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?

The teacher was wrong not to apologise but I would be very interested to see what attitude your daughter displayed when she asked for the apology. Was she gobby? Stroppy? Drawing a lot of attention to herself?
If she kept her head down and said politely 'Miss, I am really not happy that the whole class saw that', she is in the clear and the teacher is wrong. If she showed herself up throwing her weight around, believe me, teacher have zero patience with that. She is a teenager, not an equal.

G.D.P.R!!!!

I'd be playing merry hell about this op

What the hell are teacher e mails doing on a whiteboard?

What are the schools filtering and monitoring procedures?

(Ofsted is very hot on this atm)

Your dd is being bullied by this adult.

Time to get the Board of Govs involved

When it happened my daughter immediately left the classroom upset. It was then a half term or bank holiday or something, so there was a few days when they weren't in school. On return from what i can gather my daughter spoke to the teacher and said it had upset her as she didnt want every one knowing her private information, the teacher replied "these things happen" or along those lines, this then made my daughter dig her heals in. The email was regarding a medical diagnosis my daughter received on the same day a close relative passed away, and that she may be a little bit more sensitive than normal and that she was allowed to leave lessons should she get overwhelmed, neither was information she wanted a class to know. At no point has she offered even a basic apology for it. Which is why i have no said to my daughter sometimes we just have to move on and accept that we wont get the result we want, and that not engaging in the lesson or doing the work is only going to affect her now she is at GCSE stage, and she has to put the effort into the subject. She has tried since September, but it seems the teacher has now labelled her and treats her with contempt.

Definitely a meeting with the teacher and the head. The incident awhile back is neither here nor there : the student has moved on and is working perfectly acceptably and teacher has no grounds to single her out and bully her, and even less to exclude her from the class!
Let's see what justification she can give to the head teacher...!

TBH I don't believe in forced apologies.

BUT what kind of person would accidentally open a child's email and NOT automatically apologise in the moment?? Obvious power issues and really concerning subsequent behaviour. Agree with the suggestions for action above. Horrendous situation.

I had a similar issue with a teacher decades ago.

It took a while before my mum believed me but when she did she gave me a small voice-activated recorder to put in my satchel.

My teacher was one of those types who wanted to be cool with the kids and had singled me out in several lessons, calling me a lesbian, asking me what it was like etc.

My mum was appalled and took the recorder to the head. I was allowed to do the 'O' level rather than be entered for a CSE but only if I sat in the corridor and got my lessons from another pupil.

Looking back now it seems incredible he was allowed to do that but revenge for me was getting an A in the subject despite a full year without lessons.

Can your DD record (without telling classmates) so you can take evidence to the head?

I remember how badly this bullying affected me so I hope you can get it sorted.

I have requested another meeting with the house lead next week when im off work to see if we can solve it, im not against privately entering her into the GCSE, if that means she can sit the exam, I would also obviously prefer it was done via school for ease. But i also dont think she should be made to attend another subject, and be expected to do the associated work, that she has no interest in doing in its place.

I started reading this thinking that YABU but you're really not. I would escalate this. It sounds as though the teacher is carrying out a mini vendetta against your daughter and that is really not acceptable. Head teacher then governors. Good luck

Seems a very reasonable stance. Hope it gets resolved.

I agree it is a GDPR issue, and should be raised as such, along with what I see as victimisation given the subsequent responses by the teacher.

Start with the head and the board of governors, and also if it can be done, make it clear in writing the parental objection to any detention given by the said teacher. Also consider a complaint to the Information Commissioner about the GDPR issue.

I was wondering that. How did a teacher access a students email account?🤔

The school is massively in breach of GDPR.

The teacher needs to be investigated. Your child is being bullied.

You need to get everything in writing.

It was about a medical diagnosis and a death in the family that had happened on the same day, the head of year or house had sent an email to class teacher explaining both these things had happened and that my daughter could maybe be feeling extra sensitive or upset and was allowed to leave the classes to go to the office if she felt overwhelmed. It wasnt her email as such, just an email regarding private information she didnt want sharing with everyone in the class at the time.

I presumed this was an email sent TO the DD about the issues and why she should be allowed to leave the class - the teacher received it in class and inadvertently opened it whilst her laptop was connected to the whiteboard.

TBH, I can easily see that happening. But, I’m amazed that anyone even read the contents! It must have been left open as opposed to a quick flash before realising what had happened.
Perhaps (and this is not to excuse the teacher) the teacher thought your DD was over reacting if she only had the email up for a matter of seconds. Obviously the DD would have known about the contents, as it was about her, but the rest of the class not so much. The teacher may well have said sorry at the time, but as your DD was upset and left the room she may not have heard it. That’s the only reason why I can see the teacher hasn’t been disciplined about this, but then again if she had, you wouldn’t be told that information because, ironically, it’s confidential.

