teacher problem at prep school

[waterhorse123]

Hi, my DS is in the top year at his prep school and I suspect he is being bullied by his form teacher.
He doesn't like this person (and did not last year either) and this person teaches him for a subject too.

All last year he moaned that this teacher was talking about football a lot in the lessons and little work was getting done. My DS is very good at this subject and likes it so this term we suggested he should work his way through the next exercise by himself while this teacher was talking soccer.

To my surprise he did but then in the next lesson he was caught at it and told off by the said teacher who threatened to rip out the work he had done and make him do it all again.

I complained and the upshot was the teacher now no longer talks soccer in the lessons but he knows it was us that complained and he took our son aside one day and told him that he didn't like him complaining to his parents about him!!!!!
My DD is a teacher herself and she says this is a suspendible offence in state education. No way should a teacher do this and talk to a child like that.
What do you mumsnetters think about this?
We will be going in to discuss our son's progress shortly so would like to know what others think about the way this teacher has behaved.
Our DS says he is now constantly being told he hasn't done things the way the teacher wants it done, and feels very picked on.
You don't really expect to encounter teacher bullying do you? Other children maybe, but not from a teacher.

I guess I would be cautious in how you approach this, and how you label it.

Is your son in year 6 or year 8?

Your son doesn't have to like every teacher that teaches him. In fact one of the big lessons he needs to learn for life, is how to cope when he has to work for or with people he doesn't naturally get on with.

There is a risk that you have undermined this teacher in your son's eyes, and there is just a small possibility that your son has in fact not done everything exactly as the teacher wants. Certainly if he doing exercises even before the teacher has asked, there is quite a chance that he isn't doing for example the question
numbers being set by the teacher etc.

FWIW, when my son had an issue with a teacher, it was the parents of other children in the class who contacted me as they felt that he was being bullied. The situation was very obvious to all of the children in the class. So perhaps it is worth asking one of the other parents as to whether anything has been noticed?

Its difficult, if you are sure that things are happening in the way your ds says (not doubting him but my yr 7 ds complained bitterly about a teacher only for me to discover when I asked the teacher that hekept forgetting to bring his book and was generally being a bit of a pain!)
If it is as he's reported, then the teacher has over reacted to being complained about. The best thing to do is look to speaking to the class teacher, then the head of year then if necessary look to moving on to deputy head/headmaster. Probably the simplest solution is find out if your ds can move form groups. Do suggest to your son that he follows instructions rather than doing work that hasn't been set yet as that undermines what hes being told.