What would you think about this email from school? Sudden change of class teacher.

[Junglemoon]

We had an email yesterday evening from our (primary age) child's headteacher saying that his class teacher Mr Smith had left and that as of tomorrow his teacher would be Mrs Jones. No further details as to what on earth was going on, the email was literally three sentences.

Mrs Jones has been teaching them the last couple of days but our son was told and believed that Mr Smith was just off ill. He and most of his class were very upset in school this morning that there would apparently be no chance to say goodbye to Mr Smith, who is much loved by the children. Neither the children nor the parents were given any notice of this or any preparation.

On top of this the headteacher and the deputy head are apparently away at a conference and unable to answer phone calls or answer any questions and none of the other staff appear to know anything about the issue. The student counsellor was in the classroom this morning trying to reassure the children but she had no answers for them or anyone else.

Some of the parents have phoned and emailed (we are in contact with each other) to express concern and unhappiness about how abrupt this has been and how little information we've been given and the head has replied to an email from one father saying that Mr Smith had left suddenly and she couldn't provide any further details.

Obviously my mind is going all over the place. I can think of a few things that could be sudden and confidential, but if it was something that had to do with the children's safety, the school would have to inform us, wouldn't they? If something awful has happened to Mr Smith I suppose we wouldn't be owed that information but it does seem very hard on the children to just be like 'Mr Smith is gone, you won't see him again, Mrs Jones will be your teacher now'. Which is all they got.

Previously when teachers have left they have given the children some notice and said goodbye. It's not the end of the world at all when a teacher moves on but I don't think it's strange for the kids to be upset at getting no transition. They are only 8 and at that age your teacher can be a bit of a hero to you.

We have had a good relationship with Mr Smith and I know he cares about the children so I find it hard to believe he would choose to go in the middle of the school year and not say goodbye to them, so if it's not likely to be anything disciplinary (I'm not familiar with these procedures) then I suppose it is most likely to be a health issue. I know that's none of my business.

His personal life is none of your business. If he was removed for safe guarding then the police would have been in touch with at least one lot of parents. Have they?

Would you want the whole school and the parents knowing your medical history @Junglemoon ?

I would think his illness turned out to be something serious, untreatable or long term.

What exactly are you catastrophising about?

It’s none of your business and you are not entitled to any information about this.

There are 100 different situations whereby someone would be quitting suddenly.

The school have to mitigate the potential damage but they also have to stick to confidentiality. If you want to actually know this person’s personal reasons you’ll be sorely disappointed as it’s not your business nor does it require you to know.

All you need to know is that he isn’t coming back and what the arrangements will be now. Which the school have done.

What on earth are people saying when they call and email?! I just think it makes everyone look like a nosey fucker TBH

My DSs class teacher disappeared like that and he was worried about her. Teachers are obviously entitled to keep their medical and other personal information private, but it’s not that unreasonable to wonder what happened. Calling and emailing is of course unreasonable. And useless.

Another batshit thread about teachers.

No wonder no one wants to do it, as PP said.

YABU. If you believe Mr Smith has had a good relationship with the class and this is unusual then I would assume either he is in ill health or he has a family member that is. This is all personal and would not need to be shared with parents.
It sounds great that they have already got a teacher in to replace him.

Wtf has it got to do with a bunch of, let's face it, nosy parents who want some gossip?
As for the emailing expressing concern about a change of teacher, how some so called adults cope in the real world never fails to amaze me.Bunch of idiots, a drama over nothing it really is.🙄

Well, I think that has been handled really badly.

of course the teacher is entitled to privacy, but the young children are entitled to some kind of explanation when a person they are in close contact with isn't going to be there any more & some kind of closure ...

they could have had some child friendly explanation & had prepared an appropriate activity as a way of saying good bye' if he couldn't do it in person.

an adult suddenly disappearing is unsettling for children. They're not robots.

even if he has been 'let go' the children could have been given the opportunity to make a card saying good bye & writing a few words about their favourite memory etc.

if he's been 'let go' due to a work issue, or he's left for a personal reason where's the harm in the cards?

its highly unlikely, but even if he has turned out to be a thoroughly rotten apple, the school could have just kept or disposed of the cards. .
It's is incredibly cold to say the kids just need to be resilient or 'get over it'. They're entitled to have feelings too! & resiliance isn't built by cruel & thoughtless behaviour.

I'm a teacher, and my husband has just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Prognosis is 6-12 months.

At some point I will be taking a break to care for him.

I see absolutely no reason why parents need to know any personal details about my life - there will be a replacement teacher.

The students will manage.

They raise their children to be exactly the same, and so the cycle of handwringing continues.

This was me when I left teaching.

it was a health issue and it just wasn’t possible for me to continue.

teachers have heart attacks and strokes etc just like anyone else.

school won’t give any details if it’s health related.

Leave it be, OP, it's really none of your business. Of course it's not unreasonable to wonder what's happened but for some situations you just don't have a right to know. Certainly not yet, you might be informed by the school at some point,or you might not.

At the school I worked in a beloved colleague didn't turn up for work one day, we we were called into the staffroom and told they had died suddenly that morning. It was a huge shock as they weren't that old and they'ed been in good health. We could not say a thing to parents at that point as it wasn't known if all my colleague's friends and relatives had been informed yet and there was a danger that one of them might find out second hand from gossiping parents.

We were all so upset but had to carry on the day as best we could and try and pretend to be normal for the sake of the children. Some of the parents noticed something wasn't right, and honestly they made it so much worse when the phone calls started asking if anything was wrong in school.

Please butt out and just let the school get on with it.

It may well not have been abrupt but you didn’t know about it. You don’t actually need to know.

Some people shouldn't have pets let along kids.

I would imagine something very serious has happened with him or someone in his family-either illness, death or a sudden move away. If it was a suspension, they’d probably just say he was off for the foreseeable.

Unless he’s died and it’s in the papers, you may never know and that’s really his business.

So sorry to hear this @Jaffapaffa

I think it’s fair enough to be curious but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect anything other than a superficial explanation. If the teacher is otherwise a nice guy and you think it’s surprising then my concern is he’s had a horrible diagnosis or domestic issue and he can’t face seeing the children at the moment. It’s a great tragedy in that case.

they don't want to tell you, that's why. So it's something bad or shameful or embarrassing or otherwise not what they want you to know about.

So they won't tell you. This is common behaviour in schools.

So you explain to your child that Mr Smith obviously has something important going on that’s private, it’s fine to be a bit sad we didn’t get to say goodbye but sometimes that happens in life and we just have to wish people well.

Please deal with this properly with your DS so you don’t put the school, or Mr Smith, in a difficult position. People starting rumours that my DH had been caught doing something dodgy when I left suddenly and DH took a sudden sabbatical basically forced us to have to publicly announce that our baby was dying way before we were ready to. I have, and will, never forgiven the parents at the heart of the rumours.

He’s allowed to leave. He’s allowed to have his privacy in doing so.

I’m glad to hear that treating staff with empathy and confidentiality is common behaviour in schools

Nobody’s business.

He could be seriously ill, have had a life-changing accident or anything.
If it’s something to do with you, you’d have had more information.

We had a similar experience, the member of staff had actually handed in their notice but was told not to tell anyone (parents or pupils) about it. It suited the person because they didn’t want to have to tell the kids they were leaving. I got a phone call from pastoral to tell me about it (which was necessary for reasons specofoc to my daughter) but no detail was given about why they had left.

It was annoying, but I respected it.