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Should I report concerns about teacher socialising with pupil and parent?

283 replies

Jblingsmum · 12/03/2026 16:21

My son dumped his girlfriend. So i asked him why. He said he didn't really want to chat about it but he did open up to his dad. He said that his girlfriend and her mother spend a lot time with a male teacher from school together. Football outing and meeting for the odd coffee together. Hes told her she needs to speak to the head teacher. Shes saying she wont. So he dumped her. I cant have my son mixed up in this. It doesn't feel right at all. Im sure this shouldn't be allowed.
If I report it. Its going to look like him.
advice needed

OP posts:
KatyaKabanova · 12/03/2026 17:32

Frugalgal · 12/03/2026 17:30

You haven't articulated what the problem is. Why did your son want his ex gf to go to the Head? To say what?

A teacher has a social life? Who knows!

JayJayj · 12/03/2026 17:33

A teacher has a life outside of school and you want to report it? How strange.

GreenCaterpillarOnALeaf · 12/03/2026 17:33

Wait… so the teachers don’t all live at school?

JayJayj · 12/03/2026 17:37

BoredZelda · 12/03/2026 17:10

Isn’t the bigger issue here that your son dumped his girlfriend because she wouldn’t do what he told her to do? 🚩

Definitely this!!! You need to let your son know that women and girls do not have to do what men say. We are our own people with thoughts of our own.

DeftWasp · 12/03/2026 17:37

dizzydizzydizzy · 12/03/2026 17:10

Teachers sending their own children to the school they work in is a totally different matter.

The same applies to situations where coincidentally parents of the kids they teach are already in their friendship group.

It is obvious that it could create problems if teachers and parents seek out friendships with each other. Here is a random school code of staff conduct:

https://www.budbrooke.warwickshire.sch.uk/serve_file/24300666?

Section 2.11:

“Members of staff and volunteers should not establish or seek
to establish social contact with pupils or their families for
the purpose of securing a friendship or to pursue or
strengthen a relationship.
However, it is acknowledged that staff and volunteers may
have genuine friendships and social contact with
parents/carers of pupils, independent of the professional
relationship, such as when a parent and teacher are part of
the same family/personal network or social/recreational
circle. Those circumstances will usually be easily recognised,
openly acknowledged and should be explicitly declared in
writing by staff/volunteers to the Headteacher. Members of
staff and volunteers should always take care to maintain
appropriate personal and professional boundaries in any such
circumstances.
Furthermore, staff and volunteers should also be aware that
professionals who sexually harm children often seek to
establish relationships and contact outside of the workplace
with both the child and their parents, in order to ‘groom’ the
adult and the child and/or create opportunities for sexual
abuse.
It is also important to recognise that social contact may
provide opportunities for other types of grooming such……”

That's an interesting clause, because paragraph 2 effectively defeats paragraph 1 - why, because although the school has put it in the T's and C's to try and cover itself, there is nothing in the law or the teachers standards that would mean its enforceable.

valentinka31 · 12/03/2026 17:38

I don't understand ... what has anyone done wrong? The teacher is perfectly allowed to be friends with/in a relationship with the mother. It sounds like your DS is jealous as he suspects his \GF with the teacher or some such? What would you 'report'? A teacher is friends with a mum?

PuppiesProzacProsecco · 12/03/2026 17:38

Jesus, is your son Chandler Bing? My sister in law taught both my kids at secondary. She was the only teacher for that subject, it was the only local school suitable for my kids. What would you have had us do? MIL also taught my older DC from a previous relationship for a year. The only issue was she wasn't allowed to invigilate or mark her exams.

diddl · 12/03/2026 17:38

He said that his girlfriend and her mother spend a lot time with a male teacher from school together.

What's the missing info?

valentinka31 · 12/03/2026 17:38

JayJayj · 12/03/2026 17:37

Definitely this!!! You need to let your son know that women and girls do not have to do what men say. We are our own people with thoughts of our own.

Edited

yes 100 per cent this

Loub1987 · 12/03/2026 17:39

There seems to be a lot of threads about people not wanting teachers to have lives recently.

OnlyMabelInTheBuilding · 12/03/2026 17:40

Errr, this is batshit, there’s no issue here.

OneFunBrickNewt · 12/03/2026 17:40

LadyOfLymeHouse · 12/03/2026 16:39

Newsflash!

They don't.

Sometimes teachers even send their own children to the schools where they work.

And sometimes they even end up with their own child in their class! This happened to me for one hour a week. I taught the primary year my child was in, and once a week I taught the other class- their class. Nobody cared!
But I guess you could headline this as 'teacher sees pupil extensively out of class..... '

LilyBunch25 · 12/03/2026 17:41

What is the issue here?

Coconutter24 · 12/03/2026 17:41

Why is your son saying she needs to speak to the head teacher? You’re either missing important information or you’re overreacting

KatyaKabanova · 12/03/2026 17:41

Loub1987 · 12/03/2026 17:39

There seems to be a lot of threads about people not wanting teachers to have lives recently.

Yes, it's quite the thing!

MrsBennetsPoorNervesAreBack · 12/03/2026 17:43

Weird thread

MissJoGrant · 12/03/2026 17:45

Frankly, that's a load of rubbish. What about teachers who have their own kids at school? Loads of those at our place over the years.

WallaceinAnderland · 12/03/2026 17:45

This is a plopper thread.

KatyaKabanova · 12/03/2026 17:50

WallaceinAnderland · 12/03/2026 17:45

This is a plopper thread.

Does that mean the OP won't be back?

Catcatcatcatcat · 12/03/2026 17:51

Can you explain what the problem is?

KiposWonderbeasts · 12/03/2026 17:51

BoredZelda · 12/03/2026 17:10

Isn’t the bigger issue here that your son dumped his girlfriend because she wouldn’t do what he told her to do? 🚩

Exactly!

OP, your son was in the wrong and controlling. Why on god's green earth would a grown woman not be able to be friends with someone who works at the school her daughter attends? Why can't her teenagr daughter go out with her own mum and her mum's pal!

WallaceinAnderland · 12/03/2026 17:53

KatyaKabanova · 12/03/2026 17:50

Does that mean the OP won't be back?

Usually yes.

TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne · 12/03/2026 17:54

Starlight1979 · 12/03/2026 16:50

I've read this twice and still don't understand?!

Please can anyone explain 🙏

No, because it is senseless.

I don't think the OP will be back though.

TheBroonOneAndTheWhiteOne · 12/03/2026 17:54

WallaceinAnderland · 12/03/2026 17:45

This is a plopper thread.

Yes, that's exactly what I thought.

BillieWiper · 12/03/2026 17:54

Well it's up to him why he dumped her.
And why are you saying 'you don't want your son involved in any of this'? In any of what?
There is no safeguarding concern.

Teachers are allowed to be friends with whoever they like. If he dumped her he may not want to disclose exactly why to his mum.
It's definitely none of your concern who his ex and her mother choose to socialise with.

Did he think the gf and her mum were having an incestuous threesome with the teacher?!

Regardless it really is not your business.

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