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????

Is the teacher having to be strict because behaviours are borderline unmanageable? Because that's the case up and down the country in primary and secondary. It would be great if parents could recognise that and support teachers rather than chastise them.

The teacher will have observations and have to meet targets. If the SLT have concerns, then they will have to intervene. Yes, there are some poor teachers. Yes, there are some inadequate SLT. However, if you complain, please cite some evidence for the school to work on.
If she's actually rude, complain.
If she's just a bit distant, don't.
Unfortunately, many parents now really don't like their children to be told off, and don't understand how much behaviour matters.
Some are great, though, but still tread carefully.

That sounds unreal. All schools do a DBS on all parent and student volunteers

An exam in year 3? WTH

How can the school promote a teacher like that to deputy head.😮

They don't have to if they are always with a member of staff.

We had one like that when DD was in year 4, they are 17 now and still remember this vile woman

In our case I dismissed it as kids being kids and perhaps they were over egging how bad she was. However one after the other all of the parents would chat and mention this teacher's conduct.

It got so bad that when it was her days for the class (it was a job share role and not ideal in the first place) and she would come out to collect them for the morning, the kids would visibly shrink and become quite noticeably upset

What got rid of her in the end, was me. We had all made complaints and begged school to intervene, they fobbed us off, she was here to stay.

One evening, at pick up, I could hear her shouting at a pupil, not unusual and I was getting my phone out to record it but one of the girls came running out the door into the playground and ran at me. It was my DD being shouted at.

DD at that time was tiny and was facing some bullying as well to make matters worse and I knew she would be hysterical at being screamed at. I went to the door, some of the kids saw me and I put my finger to my lips to say, shhh. I then watched as this abhorrent woman got right in my DDs face, absolutely screaming at her, she was so angry she was incoherent. Three other girls were in tears.

It turned out DD had been kicked and thumped by one of the bullying kids, a boy twice her size, and was crying in pain. This horrid woman then starts shouting at her to be quiet and put her chair away, so DD had pushed the boy as he was stopping her from doing as she was told. Of course, despite being entirely ignorant of DD being battered, she saw her push him and had demanded DD apologise. When she said no, she had dragged DD to the front and started her verbal diatribe.

Hearing enough, I coughed and said "are you quite finished?" To say she absolutely shit herself that she had finally been caught out by a parent. I recorded it, the whole screaming from her.

Took it straight to the headteacher, never saw the teacher again. We had supply teachers after that. Kids went back to not fearing a teacher.

he bellows all day long and threatens the kids with a ping pong bat on which he has drawn an angry face

@sprigatito this is hilarious - I assume he is a South Park fan? Who knew Mr Garrison was a role model for anyone

Are children supposed to bring spare pants to school or something? If not, they wouldn't be able to wear any under their trousers

I’ve never been in this situation but I’m thinking about what I would do if I was faced with something similar.

My suggestion would be to write a joint letter, with the other parents in the class, to the governors and headteacher.

Try and write the letter as concisely as you can and using neutral and factual language. In the letter, you could request a meeting with the headteacher and governors to discuss your concerns about the teacher with them.

Good luck.

We had this. A teacher on a knife edge, exploding with deep seated anger, very nasty to all the kids. This was in a rural middle class primary school with no behavioural issues or SEN. I flagged the issue as safeguarding but the head was in denial initially. There was only so many complaints he could ignore before having to take action to safeguard the children.

Heads do know about shouting teachers. They hear them! They just choose to swerve the problem hoping no one will complain. It’s weak management and not acceptable.

If they don't want to work then what do they come to school for?🤣

There’s a whole world of difference between normal class management and a teacher who shouts. I’ve heard shouting when a window has been open and DC absolutely know the difference. Mainly because most infant teachers don’t shout, so DC are quite shocked when a teacher routinely shouts. It’s usually a junior teacher issue. I have always known who the shouter is and so does SLT. Shouting undermines the confidence of the majority, and it’s not acceptable. Would a teacher want the head to shout at them in meetings? Absolutely not acceptable either.

We had a teacher like this in reception the Head fired them and apologised in a letter to all the parents. ! So it happens.

it really riles me up when people come on and immediately defend the teacher.

How about listening to children? We know that throughout history children have been repeatedly and on large scales abused by adults in positions of trust.

OF COURSE that does not mean we should take the children's view without question - but It is actually disgusting and appalling safeguarding to assume the adult is always in the right.

@@Perfect28 these are 6 and 7 year olds who are finding the atmosphere very distressing. Even if it was because the teacher was facing poor behaviour - the entire class should absolutely not be suffering. These aren't unruly teens - in most european countries children in year 2 would still be in a play orientated kindergarten.

It is extremely poor safeuarding and not child centred to assume 'all' teachers must be good at their job.

Ive seen my two kids go through primary school and 1 or 2 teachers who had a nasty approach - made kids cry - absolutely not acceptable.

I’ve had a DD put up with similar - albeit in an assembly. Children should be listened to. Very surprised at YR teacher.

You can volunteer but you can't do it just to scope out a teacher lol

''I had a genuinely scary teacher at primary school. She told children that they smelled, told them they were stupid, lost her temper repeatedly, and would single out certain pupils for humiliating treatment''

Oh my goodness. How unprofessional of her

ZOMBIE THREAD

Could've spoken to the head about that. So unprofessional

I remember in year 4, my teacher literally made me cry once because of her rudeness and lack of professionalism. It needs to stop now

And this my friends is why we have a recruitment and retention crisis. It is up to the professionals at the school to decide whether this teacher is capable of the job. And if there have been numerous complaints so far there is probably some intervention going on. You could add to the information they already have by putting in a factual complaint but schools can't just sack teachers on the way so of parents. Do you know how employment law works? And even if you could sack this teacher just like that where will the replacement come from in the middle of a school year. There aren't that many unemployed teachers kicking around and those who are, and actually want a job might turn out to be worse than the person you currently have! Not to mention that once the school pays out for the unfair dismissal trial there may not be any money to pay a replacement

Collective punishment is a war crime!

Not only is this a ZOMBIE THREAD, but the OP@DodgyMcDodgerson has never come back to report on the result of this speculation they started.

As per fucking usual.

Mumsnet teacher complaint bingo.