How did the teacher have this information and why did she open it when projected on the whiteboard? - is she her form teacher? This type of information would not be circulated in school emails and the email would need to be opened in class for everyone to see. Yes you are being unreasonable. Firstly because this happening is very unlikely. Secondly tell your daughter to concentrate on her GCSE, in class with everyone, whether the teacher is 'shouty' or not. Finally if this did all happen as your daughter describes then you are unreasonable for not sorting it sooner.

The sticking point is what they do with her during that lesson time if she does not do the other subject. Some schools can accommodate, some can't.

Definitely have the meeting but think what alternatives there might be. If any lessons are at the beginning or end of the day she might be able to arrive late or leave early. The problem is if she's on school property she needs to be supervised. It could be as simple as staying in the back of the other classroom, possibly with headphones, doing her own work, or if there's a desk outside a HoY's office she could go there.

In your position I think it would be worth the disruption for her to sit the GCSE elsewhere privately. It'll be two half days of your life and you'd be protecting her from dealing with this teacher around the exam itself.

I think you can make progress for your daughter's sake by escalating, but sitting the GCSE in school is not the hill to die on.

I fully agree it was accidental, and probably easily done, but it was left up long enough for the class to read enough of the contents of the email to know what was happening.

I personally think that now, an apology for it would be worthless, too much time has passed and it would no longer be sincere. My daughter has also accepted that. This incident though is the catalyst to everything that has happened since, which is why i have mentioned it. Now the bigger issue is the relationship between my DD and the teacher is beyond repair, so its a case of looking for a solution as to how my DD can sit exams for the subjects she wants to sit only, and have a positive experience in these final years of school.

The email was sent to all individual class teachers stating what i have said, i dont know how it was worded, only that it contained enough information for students to ask my daughter about it, and that her relative had passed away. She opened it on the laptop that was connected to the whiteboard, it was mid lesson, so im guessing a powerpoint had been up or something and the teacher forgot her laptop was connected whilst the class was working and was checking her emails? I dont know the ins and outs, but i dont doubt it was a genuine mistake. Its how she has dealt with it afterwards that is the issue. I also dont condone my daughter half-arsing the subject for the last 2 months of the last school year, but i can see now she is putting the effort into the subject and wants to succeed. But the teacher is treating her as if she is still half-arsing and singling her out for punishments.

My daughter had droppings 3 GCSEs die to mental health. She goes to several different rooms or even suts in another lesson working at the back on her Maths. They should be able to accommodate this.

Sorry if I missed it but what reason has the teacher given for wanting to remove your child? Presumably she can’t say she doesn’t want to teach her anymore.

I have asked for this but I'm yet to be given a reason. The message i got off the head of year when discussing how to progress after the last lesson when she came home in tears as she had be blamed for something another student had done and sent out of the class was "Mrs X feels it would be best for DD to withdraw from the subject and take Y subject instead".

I don’t know how the structure is these days, but when I did my GCSE’s I missed most of the last two years and managed A’s and AB’s by self teaching using the text books and assignments. I then went hard on the revision just before the exams. If I could do that , I can’t see why your child couldn’t manage it with your support if you have a masters in that subject. Will the school allow it? Well, that’s the big question isn’t it? I bet they won’t want to, it’ll worry them that it’ll start a trend is my guess.

Ask for a meeting with head of year / house / whoever as others have said and take a factual chronological outline of what has happened (including number of behaviour points Vs other teachers etc). You should probably admit that your daughter wasn’t exactly a model student after it happened but that this year is different and she is being treated unfairly. Take her books to the meeting too and try to keep emotion out of it. Would classmates be willing to back her up?

It's extremely normal for all teachers of a student to receive an email like this so no idea what the pp is on about. Why else do parents contact the school to let them know if not for all of the teachers to be aware. I regularly get emails like this.
The teacher is presumably young and I'm very surprised she wasn't made to apologise by the hof or hoy and that she didn't immediately apologise.
I think double check with the hoy and exams officer as the teacher will confirm exam entries so as long as the exams officer and head ok it the teacher has no control over exam entries than confirming her class list.

I think the reasoning is an important factor in how you deal with this going forward. If they try and say she’s not managing academically you’ll have more of an argument to get them to support her take the exam without in-school lessons. If they acknowledge the relationship breakdown is the issue then I think the onus is on them to provide the time for her to study and enter her into the exam.