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Original poster

What would your parents have complained to your school about?

23 replies

hunkermunker · 04/03/2006 13:32

Mine is that in my last year of primary school, our class teacher loved teaching maths, but not English. By the end of the year, I'd filled seven maths exercise books (and never wanted to see a Peak maths text book again!) and half an English one.

And probably loads of other things, but can't remember them.

OP posts:

jenniferjuniper · 04/03/2006 13:36

my mum should have asked why i was in the pub every friday afternoon instead of being at my A level sociology lesson - thankfully she never knew this till i was 25 !!!

paolosgirl · 04/03/2006 13:40

Very little. I think unless I was being very badly bullied, they wouldn't (and didn't) say anything. I wish the school had noticed that I dogged most of fifth year, and I wish they had bothered their arse to tell my parents. Instead, I spent most of my time developing a mean game of pool.

Original poster

hunkermunker · 04/03/2006 13:42

Ah, JJ, yes, my mum could've asked similar... I had a history teacher who hated me as much as I loathed him (I only loathed him for being useless - he despised me for minding...!) so we had an unspoken mutual agreement - I didn't show up for his lessons and he didn't grass me up...

OP posts:

jenniferjuniper · 04/03/2006 13:45

weird isnt it , that we got away with it ? would be furious with my kids if they did the same thing though

hermykne · 04/03/2006 13:47

religious instruction, both athethists and only catholic schools were we lived or a fee paying protestant one, so i was excused, some teachers didnt like thouhg

Miaou · 04/03/2006 13:48

hunker about the history teacher being rumbled....!

My parents complained to my school when I was sitting my mock O levels (Yes I am that old) because the invigilators clacked up and down the rows and talked nonstop and I couldn't concentrate . They wrote a letter to the school and got one back saying that I would get better at exams the more practice I had (WTF??) "Well that's not a satisfactory answer is it?" they said - but never went any further with it.

They could have complained about the bullying that took place (secondary school) but to my knowledge they never did

paolosgirl · 04/03/2006 13:50

I had a science teacher at secondary school who used to nip away early from lessons, and buy cakes for those who wanted them - leaving the class to descend into anarchy. I would go ballistic in any of my kid's teachers left them unattended for that length of time.

I think teachers 25-odd years ago got away with a lot more than they do nowadays.

catrin · 04/03/2006 13:52

Would have liked my parents to complain about us being hit over the knuckles with a metal ruler in primary school - at age 7 . However, whenever I told my mum she asked what I had done to deserve it! Hasten to add happened less to me than my brother :)

BadHair · 04/03/2006 13:52

They could have complained about the institutional bullying from the "in" crowd that meant I had 7 years at that school feeling like I was worth nothing and my opinions were not important. And that it was not only largely unchallenged by the teaching staff, but often complied with and fuelled by them.

But they thought the school could do no wrong, after all it had a fabulous reputation for a local state school. Pupils came from way outside of catchment area so how could it possibly be a bad place?

They even made me stay there for two extra years to do A levels, even though I wanted to go to the FE college.

My parents would never have dreamed of complaining - after all, teachers are the professionals, they know what they're doing. Note heavy sarcasm - not at teachers but at my parents' complete refusal to challenge anyone in authority.

jenniferjuniper · 04/03/2006 13:53

my physics teacher used to throw rulers at us for not listening ,paolosgirl ! Imagine that these days

paolosgirl · 04/03/2006 13:55

I know!! Our maths teacher used to throw one of these wooden balckboard erasers at us. Luckily, I was a very good girl at school (until 5th year) so avoided the chalk imprint on my head.

jenniferjuniper · 04/03/2006 13:59

BadHair - thats terrible about your experience .Wonder why teachers were considered above being challenged years ago

Blandmum · 04/03/2006 14:18

Paolosgirl, I know teachers used to get away with mmore inj the past than they do now!

Nowerdays some of the kids think they are above being challenged

jofeb04 · 04/03/2006 14:20

My old mathes teacher 9who should of retired years before i even got there) used to smack our hands when we used to talk! That was only ten years ago!!

jenniferjuniper · 04/03/2006 14:21

so martianbishop- was it better in the old days or the way things are now do you think?

Blandmum · 04/03/2006 14:26

oh no, I think that there were some scandelous schools and teachers in the past. Teachers had a job for life and had little by the way of training and assessment once they astarted in work. This was very counter productive.

