Headteachers letter to parents with teacher training link.

[itsgettingweird]

I just saw this and thought it was brilliant.

apple.news/AL86JlzklRQ2AoWEC5HeXKg

There's no denying this isn't easy for anyone.
Those WFH and homeschooling have it hard.

Many teachers are also doing this.

But there does seem to be some parents who think they can do it better and yet also cannot wait to send their kids back - because it's hard!

There's also some schools failing to provide adequate home learning like my children's school. It's awful. Absolutely awful.

How old are your kids?

I think it's a hard one, because what you consider adequate might be dreadful for someone else. Like our school has a full timetable of live online lessons. Sounds great, but we can't access it at all due to work- my kids can't be left alone to do and our WiFi can't support two or 3 video streams at once. So it's totally useless to us.

I think the letter is ridiculous. I work in a job where we get criticism all the time (some justified and some not) and we would never respond like that, it would be completely unprofessional.

It seems like a lot of teachers have a real complex that everyone is out to get them, nobody understands how hard it is for them, how underpaid they are, how hard they work etc etc. There is so much bitterness on here amongst the teachers.

For the record, I've never sent anything other than positive feedback and thanks to my child's school.

I was expected to teach live while checking my four year old work. I can teach but my daughter would not learn from me. I'm failing at everything and losing my relationship with my child.

So many assumptions made in this thread.

@GingerandTilly it sounds like you're doing an incredible job. I know many teachers and many schools are. But many simply aren't. DD's school provide 1 literacy and 1 numeracy worksheet a day, no live and maybe 1 video a week, and then some 'helpful' suggestions to go for a winter nature walk or do Joe Wickes. She's in yr5. The KW bubble are getting no actual teaching either. Her teachers have their children in KW provision at two other local schools who I know are doing a lot more in terms if home learning, including real time interaction and some live teaching. As both DH and I work full time and are KW (but don't get a place in school) there's very little we can do.

I know good teachers, hard working teachers, are sick of being criticised, but parents in my situation are also sick of those who defend the situation I have described. Not all children are getting what they deserve, and many are getting nothing like the full curriculum.

It’s reactionary and defensive and stinks of someone e feeling very sorry for themselves when in fact everyone is finding covid difficult. Parents often have a lot of professional knowledge and skills to offer schools but should communicate ideas appropriately.

As a professional I would never send such a letter to my customers. And the families are customers in the same way that the nhs are service providers and patients and their families are the customers.

Sid reflective practice the head says

Sod reflective practice!

I am in school full time teaching the keyworker / vulnerable children whilst simultaneously teaching those at home.
I have my own children at home who I help with their homeschooling when I get home. I am not unusual for a lot of teachers.
Of course positive feedback is welcomed but I have found it especially wearing when parents pop on to a live zoom lesson to make ‘suggestions’. Maybe this is what has happened here.
I have lots of dialogue via phone calls / emails where I speak to parents in a supportive and understanding way. This doesn’t sound like that.

@Xerochrysum

"Most parents are pissed off they are expected to home school alongside a full time job."

People who say this, imo, are forgetting that the teachers are in the exactly same position, homeschooling their own children, alongside full time job as a teacher.

So many parents are complaining that they can't work properly/efficiently while homeschooling their own children, why they expect the teachers can do perfect job while homeschooling their own children? I don't think teachers have magic powers that non teaching working parents don't.
Tbh, school and teachers are doing great job under the circumstances.

I think most teachers are doing the best they can, considering they don't have the children in the classroom with them.

I'm not sure what I think of the idea of it being because they have their own children to home school too. It must be tough but I don't know anyone who has been allowed to do an edited form of their job to factor in them having to home school their own children, so I'm not sure on that one. I think if that's the case I can understand parents being annoyed by it - if their child's school isn't managing a reasonable online education

The head should be sending a survey out to enable improved practice. This way everyone has their say about how they are finding things in difficult times. Simple changes can help

@Eslteacher06

I was expected to teach live while checking my four year old work. I can teach but my daughter would not learn from me. I'm failing at everything and losing my relationship with my child.

So many assumptions made in this thread.

Why is your dc not in key worker school?

@justanotherneighinparadise

Most parents are pissed off they are expected to home school alongside a full time job. I’m also pretty sick at being expected to take the place of a skilled professional who has been trained in the current teaching principles and with years of experience in how to help children engage with learning.

If I had decided that wanted to take on responsibility for my children’s schooling I would have made sure if undergone some training myself. Instead the expectations from my children’s school is I can just slot into the gap left by their teacher and hit the ground running. Well no, if I could do that then teaching would be an unskilled profession.

That's the point the HT is making.

It appears some parents have been questioning the teachers skills and training. Therefore thinking the can do the job better.

