do i have a bad reputation at school or something?

[cryingfoul]

I'm not really sure how to describe this as i don't know what happened myself! I was talking with some other mums from my Dc's primary school last week and I said that I thought schools should tell parents a bit about the teachers e.g. how many years teaching experience they have, what specialisms etc. The five other Mums took me up wrong.. thought I was talking about our school and got a bit heated, saying that I needed to trust the head and similar things. I tried to explain, then got fed up and left and put it out of my mind.
Then three days later the head asks to see me in private. I follow her to her room with no idea what she wants to talk about, and guess what it was? One of the mum's had spoken of her concerns and the head wnated to tell me that the teachers won't accept it and it is the school governors business anyway! She backed down a bit when I repeated exactly what I'd said and a bit more when I said I had a right to hold a private opinion. But this is weird isn't it? For that mum (whoever she is) to run to the head and for the head to request a mettign with me citing the data protction act! Or am I being unreasonable?

I would not be very happy at all about having a biography of my life (even just my teaching life) on a website for all and sundry to see.

clam lol!!!

My DS had a teacher who I did not like who retired in July as he finished yr R. Now has a lovely teacher in yr1. The other class had an NQT in yr r who they said was crap and blamed her NQT status. Got a new teacher for that class in YR 1 and they all went mad.

Now parents think she is the best thing sinced sliced bread as she is a fab teacher and up to date training etc.

Just to clarify why I didn't like yr 1 teacher. She would always complain about DS 'behaviour' and then when I wanted a meeting to discuss moving forward she would dismiss it saying it's his age. (aug baby). No other probs with behaviour it was a school thing. Also kept on about how 'loud' he talked and when I mentioned I had my concerns about this as he seemed to do it in bouts. I asked if she thought it was his ears but she said no his 'behaviour'. Saw HV who referred to GP who reffered to ENT and he has glue ear!!!

The point is on paper she was the best teacher in the school but the worst teacher for my summer baby hearing problem son.

I think a good school will probably have a range of teachers with varying experience, all bringing different things to the school.

BuzzingNoise - I would not expect yuou to be and I wasn't suggesting it. But if you do a bit of googling you will find biogs for people in many other professions online, so it is not that unusual. Mine has been online for years so i guess it doesn't faze me.
Have you ever seen the website www.linkedin.com?

I have a summary of my experience in relation to my job on line for the whole world to see....the colleague who wrote it gave me the power to edit anything I didn't like anyway and I think that is normal for public sector workers. ( I did change the photo where he found a very grey haired lady I didn't recognise!)

i just can't get my head around why she would report this to the head...

were they worried that you would hack into the school website and write these biogs of all the teachers??? i mean FGS

I don't see an issue with parents knowing about the teachers. Infact at one of our local schools it is something they include on the website, not a whole CV, just "Mr Blog, been at school since 2005, Has special responsibilty for Music, Art and Science. Outside intersts include marking, marking and more marking." Sometimes it says more about their experience.

I also can't beleive the head has bothered with this gossip, does she have nothing better to do with her time. If our HT saw every parent who made a comment about the school she would see almost every parent, every week. Don't get me wrong its a good school but you can't please all of the people all of the time! Comments like: Always late out from Friday assembly, sports day is always when someone can't get time off work, playground is too hot, child's spellings are too hard this week same parent will complain they are too easy the next. etc etc etc

I think what I would want to know is what are parents going to do with the information? Is it just out of interest or is it so they can make unfounded judgements on the staff, based on simplistic assumptions about what their qualifications/experience/age might mean?

The playground opinions as to who's good/bad/popular/horrid/strict/pushover will always exist. And parents, often as not, will change their opinions on a teacher once their child is in that class and they find out whether it's working for them or not. I don't see how a list of who qualified when/where/how well will make any difference; we make our own decisions. Or at least, we should. It does alarm me how quickly a teacher's reputation can be shattered by some parents sounding off loudly and "word gets round."
And vice versa. Not so long ago, one of my colleagues who had serious weaknesses in her teaching, was widely loved by the parents because she gushed about all the kids regardless of their behaviour, never corrected it and they basically ran riot and had a dossy year. Bizarre. Think she may have had a fairly good degree as well.

The information on qualifications is because parents are, in my opinion, entitled to it. What they do with that info is not the point. As for parents making their own decisions, at least then they'd be based, in part, on objective information.

