The way parents, current and prospective, talk about teachers on here is sometimes vile

[YokohamaSapphire]

This is a message from a previous thread about a new HMC incoming headmaster
"He is an unpopular choice among students and parents. So unpopular that on Instagram whenever he appears a host of students and parents comment so negatively they have to switch the comments off. Best mates with the current head - wonder how he got the job? My advice would be to abandon ship now before Celine Dion starts piping up…"

I know nothing about the person in question. I do know that as a teacher ( I left now) there were known WhatsApp groups of parents (usually mothers) slagging off and gossiping about teachers, trying to get their child in or not in teachers groups, personal gossip, passing on rumours from children about them. I just want to say it is people like these who make no-one sane want to teach. A subset of private school parents are possibly the worst; entitled, obsessive, untrusting and think the teachers can do no right. Maybe when there is nobody left to teach at all and they're forced to homeschool they'll regret their appalling behaviour

I would agree with that. I am a nursery nurse with a degree but i get treated like I have the same skills/knowledge as a 15 year old babysitter.

On mumsnet and other forums I am always reading people saying "trust your instincts, do your own research, don't trust the drs, if they try and discharge you refuse to move".

A complete insult that just shows up what kind of person you are. I never in any way suggested that poor teachers should be "appeased"- whatever the hell that means anyway. In any proper profession, support and training should be given to those failing to meet required standards of competency, then there should be paths, one of which leads to dismissal, if those standards are not met. Do you have any idea how hard it is for a new teacher without experience to be asked to do exactly the same job as someone with 30 plus years under their belt? And the knowledge that students, many of whom may well themselves have unrealistic expectations, will be selectively reporting back on their perception of how the teacher is doing to their parents. Some of the latter simply do not believe that their children can ever do any wrong at all. I did not take overly long to understand the highly questionable things you wrote, you just don't like the fact that someone doesn't agree with you. As for not managing the duties of your role, you aren't able to properly articulate yourself without resorting to patronising insults, so perhaps you should look at yourself before criticising others.

@YokohamaSapphire What exactly are you arguing against? Your gripe gets more elaborate with each post and consequently reveals that our education system is in a worse state than first thought.
There is nothing questionable about what I wrote previously. I, as other posters have tried to make you aware, not all teachers are good. This is likely the cause of any complaints made against them. What drives parents to complain outside of the official channels? Who knows? But I’m willing to believe, if your reactions are representative of what other parents have encountered at their DC’s school, that their concerns had fallen on deaf ears.
With reference to your original post, I would happily home-school if the only alternative was a teacher who lacked the ability to form coherent arguments, makes generalisations about specific groups, and has limited vocabulary and comprehension.

I, as other posters have tried to make you aware, not all teachers are good. This is likely the cause of any complaints made against them

Not always. Some parents are batshit and so are their complaints. Batshit parents wind each other up on social media too.

Schools get complaints about policy from parents who don't even have kids at the school.

@noblegiraffe Many schools foster connections with their wider community! Of course non parents can query something they truly believe needs investigation. How odd that you think a school is an island with the drawbridge firmly pulled up.

How odd that you think I am talking about legitimate complaints from the community and not batshit complaints that have been whipped on up on social media from randoms nothing to do with the school.

I do think going on any form of social media bad mouthing a particular school or a particular teacher is out of order and in theory, people should be aware that it could constitute libel. The reason people do it is clearly because they know there are negative consequences and it may put some parents off applying and into a falling birth rate, I think it is bang out of order.
Of course, there are outstanding teachers and more average ones, but generally it is a profession with rigorous training and so there is a minimum standard. One cannot as a parent expect to get the best teacher who goes above and beyond every year. It is part of the educational journey to get a mixed bag over time and over different subjects and in part, contributes to resilience building.
Later on in life one also has different colleagues/bosses too, some better at their work than others.
I think parents as a group have to be realistic about how much funding schools get (pretty abysmal now by international standards) and also how much time they realistically have per pupil (not much at all). We as parents realistically can make more time if we really want our children to progress. 10 minutes a day of focussed reading time throughout primary school makes a huge difference and setting good habits for being organised for secondary the night before, does as well, yet many parents fail to do these basics. Just like they fail to feed healthy food, enforce good screen time habits and take their kids to the dentist and library regularly. Unfortunately many people do not do these basic elements of parenting and if they don’t, they can hardly blame the teachers.

