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!

The head said that they welcomed the constructive feedback that they had also received.

That is, at least, positive.

However, the Statementing process was about additional individual funded provision and therefore feedback and provision needed to reflect that.

The statementing/EHCP process obviously needs parental involvement. I don't think anyone would argue it doesn't.

This sounds beyond "negative feedback". It sounds like attacks on teachers qualifications and skills.

Until you've seen some parents comments, you wouldn't believe the things we get.

For example I got told I was "unprofessional with question marks over my mathematical knowledge" for accidentally typing 3 instead of 4 on a Microsoft form. That is not even the most extreme example.

For example I got told I was "unprofessional with question marks over my mathematical knowledge" for accidentally typing 3 instead of 4 on a Microsoft form. That is not even the most extreme example.

This is sadly the life of anyone who gets comments from the public. At my work the comments are anonymous so they are much much worse.

@noblegiraffe

Some posters on here clearly have no idea how awfully some parents communicate with teachers.

The assumption seems to be that it was polite constructive criticism.

No, some of the general public are pretty awful whatever your job but there is a way of dealing with it. I don’t want to read patronising, rude letters because another parent has complained or done something wrong. It feels like being at school and all being kept in at lunchtime because 2 kids were talking.

This is sadly the life of anyone who gets comments from the public. At my work the comments are anonymous so they are much much worse.

Doesn't make it acceptable though.

The letter is an embarrassment and a really immature way to retaliate, like a playground spat “ if you think you’re hard enough..”. Lawyers, doctors, nurses, administrators and receptionists get criticised but if you were in those roles you wouldn’t dream of telling a client to train to do the job themselves. Utterly pathetic. Putting a link on the bottom is just cringey. He will regret his rash outburst I’m sure.

@Foncusion

The letter is an embarrassment and a really immature way to retaliate, like a playground spat “ if you think you’re hard enough..”. Lawyers, doctors, nurses, administrators and receptionists get criticised but if you were in those roles you wouldn’t dream of telling a client to train to do the job themselves. Utterly pathetic. Putting a link on the bottom is just cringey. He will regret his rash outburst I’m sure.

This ^ In any job dealing with ‘the public’ you’ll get criticism, rudeness and personal attacks. Doctors, nurses, supermarket workers, call centre staff, lawyers, politicians etc. This HT was unprofessional.

I thought it was quite funny tbh. I bet they've had some really annoying emails...however, rubbing it in that they aren't teachers is a bit much considering thats exactly what they are having to be (or TAs at least). It shows support for his teachers though which is a good thing.

Perhaps he should have sent the link directly to the parents who sent snotty emails - its a bit pass agg otherwise

I bet the parents are all now looking around and gossiping about who it was aimed at.

Brilliant lockdown entertainment, I expect.

@noblegiraffe

I bet the parents are all now looking around and gossiping about who it was aimed at.

Brilliant lockdown entertainment, I expect.

Yes definitely although you'd feel utterly paranoid if you'd said anything to the school that wasn't gushing

I just wanted add, in my school none of the female teachers with children are full time. Some of the male teachers have small children but they are not the primary carers.
I think it almost impossible to be a full time teacher and have full care responsibilities for your own children, it's become a much more time consuming job in the last 10 years. Those male teachers with children are actually in school , in their empty classrooms while someone else is looking after their children . Because it is really hard to work while looking after children. Hats off to all of you who are somehow managing to do that , teachers or not.

I don't have complaints about things like this
But I cringe so much at some of the work sent through to my child that's got spelling and grammar mistakes and apostrophes where they shouldn't be and sometimes just needs someone to read over it to check it's correct.
Ironically I've just heard the teacher in a video saying for them to check their work!
I haven't said anything cos it's a bit awkward isn't it!

I bet the parents are all now looking around and gossiping about who it was aimed at.

I bet most parents know who it was aimed at. I would definitely know who it would be in my kids school years ! Moaning arseholes, never happy with anything !

Many female teachers are mothers and work full time, my neighbour and Reception, yr 1 and yr 4 at the school where I’m a governor. They are teaching remotely and trying to supervise their own children’s schooling during the day day with catch up time at the weekends.

@noblegiraffe

I bet the parents are all now looking around and gossiping about who it was aimed at.

Brilliant lockdown entertainment, I expect.

Ime id imagine most parents know exactly who it was and have wanted the alpha playground types to be taken down for a while.

I rarely did playground because of my job but whenever I did there was always 'certain' parents who wanted my opinion on x y and z. They didn't get it.

The worst was the parents in the PTA who would try and get you to comment negatively so they could run to the head and dob you in.

Well this has been all over the media! Headteacher is actually a well respected local head-taught many kids ( now parents themselves) music. Woodridge primary is known for it's rather thrusting and pushy North London parents. I suppose it's because until this year there hasn't been a decent state secondary school that it's near so lots of parents intensely tutor their kids to get onto one of the local superselective grammars. It comes up top in the local sats results due to all the external tutoring.

schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-receives-13000-emails-praising-schools-but-just-260-complaints/amp/

More praise than complaints made to Ofsted

Slightly off topic but I qualified as a teacher in July 2019.

I am so annoyed that believed the government hope but in England there is no requirement to employ new teachers.

There are many people who I know that having qualified as teachers have been unable to get a teaching job

@StarCat2020 What age and subject?

The head won't have just put that in the letter for the craic, they must have a sizable contingent of parents who think they know best. Good on him for writing that! These people need a short, sharp (verbal) slap.

I'm really worried about my primary teacher friend. She is literally working eighteen hour days and it's not sustainable.It's her nqt year and she's been dropped in the deep end zero mentoring or support teaching online and in school concurrently! She never sees her own kids! We're going to end up with mass teacher burnout.

I'm also perfectly happy with the live for every lesson provision my state secondary school kids are getting. It's amazing and I'm incredibly grateful to their teachers and have fed that back.

I assumed that letter was fake whenI saw it to be honest

I think it's pretty mean spirited of schools to be sending out letters like that.

For it to get to the point of sending such a letter I can only assume some of the comments had gotten pretty bad and prolonged.

Parents should not be abusing support systems put in place to help parents and children.

If they have a complaint they should use the school's proper channels for this.

I would say that 98-99% of our comments are very positive through such types of channels. However we have had 2 parents who use them inappropriately, like it sounds these have. One parent continued despite being told not to and to use the appropriate channels. If they continue they will lose access to the support messaging service and will only be able to contact school via the central email/phone system. It's not fair on the teachers.

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

Have you addressed this through the proper channels?
What have school said?

Have you checked the government/DfE guidelines and asked to see the school's remote learning offer plan - they should have once since the end of October. What does this say?