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?

If she can't go to student support can she sit in the back of a other subject and work quietly, with a teacher she gels with.

This is what my dd does or goes to a support room or even into the library.

I totally understand that, but she has 2 choices. Stick with the lessons in order to get her GCSE or change subjects. There isn’t a choice to not attend lessons for a subject but still take the exam.
Im not sure if I’ve missed it, but when did this all happen?

How do you know your daughter is telling the truth? I think you must have doubts about this and her general behaviour. Why didn't you escalate the problem earlier and resolve it to everyone's satisfaction?

I wasn't allowed to attend lessons with a certain teacher but could still do the exam (and i passed)

It’s unfortunate and neither the teacher nor your daughter seem to be able to let it go. Worth having the meeting suggested and try to get a resolution one more time. Are you sure the teacher didn’t just say ‘oh sorry’ at the time and dd didn’t hear because she was upset? It’s very bad discourteous behaviour from a teacher if not. I don’t know why the head is happy with it.

I had a teacher like that when I was at secondary in the 90s.
We fell out when she accused me of talking in form group -it absolutely wasn't me at all, and this was backed up by other people in the class but she really had a go at me. In my face shouting and calling me a liar. I saw red and told her (although I did not shout) that she was wrong and being rude.
After that she was out to get me at every opportunity. Luckily she was only my form tutor and I didn't have actual lessons with her but she made me life as difficult as she could manage. Accused me of inappropriate behaviour with a boy in an art room (we were both working separately on projects during lunch on tables completely the other side of the room to each other and barely knew each other) and then my mum had had enough and came into school and told her in a meeting to pack it in basically. She never spoke to me again, even during register.
Mrs Borton, if you are still out there, fuck you. I'm not the "mess" you said I was going to be-far from it actually.
I'm glad you are sticking up for your DD OP. There must be some way to negotiate this so she can do her exams.

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.

Perhaps the teacher feels it’s too little, too late to catch up on the work she’s missed.

Is this a subject your DD actually wants to do?

Unfortunately it seems your only options are to carry on with this teacher or change options.

I would discuss with DD what she wants to do.

The opening the email was awful but sometimes technology can mess up and it would have been a complete accident.

If I was DD and I really wanted to do the subject, then I would carry on with it and just tell you if she thinks the teacher is treating her unfairly and you log it with the school every time.

This is unprofessional. Formal complaint to head and then governors?

Are you 100% sure it was an accident? This teacher sounds quite Draconian and an old school hypocrite. They likely don't think allowing your daughter to leave the class if needed at the time was ok. That, or they may not consider her medical diagnosis something that should be supported.

I really would escalare this as a formal complaint to the governors and LEA. She is being victimised because of the teacher's error.

Sounds like the teacher is bullying your DD from reading the bits I have from this thread. The teacher needs a serious talking to. Your poor DD. I'd be wanting a meeting with Headteacher and the teacher in question over this.

Quite frankly, if my child was being bullied by an adult because of issues arising from a mistake and the attitude of that adult I would be going scorched Earth. Yes, your daughter may need to do the subject out of school - but that teacher is clearly not fit to be a teacher if she thinks bullying a teen for months because a teen asked for an apology when the teacher messed up is ok behaviour.

What is the head of year/ headteacher doing? What disciplinary action has this teacher faced?

She hasnt missed any work, the period of time last year was year 9, before GCSE, she did the work, but put no extra effort in, if she didnt know a homework question she just left it rather than putting the time in to find the answer etc. She never stopped doing the work, she just stopped trying to do her best work.

Her working grade is currently at 7+ her target for the subject is 8. All her grades are similar.

To the poster that says how do i know she is telling the truth, well, her grades are great across the board, she works hard, she has amazing feedback from all other subjects, awards for most achievement points both weekly and over the last half term. She hasnt had a single negative behaviour point in any other lesson, and the points being made are all very petty. Theres nothing about consistent disruption or attitude, its "said yo to classmate" "kneeling on a chair" nothing worthy of detentions. I also know my daughter, she is stubborn and headstrong when she believes she is right, but she is not a liar, and she has come home so upset from how she has been treated that i 100% believe what she is saying. She also openly told me that she was putting no effort into the class until the teacher apologised for sharing her information, she didnt hide behind it last year, she told me that shes not trying in a class for a teacher that cant apologise when she did something wrong. I have no reason to doubt her when she is always open and honest with me.

I think you need to go in and see the head and have a full discussion about this.
The teacher should have apologized as she made a mistake that led to private information being seen by other pupils.
But your daughter absolutely should not have behaved the way she did last year.

