do I complain about class teacher?

[Updownandaround1]

Class teacher Is new, training in her first year, she was a TA from another school and started in September.

This term 3 children have left, 2 huge parent complaints against said teacher and myself and other class TA want to move to another class because we can't stand her.

The teacher, dresses in head to toe in very expensive designer gear...the clothes are against our staff handbook as lots of our children and families are PP. I would love to wear nice things but it's a primary school, and some of our kids do not even have a coat!

She flirts heavily with the very young PE teacher, leading him on. It's becoming more and more embarrassing and very obvious to us other staff members she's leading him on for her own self gratification.

One pupil she knows from another school, she has let him do nothing for weeks, takes him off for daily for chats, and talks to him like he's a mate. Yesterday he stuck a post it note on her forehead, and is now kicking off daily because he needs to do some work, and he cant handle female relationships, the child is under SS and I think she's crossing boundaries with a child who already has attachment issues and has now made a rod for her own back.

Other class TA has had an awful health shock, incredibly serious and we are all very very worried and upset. Class teacher has made serveal jokes at her expense in class, in front of children and carries when she's not in, then has the audacity in the next breath to talk to the children about their behaviour.

Class teacher goes off and cries often, and her long standing partner has left her. She snaps at us and then messages other TA to apologise.

I have big concerns about this teacher and she's only been here for 2 terms.

I want to raise it with headteacher of whom I have a brilliant relationship with, but I realise it's big big accusations I'm making.

She sounds awful. Go straight to the head teacher

Of course you report: there are some basic safeguarding concerns here.

You need to separate your opinions of her and judgement of things like her clothes from professional misconduct or safeguarding issues. If you have a cause for concern related to her behaviour around students and think she isn’t safeguarding students then of course you should speak to the head, you’re failing your duty of care not to and should have done so as soon as you felt concerned. If you have safeguarding concerns you shouldn’t need Mumsnet to tell you to report them to the designated safeguarding lead, this should be basic training in any school!

If there are issues around professional misconduct then these should be reported as well, however it’s unlikely that things like wearing designer labels would be classed as misconduct even if you find them in poor taste, if you’re going to raise concerns make sure they are reasonable and not just personal attacks based on things you dislike or the head is less likely to take your seriously.

Report her, but stick to facts that concern children or teaching, not the clothes she wears.

Raise it with the head; many inappropriate things are going on there. You need to ensure your safeguarding training is up to date and that you understand how to refer concerns; you shouldn't have to come here to figure out what to do.

the clothes are against our staff handbook as lots of our children and families are PP

What does your staff handbook say about teacher clothes and how is that relevant to PP pupils?

That aside, I would be having a chat with the head teacher about the rest.

I think you need to focus on how she is dealing with things. I can't see the relevance of her clothing - I think it's good she is smart.

She's training, feed this back to the ECT mentor and Head teacher, facts not opinions though.

If she is in her first year of training I would raise the issues with her mentor and the head. The clothes thing is tone deaf but I doubt it’s against any policy as long as she’s not dressing provocatively. Flirting with a staff member, again slightly irrelevant.

She snaps at us and then messages other TA to apologise. That is not on and I’d be putting in a grievance.

The issues with the child know to SS, that does sound inappropriate and I’d be reporting that.
If two parents have complained and the complaints are actually justified then I bet she won’t last anyway, she won’t pass her ECT!

Report any real safeguarding concerns you might have . Same with the crying if she leaves children unsafe/unsupervised or her outbursts are upsetting/confusing them.

The other TA can complain about the jokes about her health.

Everything else is just gossip and your dislike of her as a person .