I do not make a connection between good qualifications and good teaching, in much the same way that clean criminal record check does not mean someone is not a paedophile; it's just one, very reasonable thing to know.

clam been on another thread but come back just to say I agree with you still. (see my earlier post for reasons)

Go clam go clam!!!!!

FWIW I don't think the degree is that meaningful in the rest of the working world. Its just a starting point really. And when applied to teaching, I'd be surprised to hear that there is any correlation between good teachers and those who got a good degree. Experience (and learning from those experiences) is much more important IMO.

isn't there a describable career progression for teachers?

All state school teachers will have an Honours degree. It will either be a B.Ed or a PGCE. That can be taken as read. What else are you proposing should be broadcast? Whether it was 1st class or a 2:1? I don't wish to publicise that, frankly. What next? Our A' level results? With grades? Marital staus? Number of children? Where we live?

mumbar. Doing my best!

no.. number of years teaching KS1, Ks2 and areas of specialism.

your right clam I am doing a BSc Hon OPEN degree through open uni. Basically I chose which modules I do and get a degree at the end. I am doing early years educatio and teaching maths modules then my GTP.

My friend had a BSc Hons ICT!!! No teaching in the dgree but did her GTP and has QTS now.

She leads ICT in a infant school and is an excellent teacher regardless of the degree she did.

But why, cryingfoul? How useful is that, really? You can spot an NQT a mile off, usually, and if not, the playground gossip or kids will tell you. Areas of specialism, well, the PE bod will invariably be in a tracksuit taking netball club. the musician will be leading the choir. the mathematician possibly leading a few curriculum evenings on how to do the dreaded division with chunking.
And my length of experience does not make be a better teacher than my colleague next door who's only been in 5 years. Unfortunately.
Why does it need to be officially broadcast?

I can't believe the head gave her the time of day!

what clam said

"Gossip", "kids will tell you": both of these help inform opinion. As does objective info about qualifications.

Mumbar and clam; no-one's saying these are the all, but an important "as well as", a starting point. You know, like doctors and dentist have, after which you then judge by your own experience, or by listening to gossip, whether they're any good at their job.

Agree, clam.

So a parent takes against a teacher and wants to complain. Why not complain about the specifics of what you're not happy with? A complaint based on "this teacher has only taught KS1 for 2 years" will have no foundation.

All teachers with a BEd or PGCE have taught in a number of schools under supervision before they then get a job as an NQT.

I don't actually have an issue with someone knowing my teaching (and now TA) history. And infact at my DD's school the teacher's qualifications are known - although not number of years qualfied or where they taught before. The previous employment of any new teacher is put in the newsletter, but I don't keep them and couldn't tell you now. We also know if teachers have a specific role such as head of year, but not who coordinates Numeracy, etc. If needed to know the latter I could ask and be told easilt enough.

However - what would a parent do with such information (mean previous qualifications ad past jobs)? How would it help you? As I said - I know the qualifications of DD's teachers, but it tells me nothing really. It serves no purpose. It doesn't tell me which teachers are good or if any or less good. Just because one teacher has 2 years experience and one has 20 years doesn't tell me who will be best for my child.

It is, IMO, pretty pointless info,

However, my history is not a secret:
Was secondary school teacher (10 years) specialising in ICT and Business - I worked at two different schools in this time, one was top of league derbyshire school, one in sepcial measures in Doncaster; then worked for 3 years or so as an Information, Adive and Guidance worker ina male high cat prison and now working as a Y1 TA in an infant school for past year. I have a BEd In Business Education and mor recently a Level 4 qualification in IAG. In current job I also work as the Study Support coordinator.

So, how does that information help a parent?

Blimey, you must have accidentally strayed into some scandal they are trying to keep quiet. Either that or the head's a nutter.

Don't see anything wrong with teachers having a brief description on the school website. Lots of organisations do it. Doesn't have to be anything exciting or incriminating.

I'm not the slightest bit interested in where or when my doctor qualified. Or my kids' teachers, for that matter. All I need to know is that they have the required "badge", which of course they must have in order to have been employed in the first place. Further objective information makes no difference.
They're qualified. Next.

Teachers do not have to have the required badge in order to teach: see my ref. to teachers teaching subjects they only have at GCSE level. They can quite legally, be ordered by the Head, to teach any subject at all, except RE.