Terrible class teacher causing concern amongst parents

[DodgyMcDodgerson]

My son is in Year 2. To briefly summarise, his class teacher shouts at the class frequently, there’s alot of punishments both individual and whole class, alot of putting kids down and responding to them very abruptly.
most of the girls in the class are terrified of her (as in to the point some girls are crying coming into school, another little girl wet herself rather than interrupt the teacher to ask to go to the toilet. When the girls mother suggested her daughter had been nervous to put her hand up in case she got shouted at, the teacher completely dismissed this as unthinkable). There are a few boys in particular who she seems to really
single out to tell off, and these are lovely kids - not unruly or being disruptive. She’s telling one boy off for not understanding the work as an example. The kids are unanimous in their dislike of her. The parents in the class are unanimous in their dislike of her.Literally not heard one positive word about her.
one child has already transferred to a different school and there is talk of more
following.
bearing in mind that this is not even 6 months into a new job and in a class of 28 children there have already been at least 5 complaints (that I’m aware of) - is this teacher likely to remain at the school????

You think I should be rinsing out soiled underwear?? Really? This is not my job. It’s not even my TAs job. We don’t touch bodily fluids unless it’s completely necessary.
We DO put them in a plastic bag and put them in their school bag. We even provide nice clean underwear out of our own pocket that is never returned.
BUT I’m not bloody washing them first! What exactly do you think the other 27 other kids in my class are supposed to be doing while I’m washing pants?

ilovebreadsauce I'm a retired teacher and always did that if a child wetted themselves, which happened only a handful of times over the course of forty four years, so not an issue at all. If the item is not rinsed out there may be an odour in the classroom, not pleasant, and embarrassing for the child.Much easier than cleaning up vomit. All part of the day's work.

@neelhtak I’m currently a teacher. Wet pants happpen several times a week. I’m usually on my own in the classroom. I’ve barely got time to make sure they get changed let alone wash their pants for them. I don’t know how long you’ve been retired but life in school has changed a fair bit in the last 10 years.

In y2! Several times a week? Unbelievable.

I'm retired since 2018 and admittedly never had Junior Infants(obviously the wetting class🙂) in my entire life. Cleaning up "sick " was always more of a challenge, being accompanied by the disgusted and unsympathetic groans of little classmates. The spray stuff was most welcome when it became standard, as opposed to the bag of sawdust. I do agree that the job ha become more challenging, but for other very different reasons.

Smartiepants79 I didn't use detergent or anything. Just a rinse and a squeeze in the classroom sink wearing the marigolds, into the plastic bag, a tight knot and into the schoolbag. Less than a minutes work. In a crowded classroom the item might cause an odour, especially in hot weather. You don't want a child being teased about that. Then a nod and a wink to whoever is collecting the young person."He/ She had a little accident but we sorted it ". Obviously if it were to happen again a meeting would be arranged in order to ascertain the source of the problem. Other teachers adopted the same practical approach.

neelhtak

Sorry but cleaning up sick is also not a teacher's job.
And I know that it is often easier just to do it than get the correct people to do it.

Who are the correct people in a school?

This is off topic somewhat!

Usually the site team. Originally known as 'The Caretaker and His Bucket of Sawdust'.

As pp has said it should be the caretaker or site maintenances job to sort out.

As believe it or not the person should be trained in biohazards and there removal and disposal.

How could you leave vomit on the floor for more than a few seconds ?The caretaker in a school is generally run off his feet with work. Cooperation is the key to a happy school.

Our janitor was shared with 2 other schools. Sick would just be left with a chair over it until he cane across to our school.

When you are trying to control a difficult class a teacher doesn’t have time or training to clean up vomit.

I tended to open the windows, put paper towels over it, mark round it and get on with the lesson.

Teachers in our school would carry out those jobs .Or an sna. Or the caretaker. And basic hygiene in cleaning and disposal was always observed. Commonsense.

Did your janitor work 23 hours a day? I can’t imagine how he managed.

