Would you say anything about this teacher?

[Putmorewoodontfirelad]

I’m not the type to tell on a person, especially a teacher as I know how hard it can be, but i’m wondering if I have a duty to say something or just to keep my nose out.

I tutor a Year 8 student and help with homework and revision for tests. We were studying for her History and Geography tests and couldn’t find much info in her books and she said that’s all the work they had done. She proceeded to say the teacher never teaches them anything, gets angry and says ‘I’m not teaching today’ and puts his head down and reads at his desk, on a fairly regular basis or walks out a lot.
He’s only 23, so a reason could be inexperience, but she’s told me a few times now and i’m not sure what i’m supposed to do with the information, if anything?

Goodness, what kind of school does he work at? Because if he’s newly qualified, he’d have more senior members of staff breathing down his neck for the first couple of years, if all the kids books are empty he’s not going to have a job for long…

I would say something to SLT, but come at it from the ‘I’m concerned about his mental health’ angle rather than ‘telling tales’.

Surely it's the child's parents who would need to say something.
Though I would take what you've been told with a massive pinch of salt.

She has the same teacher for both history and geography? Sounds strange. But you only have the word of one Y8 child and are not her parent so I'd do nothing more than maybe mention it to the child's parent who I guess employs you.

I find it hard to believe that a teacher would get away with sitting at the desk and reading - the students would go awol and nearby staff would certainly cast an eye in on a noisy classroom, so he would have been seen doing this at this point Im sure. However, maybe pass your concerns along to the parents and see what comes of it.

Considering you are tutoring this child are they behind at school? Year 8 seems a funny age to tutor. Rather than the teacher not teaching, is the child not actually doing the work? Easy to blame the school when actually it might be the child for whatever reason. Also are they low ability? Again this might explain why you are being paid to tutor them as perhaps parents are aware they are struggling, hence lack of work.

Sounds like nonsense to me.

I would mention it to their parents and let them decide whether or not to follow up.

Years ago my DS’s science teacher lost her job because she’d given the class textbooks to work from, whilst she did her online Tesco shop. Would have got away with it but didn’t turn the whiteboard screen off. Head walked in and caught her.

It’s an International school abroad, so I imagine he may be able to get away with it.
She is a lovely girl and not the type to lie at all, she enjoys getting good marks though and I think is getting a bit frustrated by it now.

Bizarre! I find it very difficult to believe that this has happened repeatedly in several classes and no child has told their parents about it!

I’d pass the info on to this child’s parents.

@Shinyandnew1 She said to me that all the kids complain about it, perhaps it has already been identified by now then

Which country is this?
I am very surprised, having friends working in international schools. Standards are incredibly high (due to pushy parents) and they are under a lot of scrutiny. I find it very hard to believe that a teacher is not being monitored, as from what my friends have shared with me as they feel very much under pressure and that there are a lot of observations and performance reviews.

I would speak to a senior leader. Point out you realise it's just this child's word for it, but they have repeated this several times and there appears to be a lack of work in their books to work from, which may , or may not back up their claim (we have a child who writes very little, does not mean the teacher has not taught them)

Upto school then to deal with it.

Recently a student teacher spoke to SLT after shadowing a class. Kids had complained before going to a particular class about the teacher. In the class the student said it was horrendous (not the teachers 1st subject, doing long term cover as well as own subject). Not only was the information extremely poor but his attitude towards the pupils was genuinely awful. Student struggled with what to do but felt they had to say something.
Could be the teacher needed support with the subject or time out ie feeling burnt-out.

I’m not a teacher at this school by the way.

@Tia86 Definitely not my experience..!

As a secondary school History teacher, DEFINITELY report this. That is awful! This person should not be in teaching, I’ve never heard of this before, how awful!

I’m a History teacher. Schools can make you teach any other KS3 subject ( not higher) if they want to even with no degree in it. I had to teach Geography to year 9 last year. It was painful to say the least!

Wow, just wow.

I have memories of my history teacher doing a very realistic impression at the front of the classroom of about 35 kids, being stretched on the rack!!!!!! hahahah There was not a word out of any of the kids, so he grabbed the attention of all of us, unlike the teacher you described in your post OP, which is really shocking. What if a child wanted to do well in history but did not have extra tutoring.

It may sound unbelievable but it could be true! I am 50 years old and had a teacher like this at age 15. She was horrendous. Would walk around telling us all how dumb we were and how we would amount to nothing in life and then just walk out for ages for a smoke and come back!

I believe it. There’s no reason for her to lie.

If you can take it to the school without a connection to the student I definitely would. The problem with telling the parents is they will discuss with the daughter who is likely to put them off saying anything as she doesn't want the teacher to know

Oh I believe it. I taught in an international school abroad and the level of incompetence and laziness was unbelievable. There's a huge range of quality across international schools and I've seem some seriously sketchy teaching that wouldn't pass in the UK.

I would report it to his line manager. They will likely get a few of the kids class books to ascertain if there is any truth in this.

Say it to her parents.
How would you even go about approaching the school - on what grounds? You don't work there and you don't have a child studying there ... I doubt they would even take emails/phone calls from random people seriously.

My 13 year old granddaughter has got a few teachers like that at her school (it was in special measures last year). There's one in particular who discusses her sexuality with the kids, too.