We also only get 10 minutes at the GP and have to wait for an appointment for ages. It is part of what is on offer and blaming schools/teachers for the restrictions they have to face I think is wrong. Vast majority are trying their best on a shoestring budget. Perhaps majority of parents are also trying their best but do not always have the tools/knowledge of what is appropriate to get on in education and parenting.

@noblegiraffe You differentiate legitimate complaints from others! Saying the wider community cannot say anything because they are not parents is not acceptable. If shop keepers complain because dc from the school are nicking things, it’s absolutely a legitimate complaint! You need to see the wider picture. However I would never name anyone on SM.

As for the level of competence required to be a teacher is high - it can be. Too often it’s not though. People find it very difficult to tell a NQT that they are not good enough to pass. They don’t do it and then have to offer years of support. Then it’s capability procedures. It’s better to expect high standards in the first place but that’s not universal. What’s worse is that heads know it but allow dc to be failed instead. Most of us have come across teachers who should not be teaching. Parents should not use SM but it’s not acceptable for dc to be failed either because of weak SLT.

Clearly that poster is one of the people in question with the batshit complaints. Even the way they are aggressively going on at the OP proves it. 🤷‍♀️

I don't know why you keep tagging me @TizerorFizz because what you are posting addresses literally nothing that I've said.

@noblegiraffe I’m just responding to what you said. You didn’t say legitimate. You said complainants were not even parents! So you didn’t seem to understand the community. If you do, wonderful.

@PrincessAnne5Eva What a bizarre assumption. I never ever used Sm to complain. I’m not in WhatsApp or Facebook groups. If I needed to query anything I had perfectly cordial and respectful dealings with all schools and teachers. I was a school governor for 20 years too. I don’t describe people as batshit though when they are not.

@TizerorFizz my posts in this thread have been repeatedly about batshit complaints. Please stop tagging me.

The way some people have responded on here reveals a defensiveness and aggression that suggests they may have been one of those unreasonable parents themselves. You can see it in the way they personally attack posters they disagree with, the lack of empathy or balance in what they say. The constant fault-finding.

I don't know how anyone can defend abusing people on social media - let alone their own child's teachers! I'm not particularly happy with my kids school at the moment but because I'm not a complete animal, I manage quite easily to refrain from posting about the staff on social media. There are clear channels that can be used to make complaints - they're more effective too I should think. Anyone posting about their kids teachers on social media just looks like a lunatic and makes themselves easily dismissed.

I actually wonder whether people realise what will be the end result so abusing public servants like this? We'll end up with no teachers..how does that help improve education??

I have had children spit on me, assault me, and even tell me they hate me. Do I get upset, hurt sometimes yes of course. Me and my colleagues don’t find it necessary to deliberately hurt them by holding them behind or targeting them.

Very dangerous and horrible.

I was a chair of Governors for many years.
Parents can be fucking insane.
Proper, full on nutters (I'm not talking about the parents with known substance abuse issues or mh issues, either..)
I live in a fairly affluent area, very few lac, plac and eal kids. About 15% fsm.
We have had groups of parents outside the gate to ambush teachers and support staff...even the ofsted inspector.
(And of course, the fist fights between parents in the car park..)
Several fathers made 2 of our lovely receptionists resign due to their abuse and threats.
There have been fake insta and tik tok accounts created of teachers and fake only fans accounts.
I lasted as long as I could, until I started getting letters and complaints to my home address.
It's almost impossible to recruit good Governors with the relevant experience and skill set now.
I'd never do it again.
There is, sadly, no support for governors who are targeted, much like teaching and support staff.
It's atrocious.
And yet...it's these very same parents who just can't understand why the school can't recruit good calibre teachers and why little Jimmy hasn't got a subject specialist teacher for y11 and y13!!
TAs/LSAs are so poorly paid, most of ours left to work at lidl/aldi.
There is no support from parents when the school applies its behaviour policy to their little darling.
There is only contempt and derision.
The right wing press have done a very good job of convincing a certain demographic that teachers - well qualified professionals - are lazy/thick/too woke/insert insult here/
It's SO depressing.
Teachers aren't perfect (neither are Governors) but the sheer vitriol aimed at the teaching profession is very, very worrying.

Does anyone never stop and think that the school experience is early life training and that learning to cope with the bit shit stuff is more realistic - along with sensible parental counselling - than having your parent try and making it all perfect for their child (and dare I say it, them thinking bugger everyone else).
Perhaps saying that there’s a big clue why no one copes with seemingly anything anymore as mumma isn’t there making it all good for diddums.

There is a huge problem, Teachers are overworked. Most teachers I know work 60 hours or more per week. Yes many TA’s leave to do exactly that due to the stress.