Any advice on the most effective way to deal with a bad teacher

[threesenough]

I need advice. My dd's teacher is failing her whole class. I think she has been a good teacher in the past but I - and other parents I have spoken to - feel that she has been in her job too long and has become jaded and can't be bothered.
In every other year at school my dds has enthused about her teachers and in turn teachers have told me how much she loves learning. This year she has become disengaged, bored, despondent. It can only be down to a poor teacher. Next year we are faced with another notoriously poor teacher. In that case I know of mums who petitioned to have her removed or at least shifted to teach a different year that was less crucial to children's educational development (! Not sure which year that could be!!!). Nothing was done.
I feel really powerless to counteract the adverse effects that the combination of two lazy teachers can have on so many children in Y4 and Y5. Other parents who have already been through this stage at our school refer to this as 'the lost years' or 'the wilderness years'.
What is the most effective way to address this issue?Can anyone advise?

Teachers are certainly feeling a lot of strain. And it's not helped by threads like this, frankly.
But it's due to the hard work and dedication of the vast, vast majority of teachers that the system is being made to work. Against the odds.

clam , do you find it helpful coming on here?
I think I would run a mile from it if I were in your position.
There are some teachers who for whatever reason, are struggling[not meaning you, I dont know anything about you],but like you say,there are many who are doing a remakable job teaching.

Yes, I feel they system is breaking down. We are all working at 100% capacity and expected to perform at 100% capacity 100% of the time. There is no slack in the system at all.

Teaching is now defined as the most stressful occupation by the HSE, and has one of the highest suicide rates. Yet it is still allowed to happen.

Perhaps I am not the best person to ask. Have been off sick with stress since January after 17 years teaching. But of course we're not aeven allowed to suffer stress now according to our revered leader of OFSTED.

So yes, I think it is fair to say that the sytem is collapsing. Too much is demanded with no time to do it

I'd write off a year but not two, so if your child faces 2 years of poor teaching, look for another school
You will never manage to get a teacher removed or changed and I wouldn't bother trying. All you can do is report any instances of v poor teaching to the head. Sometimes school is aware and managing the situation but you are not aware of it as a parent. Other times, head is ignoring it.
What progress has your child made this year?
You can at least home tutor to make up lost ground, of course there is not much that can be done to build up enthusiasm for learning but - make sure you are not making things worse by undermining the teacher at home!

orangeandlemons This is a teacher who struggles on a daily basis to keep the class in check and on subject. Pupils in her class have not made the progress they were expected to make in her Y5 class for the last few years now. The Y6 teachers have always managed to bridge the gap so that when the SATs take place the kids are where they should be. The Y6 teachers do bonkers hours to make that happen, I know. So is it fair that the Y6 teachers do the hours to take up the slack for the teacher who isn't so proactive?

I know not every lesson can be outstanding. I know the planning that goes into making a lesson outstanding. I also know that this particular teacher is not an effective teacher. She's part time, so doesn't teach 5 days a week. She is an example of a teacher who knows how to teach, but day to day, doesn't do that. Those are the kinds of teachers that get the parents talking in the yard.

The rub isn't that teachers don't deliver outstanding lessons all the time. To expect that would be insane. The rub is that some teachers don't deliver outstanding lessons at all. Not even good lessons. In fact some teachers deliver lessons that aren't good enough on a regular basis for a number of years. And when the rot starts, how do you stop it when it's such a difficult thing to measure objectively?

Well, I don't come on here for therapy, if that's what you mean. And no, I'm not struggling, but that's probably because I have the luxury of being part-time, so I'm able to pace myself adequately. But I look at my full-time colleagues, those responsible for running families and those who are child-free, and I see them run ragged with the demands of the job. Yes, it's very rewarding - but knackering and, at times, demoralising too.

And if a teacher is demoralised. Who will notice it first in the current system?

Since you said that this teacher was fine for DS but doesn't seem very good now OP, I wondered if she had developed health problems which are dragging her performance down? Very much the same happened to one of my children's teachers, fine for the first, less good for the second. We found out why when she needed time off to have a hysterectomy. She came back but never fully recovered her sparkle, and retired fairly soon after.

But still, you need to know what to do, and going to her first with some specific concerns is the way to start, IMO.

Would you say that the job has now become so demanding of energy, physically and mentally,that it has now become a profession that, on the whole,and making a generalisation, is more suited to younger teachers.There now seems to be more younger teachers than there used to be, but that could just be because I have got older! [Not meaning to upset older teachers, dont know who is who on here].