Nowerdays we do get assessed on a regular basis, twice a term we have formal observations on tol of things like ofsted etc and I think this is fair and reasonable. The idea being that poor teachers are spotted and helped to improve, not something that happened when I was in school.

However as regards children's behaviour, I think the pendulum has swung far to far. Some kids now feel that they have the absolute right to do whatever they want, whenever they want to and often their parents (remembering the bad old days of their own school days back the child, unthinkingly)

For example this week a parent complained that they child had been restrained. The child(a teenager) was beating up another girl. It took 3 memebers of staff to restrain her. The mothers comment was that they had no right to do so, and the child had a right to fight others if provoked.

That would never have hapened when I was a kid either.

jenniferjuniper · 04/03/2006 14:30

i agree completely - am really shocked at how older kids (even my friends kids ) will speak to their teachers .Seems like kids are the ones who cant be challenged these days sometimes

paolosgirl · 04/03/2006 14:42

I've heard the horror stories, although must admit that both DS and DD go to schools where it's not an issue. That said, High School is not that far off for DS, and I'm sure I will have my eyes well and truly opened. It makes you wonder how these kids will fare in the big bad world of employment, where that sort of behaviour just won't be tolerated (if they ever enter the job market, that is )

jenniferjuniper · 04/03/2006 14:46

the idea of my kids going to secondary school scares me silly

Gem13 · 04/03/2006 16:13

I had already covered the 24 hour clock at my old school. When I started a new school my class was learning it. The teacher was giving out the answers 'Anyone got further than question 15?' etc. I had done about 40 and she refused to give out answers past 20 saying that if I had done so many they must be wrong. The whole class laughed (10 year olds) and I loathed her after that.

At the same school, my friend's brother (who had asthma) was doing athletics and beat another boy. The gym teacher said to the boy 'So, how does it feel to be beaten by a cripple?' double .

I'm hoping Ofsted has weeded out those type of teachers.

julienetmum · 04/03/2006 22:38

My mum was very good at complaining.

At primary school they complained about bullying. When nothing was done she lay in wait for the child who walked home alone and collared her!!!

In secondary school she complained when I got a very low mark for a maths test (that decided which GCSE set I was put into. The test was done over 2 sessions and my paper for the 2nd session had been lost so my 68% mark for the first paper was divided by 2 to give me a 34% mark. My report wasn;t changed but I was put into the top set and also intot the a small group who took their GCSE a year early.

When my brother was at primary school she complained that he wasn't taught to write his name properly. At secondary he walked out of school one day becasue he was fed up of the other kids and some of the teacher's attitudes (kids were trying to persuade him to smoke/do drugs. The school didn;t report he was missing so again she went ballistic and decided to keep him at home for the rest of the term until he reached school leaving age.

eve2005 · 04/03/2006 22:50

am i the only one who's mother couldn't have cared less about what happened to me at school or whether i was turning up for it as long as my grades were ok?

VeniVidiVickiQV · 04/03/2006 23:06

My parents complained about quite a few things - long post, bear with me:

About my Older Brother - complained that he wasnt allowed to stay on to do A'levels with the grades he had (a few A's a few Bs some C's and a few D's). However, another boy in the class was allowed to who had lower grades because his twin brother whose grades were better was staying.

Me - Complained that an 8 year old shouldnt have to correct a teacher on their spelling (plurals - roof and rooves ffs!)

Complained because teachers were taking me to one side and questionning me far too regularly as to whether i was "doing something i shouldnt/taking drugs" because of the headaches & aches and pains i suffered, and the dark rings around my eyes. Turns out my parents didnt know i was "off sick" as much as they had me recorded as

Middle Younger Brother - complained to the school because during a swimming lesson at 3/4th year primary the swimming teacher pushed him in the deep end - twice - to demonstrate what happens when you fall in deep water and cant swim. (Brother obviously couldnt swim at that point).

Also, complained when, on a trip to a high profile school rugby tournament at secondary school on the way home one of the pissed P E Teachers opened a door of the minibus and pee'd out the back whilst it was on the motorway , and "headlocked, jokingly" the pupils on the bus who didnt find it funny and told them not to tell on him.

My Youngest Brother - never had any cause for complaint

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