AIBU to expect confidentiality after raising concerns with a charity?

[HarvestSky]

I was dissatisfied with the teaching methods in a specialist subject at school. I contacted a local charity that specialises in that subject and provides teaching for teachers. I wanted to find out whether what the school was doing was best practice, and how they could improve through training courses. However I must have mentioned the school's name rather than keeping it generic as I wish I had done. Now the charity has fed back to the school through personal contacts that I told them xyz about the school's teaching, and the teachers are annoyed.
Should I have expected a reasonable degree of confidentiality from the charity or am AIBU for dobbing the school in?

Surely following your call the charity is going to try and sell their courses to the school. You wanted information to help you but essentially you gave the charity a lead as well by identifying for them a school that might be interested in their services. Have they fed back to you with the information you wanted?

Also, do you not realise, anybody can run teaching courses. You could do it yourself. Just set up an ad "I offer training in x, y, z. Call me".
School will buy into the training they feel they need.
Statutory guidelines for teaching relate to curricular content, issued by Ofqual, and other Dfe requirements to be embraced across the school as correct practise eg safeguarding, teaching standards.
Private schools additionally set their own t&cs for teachers to fit their private ethos and business models.
Amidst all of that, there is no compulsion on "methodology" per se.

All you've done is started an argument. Well done.

Even if it’s not ‘best practice’ or ‘not the way you would teach it’ that doesn’t mean it’s wrong or inappropriate (unless you have good reason to believe it is). You can’t impose your own views on how a subject should be taught on a school. It would be chaos. What if medically trained parents didn’t like the way Krebb’s Cycle was taught, or geographer parents didn’t like the way ox bow lakes were taught, or musician parents didn’t like the way the recorder was taught? It would be carnage!

From one telephone conversation?

If I understand it - are you staff/teacher who sought advice and were trying to navigate this but the department head/HT has not been receptive? So the fall out means that there is now ill feeling? I think that if this is the case that the charity should have asked your permission to approach the school directly and, yes, I would go back to them and ask why they went beyond the remit of giving you advice that you sought to approaching the school.

Hardly. Most parents are entirely apathetic about what is taught in school and how it's taught.

This is clearly something the OP feels strongly about. Good for her for trying to engage with the school.

this is irrelevant. Anyone should be able to have a conversation about concerns without it being biradcast back in this way.

Ofcourse OP had a legitimate expectation of confidentiality. This is why people don’t raise concerns!!

OP let the charity know you are surprised and disappointed at how they handled this

So you wanted to be sneaky? Raise issues but anon as the school didn’t take you on? No wonder you’re a bit embarrassed. Don’t think the charity is the issue here. Would love to know your nickname in the staff room all the same!

Maybe op could anonymously report to the charity commission?…
also op hasn’t said what “concerns” are there, other than “I don’t like that”.

Good god, it's just infinite complaining!

@HarvestSky The conformational language of some posters here is really unhelpful. I understand the pressures on school teachers but a really important part of teaching is reflection and self-improvement. Sometimes the prompt is within the classroom but parents are also part of the education of children and can work with schools and teachers to improve learning.

You are a parent trying to provide feedback in an area that is important to you. You had a concern about teaching, you raised it with the school, you sought advice from specialists to progress the conversation/complaint with the school. It sounds as if the information passed on wasn't done so "officially" by the charity i.e. not through an agreed process for handling complaints. It sounds like it was done informally through personal contact. If that's the case, I would email the charity and ask about their usual processes and flag the impact of what has happened. Whether you can expect confidentiality depends on their policies. I think it sounds like you could expect discretion.

As far as contact with the school and any awkwardness it has created, it's ok. They know now. Can you have a "clear the air" type conversation? Pass on the information you get from the charity and offer a discussion for follow up. The key here is to present your concerns in a way that shows your are willing to work together for the benefit of children's education.

I can imagine some schools and teachers will scoff when they're fire fighting daily. Ideally though it should be possible to raise concerns and talk about it. We can't have any profession with such a valuable role being closed to scrutiny. Saying - you're not there, you don't know - isn't ok. Parents and teachers are in this together.

OP throw us a bone here....

Is this 1) a basic academic skill eg maths/english 2) an artistic skill eg musical instrument 3) a life skill eg CPR 4) social teaching eg RE/teaching about transgender/LGBTQ?

Is it 1) A respectable charity with evidence based teaching eg CPR course through the BHF or 2) A charity which could be seen as more contraversial eg Mermaids?

This does make a difference so you're not going to get meaningful advice unless you give us some sort of idea

What's the subject OP? It's very hard to comment knowing nothing of the nature of your complaint.

I suspect the charity may not have mentioned you by name at all but complaints about how subjects are taught are very rare so it will have been pretty obvious where it came from.

The school will have a formal complaints policy - it should be on their website. I'd suggest you look that up and follow the process if you're not satisfied with how the matter has been dealt with so far.

However, unless what they're doing is contrary to statutory guidance eg the national curriculum or Keeping Children Safe in Education; or just plain wrong eg teaching children flat earth theories, then I would be very surprised if they were to change it tbh. I think you would need a much stronger argument than "I don't like your approach."

Is it part of this charities role to deal with complaints? Or were you just asking them to confirm you are right and the school is wrong?

Gosh some very defensive 'teachers must never be questioned' replies on here. Might have helped if you had said in your Op that you had tried with the school first as apparently posters can't read updates.

To answer your question, yes I'd have expected the charity to keep your details confidential. It sounds like there was a misunderstanding with how your enquiry was passed on to the person you were trying to contact. So instead of getting back to you wiih advice they went straight to the school. That still seems a bit of a strange response, why wouldn't they contact you first to discuss before acting.

Anyway, ignore all the posters saying you aren't allowed an opinion on a subject unless you are a trained teacher (who are apparently beyond any challenge or learning anything new) and see how you can get on with working with the school / governors.

Me too

OP is welcome to challenge but has to do it sensitively and reflect on whether the charity approach is "better" or they are "selling" a product.
There are snake oil educational charities out there!

This is such an odd way to go about things.

Surely, if you thought the school could benefit from the charity's help, you could have given the school their details and recommended them.

Are you actually an expert on this subject (as in have post graduate qualifications in it etc) or is it purely a special interest that you have done courses in, like those offered by the charity?

I think they should have kept it confidential. I'm sorry they weren't supportive OP. I'd complain to them (at the lowest level).

I also don't understand the reaction here. You want the best for your child and they aren't getting it . You have been polite and correct although you made a mistake mentioning the school's name to others.

This context is very much needed in order for you to get any meaningful replies OP.
As a science teacher we do indeed teach things that are wrong, but it is information that will allow the students to pass the exams and is appropriate for their level of understanding and development eg lock and key vs induced fit model of enzymes at GCSE vs A level, or many other examples. If you listened in to a lesson like that, or read my ppts after a lesson you may well think I am ill informed if you haven’t cross checked it with the specification.
If it is about teaching how to do CPR and the method is out of date and considered dangerous for all then that is a very different situation.

I don’t get the feeling this is about teachers refusing to reflect on best practice however.

Oh my mistake, you are clearly more qualified than teachers with degrees in teaching.

I thought religion

I’m not sure why people are bringing up transgender. Have I missed something.