There's something going on now though. If your daughter really is putting the effort in and behaving in class then it is completely out of order for the teacher to insist on her being removed from the GCSE class.
But I'd also want to know how she is actually behaving in class - is she perhaps expressing through body language/eye rolling/tone of voice that she still hasn't forgiven the teacher. Is the teacher reacting to that? Is it some kind of low level disruption? I'm not saying it is - in all honesty it does sound like the teacher dislikes her because of the incident last year.
I think you really do need discussions with the head about this because it would be completely unfair for your DD to be removed from a GCSE she needs because a teacher has taken against her and is now picking her up for anything.

That's appalling and really not good enough. It's an accident due to carelessness in the same way you might accidentally run someone over if driving while drunk. I.e. entirely your own fault. If screen sharing you close any windows you don't want to share - that's basic stuff. Teacher should have apologised profusely and undergone gdpr retraining. To the victimise your daughter is even worse. This person shouldn't be in teaching, they are a vindictive arrogant bully. However that's all by the by - hopefully your daughter can overcome this and be the stronger person. She can sit the GCSE privately if you pay the entry fees, they can't stop her. But by all means ask for what you want but worst case scenario she has to go to a different lesson but can still sit the original subject if you arrange it for her.

The reason i think it was an accident is before this happened, there was no issues with the teacher and my DD, infact she had nothing but praise for her as its a subject my daughter is naturally good at and is spoken about in the home with it being an area i am linked to. The issues started from that event and when my DD expressed her upset and that she felt the teacher should apologise. The teacher clearly didnt like being asked to apologise to a teenager, by a teenager, and now targets her in lessons.

Can you raise this with the governors rather than school staff?

You can ask if she can self study (perhaps go to the library during those lessons and do the work).

But they can say no and if they do then DD needs to decide whether to change subjects or keep going to this teachers lesson.

You need to find out if dd is being disruptive in her class. One student like that can throw off a whole class and make it very hard to teach especially if the student is bright and manipulative.

It's quite an extreme step for a teacher to ask for a pupil to be removed from their class

It is hard to say as you are going almost entirely on what your dd tells you. By your own account your dd has held a grudge for a year so she is not exactly impartial! If your dd is just quietly getting on with her work then I don't believe she would be getting behaviour points. You might need to allow the possibility that your dd is not telling you the whole story here.

Can she be withdrawn? Possibly. But who would supervise her while she is not in class? Most schools do not have spare members of staff available for this. She is also unlikely to do that well in the exam without being taught the syllabus.

2 months, less than in fact, it was around 7 school weeks. Not a whole year.

Regardless - kids who have decided they dislike the teacher can quickly make it personal. Your dd may not be being honest with you.

I have said this is both ways, the relationship between the two is irreparable, but the catalyst was the teachers mistake and not apologising at the time. Even if im not getting the full story for my DD, and her effort is less than she is making it out to be, this isnt solvable anymore, but my DD hasnt ever given me a reason to doubt what she tells me. Thats all i can base my judgement on, what i know of my daughter, and her history of how she behaves as even when she wasnt putting in effort, she wasnt disruptive, she never had a report of being disruptive in any lesson throughout her schooling.

The "ideal solution" is she doesn't attend this teachers lessons and sits the exam either via the school, or privately, without having to be placed into a subject she has no interest in (think photography). Which i why i was asking if wanting that as a solution is unreasonable. If it is unreasonable, ill look for another solution, be that she stays in this lesson with the teacher and i try to support her through it, or, she get entered into a subject she wont pass and i privately tutor/pay for a tutor and exam for this subject.

Who said anything about "grovelling"? Dont put words in the OP's mouth. It takes the focus away from the important point that an adult thinks they are too far above a teenager that they wont apologise, and makes it seem as if the teen has done something wrong. When they haven't.

I have worked in schools for many years and your attitude that it would be lowering yourself to apologise to a child/grovelling is a sure fire guarantee to make you the unpopular, kids mess around in your class, kind of teacher.

Why adults are so pig-headed and don't understand that an apology goes a long way with students, I will never know.

If I were the teacher I would have been horrified at having the email on the screen and would have been apologising profusely and checking she was ok given the content . Even though it was likely an accident she was a cold hearted bitch for not checking on your Dd afterward. Given all the treatment later I would be going in and asking for them to talk to you and put in writing why they don't think your DD should sit the GCSE. I wouldn't be waiting to talk to Ofsted about the teacher either. They came down on my old school many years ago about not dealing with a teacher properly after investigating parent complaints. If I had a mobile phone when at school I would have used it to record one particular teacher else people would have responded they say others have on here that it must be the child's fault. Stick to your guns op.