To think this teacher should be sacked??

[Isitorisitnot12]

ds1 is 11 (adhd) and being taught in a secondary school by a teacher.
This teacher has a child who is 8 and so is my ds2 and are both in the same class in another school.I found out a few months ago that in fact she teaches my son.
Her son goes into school today and tells people that his mother had said that ‘your class mate’ (my ds2)’s brother has special needs and so people have been approaching my son asking if it was true that his brother has special needs???
Is this outrages or what?? i work in a school and no way i would do that.

But how could she have mentioned it on WhatsApp before the parents evening, if it only happened today as your OP says?

Your post has really pissed me off.

As a teacher with ADHD (and also a son with ASD/ADHD), I think it's awful that you're making it out to be something to not be proud of and to be embarrassed about other people knowing and having to hide it.

I see my "disability" as a super power - I can hyper focus, and therefore do really well at certain things. Straight A grades at GCSE. And yes, I'm really annoying sometimes as I talk too much and often struggle to remain on task, but then "normal" people can be annoying too.

No, the teacher should not have discussed with her child about your son having ADHD, but the whole attitude of having to hide ADHD is even worse.

If my DD gets asked about her brother having ADHD/ASD, she just says yup, he's super clever and super annoying! We speak of it as a positive thing. As do many other people.

I also teach lots of kids with ADHD, and I embrace their talents.

Being different shouldn't be a stigma - it should be celebrated.

Just have a polite word with the teacher about your DS1 if you're not happy about what she said.

How do you know this?

I think it's a given that many teachers/ TAs (and in fact most parents full stop) will tell their kids stuff they probably shouldn't from time to time, or at least say it within their earshot.

It's also a given that most teacher's kids know that they shouldn't be repeating things at school. If you want to go nuclear, you can report this and the teacher is likely to face a disciplinary, which seems quite extreme.

Personally, I'd approach her directly, tell her what is being said, and see what her reaction is. If she's apologetic and promises it won't happen again, I'd wait and see if the boy in question drops it. If she's defensive or rude then it's time to bring out the big guns.

In terms of damage limitation, I'd probably be working with both children to focus on the positives of ADHD.

Could it have been the case that your younger son told the teacher's son that his older brother has ADHD. The teacher's son then asked her what it is, she answered that it's a special educational need and from that he went onto say 'my mum says your brother has special needs' in your younger son's class.

I asked this on the thread yesterday. I was ignored.

It’s quite a goady comment about the teacher’s private life. Ironic when considering the stance of the op.

The problem with all of this is that there are so many different ways that this could have happened.
Especially as it was apparently another child that told the OP's younger son that the teacher's son said etc.

They are ignoring any valid questions about their post and time frame. I don’t think it’s genuine

This

Oh give over. She was an autistic child with 1:1 support, I wasn’t privy to any confidential information. Some boys were being mean to her and called her weird, and I explained how she couldn’t help it due to her disability. I’d go mad with the school if they told off one of my kids for that, and I don’t know what they were thinking when they got her mum in for me to apologise to her in a room with the two of us on my own without informing my parents, so I don’t think the school did do the right thing here and I wish I’d kicked up a fuss at the time but I was a good child and embarrassed by it at 9 years old.

Presumably as you hadn’t been told for certain it would be considered spreading rumours, even if it turned out to be true. So they did the right thing.

if the child had told you herself and told you it was ok to tell people, completely different

Yeah, it will be coded on every subject's register and seating plan and will be written on her passport / plan / SEND overview or whatever they call it at her school. A class, year group or tutor group can be filtered for those in the SEND category, or individuals can be looked up on the system.

Staff will realistically only have time or inclination to scrutinise data of pupils they work with or have encountered on a corridor / in assembly / break duty / whatever, but no diagnosis is truly only shared with a handful of staff.

We have a list medical or toilet passes to check against if kids lose their physical pass (which they have to SHOW when asking permission, so that's not a secret from anyone). We all know about, and have been made to scrutinise photos of, kids have heart problems or epilepsy in case of emergency.

Some wear ear defenders or tinted glasses as they walk around school. Others have coloured pages in their exercise books or overlays. And ADHD can be categorically evident too.

I don’t agree. A punishment shouldn’t be given in this scenario when there wasn’t anything malicious being done; a simple discussion would have been better. All they did was teach me to look the other way when people were mean to her after then and for me to avoid her for two years of primary until we went to separate schools.

I appreciate it wasn’t malicious, but spreading rumours doesn’t have to be malicious. Sorry it made you look the other way and avoid her. I think I’d have just told them to stop being dicks, because they’re being unkind. The disability doesn’t have to come into it.

She was a child herself!!! Trying to do something good. Let her be.

She was being kind and putting herself on the line. And she was nine. In my opinion, she did a good thing. Children who have extra support in class as two-a-penny these days, and the rest of the class are very clued up about who has special needs. If she had stuck up for my SEND child, even if she got the exact details wrong, I would have thanked her.

If she brings confidential data about students home it should be locked up privately not there for all the family to see.
Would you like your gp sprawling your medical records on the kitchen for any visitor who might know you to have a look at?

Sadly there’s not enough time in the day to not bring work home. I regularly mark or assess at home. I even sometimes do it on the sofa with my family around. I’d love it if I didn’t have to but I’m teaching in the day and teachers personal time isn’t respected so evening work is usual.

Or child says, 'Oh, your mum teaches my brother.' Teacher's child knows mum teachers SEND students. Voila!

Exactly.

All these claims from people who’ve never worked in schools about data and privacy and GDPR are a load of nonsense.

In schools, there are no secrets. Data about students is recorded and made available to all staff to safeguard students. Parents may ask for something to be kept on a need to know basis and where possible and appropriate a school will do their best to accommodate this, but the reality is, teachers talk amongst each other, we don’t know who’s been told what, and information will be passed on by word of mouth if not via official systems.

We are as discrete as we can be around students and sensitive to their privacy when it comes to their medical and learning needs, but again it’s not always possible to avoid other students finding things out when difference is often physically or behaviourally obvious or made obvious by a child needing an alternative arrangement to everyone else.

The real learning here is in supporting and encouraging kids with learning needs to not feel ashamed and that they need to keep their diagnosis a dirty secret. Children are very well educated in neurodiversity these days and very accepting of difference. When they understand that a classmate needs extra support with something, in my experience they are very compassionate and kind. It’s far better that they do know, actually, rather than just thinking that a student is ‘naughty’ or ‘weird’, which would have been labels attached to neurodiverse children back when I was at school.

Right she's in the middle of marking child 1 needs a nappy changing. Dh is out. She changed the baby. Meanwhile child 2 8 years old looks at her work.

Gps do fuck all at home so there's no chance...it's only kids homework marking not the codes to.launch a nuke.

Marking isn't the same as confidential data about SEND status.

Marking can include sensitive data. SAT papers for example.

Yanbu I can’t imagine under any scenario that she needed to share this with her child.

Report to the secondary school. It is not acceptable. I talk about my students, but never use names, especially when there is any link to my son's primary school (I teach his friend's older brother). Basic requirement of the job is keeping information private. Her son shouldn't know and thing! I'd be fuming!