And I think due to the time of the letter it must have been pretty insulting and completely unfair.

Most people realise it's rough for everyone and everyone is doing the best they can.

And your best is good enough.

People who say this, imo, are forgetting that the teachers are in the exactly same position, homeschooling their own children, alongside full time job as a teacher.

I've no idea whether my DS teachers have children, throw old they are, but it's clear from video all of them are in school to deliver the online lessons. I appreciate that it's completely different (and much harder) to deliver lessons both online and in person (if KW children are there) , but they arent having to teach online to year 6 while homeschooling a year 2 child for example, or facilitating teaching but having to do a completely separate job.

And your best is good enough.
This is true for school children yes, not for professionals.

@donquixotedelamancha

a number of parents have taken advantage of this new access to send highly critical messages of advice to teachers about how to do their jobs and questioning their training, skills and competence.

I would be surprised that so many people are defending this, but I'm not new here.

Agree.

I don't understand some of the responses here.

Ones like "I'm trying my hardest to homeschool my kid and it's tough"

Well that's the point isn't it. Teaching is tough. The HT has thanked parents for constructive feedback.

He's kicking back against parents who are questioning the skills and training of the teacher.

It seems like a lot of teachers have a real complex that everyone is out to get them, nobody understands how hard it is for them, how underpaid they are, how hard they work etc etc. There is so much bitterness on here amongst the teachers.

Teaching is my second career. A lot of people have issues with teachers, bad personal school experiences, whipped up by the media into union hating stuff, which translates into teacher mistrust. It's exhausting at best, insulting a lot of the time. At the moment it's coming at us from all angles, including our government. I think the letter is fine, tye criticism does not sound constructive.

Having said this I have been very impressed with the home learning set by my child school and have emailed them to say so, mentioning specific teachers.
I know from my own job (and RL experience) that people are much quicker to criticise negatively than positively

My view is not that the HT shouldn’t have kicked back, but this isn’t the way to do it. I would expect a HT to protect his staff. It’s a bit like telling off the whole class when one child has been naughty, it won’t help. He needs to address the issue directly with those parents who sent the emails.

I always remember a governor saying to me- but I am a solicitor. To which I replied, I wasn't aware that came with QTS.

I dont think that I can do open heart surgery because I watch casualty and once played operation but it seems that as everyone went to school they all think that they know as much as teachers.

My criticism is with the government not the teachers. The expectation that parents can WFH and home school multiple children is absolutely ridiculous and unsustainable. Plus ducking dangerous to the children both mentally and physically IMO.

It was nice to hear the PM actually vocalise that children will have lost a years education come March (for us end of Feb). Great, you’ve admitted it. Now do something to remedy it.

While I definitely wouldn't have sent it and think it comes across as unprofessional and rude, I think it's important to remember that it is a response to whatever kickback this particular school has faced, not a embargo on feedback in general.

There's a world of difference between:
'Hi, I don't know if you realise but, on Teams, you speak quite quickly and, especially because you don't use your camera, it's hard for Johnny to follow the lesson as well as he normally does. Woukd it be possible to either slow your instruction down a little and/or use the camera when explaining?'
And
'I was dismayed and appalled to watch what apparently classed as a maths lesson yesterday. You babbled your way through a complicated concept and didn't even reassure the children by showing them your face. Were you even focused on the children or were you playing on your phone while paying lip service to education? It's not acceptable, not what we pay taxes for and my child deserves better. You need to teach the children properly, checking in with each individual that they fully understand. I will contact Ofsted if I don't see an improvement.'

(Neither of those are real - imaginary complaints about the same imaginary lesson). But I would respond to them in very different ways. If the school has received a lot of the second type of 'advice' then I can see why the letter has been sent.

It seems like a lot of teachers have a real complex that everyone is out to get them, nobody understands how hard it is for them, how underpaid they are, how hard they work etc etc. There is so much bitterness on here amongst the teachers

Imagine the person in government who is supposed to be advocating the profession, constantly doing down the profession? Teachers are quite right to feel that way - when have you ever heard the governments consistently thanking the teachers for their hard work?

It’s all been a slew of negativity - Michael Gove sticks in my mind as a teacher hater, so not surprised they feel that way.

There is no respect for the profession.

Questioning the skills, competence and training of a teacher isn’t constructive feedback, it’s being a twat.

As all teachers know, there are parents out there happy to send abusive messages to teachers. It would seem some are using the easier online access to teachers to do this.

I think it was petty and didn’t show him in a good light tbh. If he has problems with comments from parents he should firstly take it on board and secondly, if anyone has left a rude message, he should be speaking to those people directly, not sending a generic letter to all parents.