Would you pursue this with the school?

[Cristall]

I found out during the Easter holidays that DC’s teacher left suddenly a fortnight before the holidays started. Nobody was informed until the email arrived earlier this week. The teacher had only worked there since Christmas. There’s a replacement teacher taking over after the holidays.

I’m concerned that the teacher left so suddenly. My thinking is that if nothing was amiss the school would have made him work his notice, at least until Easter. The fact he left so suddenly makes me think he’s been sacked for some unknown incident.

Would you ask the school for clarification? Do I have the right to demand it? At the very least I want to know if he quit or was sacked - and if he was sacked, why.

I have to say…. If a teacher were arrested on suspicion of a serious crime and had to leave their job - and the school chose to make a statement about why they had left, I would expect this to say they had left due to personal reasons. Innocent till proven guilty is an important principle. So I think if they did say personal reasons it could cover anything from kid newly diagnosed with cancer as in my husband’s case to under investigation for looking at inappropriate images of children.

Either way, none of your business unless your child has been impacted by the reason for the teacher leaving.

Something like this happened to a school not long after my DC had left.
Fantastic teacher, really bubbly, great with the kids suddenly left after about 6 months.
They had some underlying health issues which suddenly became chronic, following an unexpected emergency.

How many times do people have to tell you - if it involved your child you’d know.

So you know it doesn’t

It's bordering on impressive how immoral and selfish you are. That aside, you want something you can't, won't and morally shouldn't have.

Totally agree with PPs that is more likely he left at his own instigation rather than was sacked. Quite possibly stress / didn't get on with the leadership team. Or the class itself is a nightmare, which does happen, and a lack of support can make life hell in this situation. I have several friends who left part way through a school year for these reasons as they didn't feel they could continue for their own mental health. The fact the previous teacher also left part way through the year adds adds to my suspicions about this.

In my experience (in schools), people leaving mid-term has almost always been at their own instigation. Although the notice period is long, heads are able to waive that, and will. I've seen that happen because of a family crisis, or because the teacher was suffering from stress and was likely to end up signed-off if not released from the contract. (As one head put it, if they let them go, they'd need to find a supply teacher. If they didn't, and they were off ill, they'd still have to find a supply teacher, and pay both of them.)

Yes, I can think of one case which started as suspension, where it did turn out later on that he had committed offences (but not in school). However that is very unusual. I know more cases where the suspension was overturned.

On the balance of probabilities, it is relatively unlikely that the teacher has been sacked. There is also no reason why you should be informed of any personal circumstances. If they have done something wrong, the important thing is that action has been taken to stop it, and if they haven't, they deserve their privacy.

Well, tough.

well it wasn't. Because if it was, then a new teacher would not have been appointed in February, to start after easter, while the current teacher carried on for a further 6 weeks.....

I couldn’t give a shit about them or their personal business. I just want to know that the reason for departure is not bad behaviour in the presence of my child.

Tough luck, I'm afraid. Why should they pander to your (frankly paranoid) assumptions? It's not their responsibility to reassure you any time you arbitrarily, and withoit the slightest reason, decide you think one of their staffing decisions has sinister motives.

Once more, clearly: you have no reason to think the school or teacher has done anything wrong.

I'm autistic OP, so I'm not about to bully you for being autistic. But I am also an ex teacher who had to leave quite abruptly very early into a pregnancy (pregnancy related illness) and am horrified at the idea that parents would think they have the right to that sort of information.

You don't get to know this. If your child were directly involved in some incident with the teacher you would have to be informed, although I see a few conspiracy theorists here would disagree. Believe them if you want or believe me who worked in safeguarding.

It's nothing to do with you.

I can understand that you are worried about the effect that all of this change has had on your autistic child - and also on you, as you also are autistic.

I presume that your child is on the school’s SEN register? I would suggest that a positive way forward would be for you to ask for a meeting with the school’s SENCo (and possibly also the new teacher), explaining that the changes of teacher over the year have had an impact on your child’s behaviour and wellbeing, and you would like to discuss how you and the school can work together over the coming term so as to resolve these going forward. If you feel comfortable doing so, you may also want to raise the fact that, as an autistic person, you have also found the changes difficult and would like to work in close partnership with the school to prepare for the next change, which will be the move into the next class.

As others have said, you have no right to know why the changes have occurred. What you do have a right to do is ask how the school is planning to support your SEN child in managing the impact of these changes, and to expect communication about how they will do so (eg through a revised plan for this term - these come by many names, but whatever document the school uses to communicate your SEN child’s objectives and support each term.)