Teaching is a job I wouldn't do for any kind of pension. I've seen it up close and know it's way more stressful than anything I've ever done in a private sector job, and I've had some senior positions in my time.

I know from working in education that there are some unbelievably committed and passionate teachers. There are some good, solid, get the job done type of teachers, who are great too in my opinion. And then there are some p-poor, really shouldn't have ever got in the profession type teachers. They are definitely in the minority but if your child gets one of them in primary school, you'll know about it because it's such an intense, day-in-day out, relationship and your child will have no escape from it for a whole school year.

Perhaps that's why teacher bashing is prevalent on MN? Because a lot of the users on here are primary aged parents which increases the likelihood of encountering a poor teacher??

amillionyears is it also because the teacher training process has become much more stringent recently? And teachers who were trained some years ago weren't necessarily trained to deal with children with special educational needs? It's just a thought.

My favourite teacher at dd's school is in her 50's and is a powerhouse of ideas and energy. I love her to bits, so maybe that's not it.

It's a real puzzle isn't it????

Amillionyears, yes I do think that is the caseat the moment, but it is discriminatory against both teachers and students. Older teachers have a lot to offer and are often calmer and better at dealing with awkward kids. Younger ones often have more energy. Teaching is a very energetic profession. I haveworn a pedometer to school, an have often walked over 10 miles a day (usually in fact)

Younger ones may not have children of their own, so have more time to spare on endless prep. But both types should be able to work in the profession...... and the government want us to work to 68

Flabbergast. Sorry if I seemed to be having ago. The situation described in your post, is the exact reason why I went off sick. I simply couldn't carry another memebr of staff any longer.

I am mid 40's. I suppose that makes me an older teacher

profession even

Thanks for those posts flapperghasted.
Im partly asking these questions because one of my daughters seems to be heading the way of teaching.Not sure yet.
And I didnt know that "teacher bashing is pevalent on MN".
Also realised in the last hour or two, that a lot of teachers will be at school right now.

orangesandlemons,dont actually know what to write.I think thanks on behalf of parents is probably the best thing I can think of.

Am consious that no one has answered the ops last question.Sorry op, I dont know the answer myself.

Thanks amilionyears. I am curious who those on here think is the first to notice a demoralised teacher.
I am probably wrong, but I imagine it might be the kids who spend all day with them and then possibly their parents. Who then might start mistakenly thinking the teacher is bad or lazy.

Personally, I would try to avoid any labels like "demoralised" or "lazy" and concentrate on specific problems, such as work not being explained or no new sums being set. My job as a parent to point out if things go wrong, not my job to diagnose why- that is for the headteacher.

Have you thought about rat poison?

I am getting the impression of two problems from this thread.
One is the ops
And one is that teachers are run ragged as clam put it.
Have there been threads recently where teachers have been able to vent on MN? Or is that seen as inappropriate on a public forum.

Thanks cory. Point taken. I am going to take that tack.
Still curious to know though.

I can see both sides.

Some teachers are not very "parent friendly" and so start to be the subject of adverse comments. Often they are fine or even great in the classroom, but once gossip has started, their reputation suffers.

Otoh, I have experienced bad teachers, both in my schooldays and in the dcs'. Ds had a teacher in year 5 who was retiring at the end of the year and just couldn't be bothered at all. (In fact I think her retirement was a booting out.) She was bad-tempered, never did PE/Games and only liked doing Art (with the able artists). She seemed to hate all boys - particularly lively ones!

I had a teacher (40 years ago...) who was so lazy she used to doze in the afternoon in her chair at the front whilst we did plasticine/jigsaws and so on. At 3.15pm she would grab her coat and run out of the classroom - before any of the children (and we were 6!). On the way home with my mother we used to meet her walking her dog. A teacher's life was easier in the 1970s!

I was asked just yesterday what advice I'd give to a newly qualified teacher starting out. One of the first things that jumped into my mind was to be pleasant and approachable to parents.
Also, I must point out that those of my colleagues who are feeling demoralised are so in private and not to children or parents.

I have the best job in the world and yes it has it's stresses (mainly because I have a number of additional responsibilities on top of being a full time class teacher and sometimes I struggle to remain as detached as I should be for my own sanity) but it also has wonderful rewards which IMHO far out weight the negatives. There is no better feeling than knowing you have made a difference in a child's life.
Yes we are in uncertain times ... because no one can decide just what education should look like and the goal posts are on wheels and satisfactory now means not good enough ... but I still get a buzz with every small success for our pupils.

threesenough if a teacher was demoralised the first people to notice in school would most likely be the other staff because teachers in general are very good at leaving their problems outside the classroom