etc. Or it could be that the teacher is the nitpicking one!

You should never have allowed this to get this far. Demand a meeting with the Head and take it from there.

@LolaLouise can enter her for the exam, pay the exam fee and tutor her herself.

The school could be petty and refuse to allow her to physically sit the exam at school but they can’t stop her sitting it at any other exam centre.

TBH I am amazed you didn’t make a formal complaint at the time the teacher opened that email.

Sorry but I don’t think that was an accident - teachers are taught the importance of confidentiality on these sorts of things and what she did WAS unforgivable. She should have said sorry and the fact she didn’t was disgusting. It’s the fact she refused to admit fault that makes me think it was deliberate.

YANBU and your daughter shouldn’t have to suffer through being taught by such a thoroughly unpleasant individual

If your account of events is factual and correct, the teacher should not be teaching. It sounds like she has singled your child out to be bullied, after she inadvertently (or on purpose?) breached GDPR guidelines to show her entire class an email containing personal information.

I would be going to the head and governors. Failing that, I would contact the LEA and Ofsted. The teacher is clearly failing against a number of the teaching standards. However, I would have also acted sooner and not allowed my child to be bullied like this. If the behavior points and detentions are all actually over the top, you have clear evidence that this teacher has carried out a sustained campaign of bullying against your child.

Not the point of the thread but why did the teacher have private emails about your daughter?