The first requirement for the teacher in the schools that I have worked in has been to remove the children from the room.
As teachers are not allowed to leave the pupils alone it would be pretty much impossible to clean up the mess.
In order to clean up the vomit, the teacher would have to leave the class, find the cleaning equipment, then clean up the vomit, breaking two of the school rules.

@neelhtak Many classrooms don’t have sinks. Ours don’t. Washing pants is simply not something I’ve got time or resources for.
@TizerorFizz do you work in primary schools? Believe it or don’t but it’s a fact. We have a minimum of one pair of wet pants a week.
We also have neither a caretaker or site manager. All cleaning is done by staff.

In y2? In YR maybe but by y2 it should be rare unless there’s a known issue!

If there is no running water in the room that's a different story. You'd need to send out the two messengers of the day to ask for assistance. Must be awkward to have no sink. Art and all that ☹

Did your janitor work 23 hours a day? I can’t imagine how he managed.

He would be in school A from first thing to morning break, school B from break to lunchtime, then school C (the biggest) for the afternoon.

Fairly normal set up in our area

Another view might be that this teacher might just have higher standards in terms of behaviour. I’ve seen a lot of newer teachers come through recently who don’t challenge behaviour so it’s a bit of a shock when children then get a more strict teacher who does. I have heard this from friends who teach in primary schools and also how much worse behaviour has got. Of course there are bad teachers, I remember seeing one on my first teaching practice who was vile to infant age children. When I reported it I was told that I must have misheard. However, I have heard more cases of teachers being unfairly ganged up on by parents, especially when they are new to the school. By all means raise concerns about your own child but ganging up style complaints look more like a witch hunt. If what you are saying is true OP then there’s no way school won’t be aware of it and if other staff were concerned then they would have reported it already!

I am a y2 teacher and I’m also a parent . I know as a parent that some parents like to band together and badmouth the school / teacher . I have seen this many times .

You are not in the classroom and don’t know if this is the truth . I used to be a calm , softly spoken teacher and now I am a shouty, strict teacher - because this is what works. This is the only way that I can get focus and actually teach the children . It is not easy to get 30 7 year olds to do something they don’t want to do ( work! ) . Sometimes being strict is the only way. I have made children cry - I most certainly do not want to do that , but it’s not because they’re scared of me it’s because they don’t like being “ told off” - but in an instance of a child repeatedly talking to their friend during a lesson , being asked not to but continuing to do so and then me having to raise my voice - then leading to the child crying - I do not think that is wrong . I have also had a child wet themselves during my lesson - I never , ever say no to a child going to the toilet as I would never deny a basic human right ( even though one going usually leads to at least 5 more asking , but that’s just something I have to deal with as I refuse to follow policies put in place to deny children the right to go to the toilet when they need to ) - but in this instance the child did not put their hand up to ask . They later said they didn’t want to put their hand up to ask because I had said it was quiet working time . Made me feel absolutely awful and I questioned myself , until I reminded myself of the fact that this same child is a regular chatter during quiet working time .

Im not defending just because I’m a teacher I’m just showing the other side - sometimes what the children say is from their perspectives ( please remember they are very young still ) it doesn’t mean it’s the correct perspective.

Worry about your own kid and if they have issues broach them with the school. What other parents are moaning about is just gossip.

As a teacher and a parent I have experienced both sides of this. Use the complaints procedure to raise issues relating to YOUR CHILD if necessary. Disruptive behaviour is much worse as a consequence of Covid. Teachers are under significant pressure and massively undervalued for what they do. This stress affects their ability to function effectively. Each case is individual - the 40 percent drop out rate for teachers in first 5 years should tell us all something. The school should respond to legitimate concerns made by individual parents. They have to go through due process so any action won’t be instantaneous- support your child as best you can keep calm and respond assertively not angrily - even if you feel like a good rant at someone.

Sounds like the parents are the ones bullying a new teacher. Please dont rally together to complain about her.
I would imagine that if a teacher was yelling all day at her students then another member of staff or slt would have intervened.
A child of 6 in year 2 will find consequences (not punishments) tough. And possibly , they will have been deserved. Its tough, because if the teacher were to allow the bad behaviour, then a whole different set of parents would be rallying together to complain about lack of discipline.