2 huge parent complaints against said teacher How do you even know this? Nature of complaint? Who dealt with?
The clothes are against our staff handbook you have a policy that says no designer clothing!?!
She flirts heavily with the very young PE teacher this is subjective and bitchy
One pupil she knows from another school, she has let him do nothing for weeks
This is the legitimate concern, stick to this
takes him off for daily for chats, and talks to him like he's a mate. alternate view - trying to be inclusive, develop positive relationship to build on
Yesterday he stuck a post it note on her forehead why?
is now kicking off daily because he needs to do some work with her or during interventions with you?
he cant handle female relationships what do you mean by this?
she's crossing boundaries with a child who already has attachment issues and has now made a rod for her own back. the latter is her problem to fix, you can't be friends with a student
Class teacher has made jokes at her expense in class about her health? GDPR
has the audacity in the next breath to talk to the children about their behaviour as in, you think, double-standards as she is being unkind?
Class teacher goes off and cries often why?
her long standing partner has left her how do you know this?
She snaps at us Have you got a log?
and then messages other TA to apologise hopefully they have kept the texts

There is such a lot to unpack here
Essentially, you need to speak to the head professionally when raising the issue of your colleague being unprofessional.
You and the other TA need to back each with your shared concerns
These really ought to be around the safeguarding issue rather than personal cattiness about clothing or her relationships with other members of staff

Report safeguarding issues presumably to DSL ?

If she's training then who is supervising her? Presumably the head and her mentor is aware of the huge parental complaints and the children being removed from the class. This all sounds very bizarre.

No, safeguarding concerns about a member of staff go to the Head not the DSL.

Separate the real safeguarding issues from your dislike of her and report the safeguarding aspects. If you muddy the waters with the other stuff there is a chance that it will look like you have a petty vendetta against her.

100% this. Focus on the bigger issues or you will seem petty.

I am sorry to say this OP but YOU are being very unprofessional by posting this.
If you have genuine safeguarding concerns then I hope you realise how important confidentiality is in these matters.
You could find yourself under scrutiny for your actions as things stand…. be very careful.

If she started in September, this is still her first term. I’m not clear whether she has finished her PGCE and this is her first ECT year, or whether she’s training still.

Id be very surprised if other staff, including SLT are unaware of what is happening in the class and how the parents are feeling. You must act professionally and speak to SLT about the classroom teaching. Anything you know about her private life, relationships outside school and her clothes, is nothing to do with you.

The performance of the teacher, the progress of the children in the class is ultimately the responsibility of the head.

Surely your class teacher has a mentor and is regularly being observed if she is training. If there are issues with her teaching practice and pupil relationships, then this should - and surely would - have been picked up by them already and addressed. As this mentoring process is confidential between the trainee/ECT and their mentor, you wouldn't know anything about what conversations might be happening behind the scenes. If there are genuine issues with competency, as you're claiming, I would be surprised if your headteacher wasn't already aware.

Being a trainee teacher is tough and we all make mistakes. Especially if this teacher is going from a TA role to a class teacher role, that can be really challenging as there is an adjustment to be made in attitudes and behaviour to reflect the different relationships you build with the children, parents and other staff in those two roles. She is still finding her feet and needs support rather than judgement, and her two TAs taking any opportunity to have a bitch about her in the corner, which is what it sounds like is happening.

So what if she wears designer clothes and has a bit of a flirt with the PE teacher - that's got nothing to do with her competency as a teacher.

I feel sorry for this teacher - it sounds like all of you are ganging up on her and gossiping about her behind her back. I'd be very careful going to the head with anything - frankly, you sound jealous, petty and unprofessional. I am a very experienced secondary teacher and I don't see anything in what you say that would warrant a safeguarding concern.

If you raise concerns with the Headteacher, speak about specific incidents and don't mention what she wears or who she's flirting with. Stick to the facts about specific safeguarding concerns with the children and any interactions with you that are inappropriate. The other TA should raise her own grievances about how she's been treated separately.

How could you possibly know all this?

Agree with this poster.

Sorry OP but your post comes across quite bitchy.

Parents have gone to the effort of removing their children from the school because this teacher wears designer clothes, flirts with the PE teacher, seemingly lets a student do no work and potentially makes quite a lot of time for a student who has a very complex home life. Maybe you could offer to support the TA who is potentially upset with the medical information?

Surely if she's a NQT she's being closely monitored, this year is part of her qualification. Perhaps speak to whoever this is

The OP says that this is a trainee who was a TA in another school, not a qualified teacher.

Any trainee who had massive complaints and 3 kids leaving the class (since September!) would have been removed by now.

Various parts of your post should have been reported to the DSL as low-level concerns. Your safeguarding training should have covered what is not appropriate behaviour for staff so you should have reported each of these when they happened.

Some of your post sounds subjective and like you dislike her so stick to the facts.