Given they joined mid year, the most likely thing is that they were always on long term supply and so didn’t need to give much notice. Other possibilities that are FAR more likely than being sacked are they are burnt out, had some sort of family issue, are having a career change.

I wouldn’t keep worrying about it.

Because when people leave work suddenly with no explanation it’s usually a sacking.

Evidence please? Preferably evidence that this is the case in schools.

If he was unwell and they were organising a replacement they would have said so.

Not necessarily. Why should they inform you about the state of a member of staff's health?

@Cristall I do understand how destabilising a change of teacher can be. It happens a lot a my daughter’s school and she has subs galore.
How old is your daughter? What has she said about the teacher change?

I just want to know that the reason for departure is not bad behaviour in the presence of my child.

But you can already assume this.

The teacher left two weeks before half term, so 3-4 weeks ago now.
You have not been contacted. Therefore, you can fairly safely assume your child has not been directly impacted by misconduct from this teacher. Had your child been involved you would know as part of the school's investigations. The chances of it being almost a month and your child being folded in any misconduct issues without you knowing is small.

@Cristall every single person on a thread of over 300 posts has told you that you have no business to raise this with the school. Every Single One.

If you do, I think you’re likely to be told that there are other schools available if you aren’t happy with that one. None of this has anything to do with either you or your child being ND and everything to do with being simply wrong about considering speaking to the school on a matter that is absolutely no concern of yours.

You are not being bullied. You are being told, very clearly, that you are pursuing a vendetta against someone about whom you have no knowledge, other than he is male and a teacher.

All teacher colleagues I know who have left before the end of a term have handed in their notice at half term (due to disliking the school/class/environment) and then when the problems became worse were signed off sick. In my experience, teachers don't usually shout at classes with good behaviour.

Our lovely, kind, magnificent headmistress went on sick leave due to a ‘shoulder injury’. A few months later she died of bone cancer. Yes we knew she was on sick leave rather than just disappearing one day, but hardly anyone at all knew the real reason why she was off, and that she was so ill, because she wanted it kept completely quiet.

Who knows why your daughter’s teacher has left? It really, truly isn’t your business.

Like other teachers on this thread, I have been in a position of leaving (and, on a separate occasion, taking over) a class with several children diagnosed with autism or on that pathway, at a non-standard point in the year.

Parents of those children asked for, and received, information about replacement staffing plans, and specific support for their children via their SEN plans. I don’t know if they asked about the reason for my / the previous teacher’s departure (personal circumstances I have no intention of sharing here) but I do know they didn’t receive it.

Well you sound like a peach don't you.

It is very unlikely they were sacked. It's hard to sack a teacher, but moresoever, if they had been sacked, then they have to have done something against safeguarding, in which case there would have to be an investigation, during which they'd be suspended, and those take time - and you know that isn't the case.

The only time that happened in one of my dc's school the teacher died within the next 6 weeks due to cancer. All the children and parents were told was that she had left and the head was teaching the form for the rest of term.

You don't need to know so you can pick over it with the rest of the gossip.

I suspect, btw, that the series of events goes:

• Teacher 1 resigns close to the half term deadline in October, to leave in December.
• No teacher then working on a normal class teacher contract can therefore be recruited for a January start (teachers have to give half a term’s notice, so advertising in the second half of the Autumn term will only recruit teachers currently unemployed or working as supply)
• The teacher recruited for January is therefore not very strong (eg a newly qualified teacher who did not get a job in September) OR a supply teacher OR returning from eg ill health.
• After nearly a term, either the supply teacher (employed on a rolling short term contract) chose to leave OR the relative weakness of the teacher came to a head in some way (eg an observation or through stress-related illness) OR the pre-existing illness reappeared.
• For the final 2 weeks of term, the school decided to use a familiar HLTA to cover the class, in preference to the only other option of daily supply
• Meanwhile, they have recruited a further teacher. You need to be aware that, unless the departure of the January start teacher was at least partially planned, this may again be an ‘emergency’ recruitment, subject to all the possible issues already identified.

You do not have the right to know any more detail as to whether any if this accords with the reality. However, you should be generally aware that there is an exodus of teachers from schools at the moment, and instability / varying quality of staff will be a constant in your child’s schooling. This is NOT your school’s fault - the fault lies pretty much entirely with the present Government.

...and with the attitudes and behaviours of entitled, batshit parents.

He may have only had a term's contract and they have someone else in mind?

I strongly suspect it was a supply teacher who wasn't having a good experience and so walked.