Can a teacher have their own child in their class?

[Hattie07]

Hi All, does anyone have any advice or knowledge when it comes to schools allowing their staff to have their own child in their class?
Thank you xx

I'm another parent and I'm aware there are other parents who don't agree.

It doesn't matter whether you agree or not. The local authority is responsible for offering school places to children and the head teacher is responsible for deciding which teacher is the best option for each year group.

You have no say in it at all. There is no 'appeal' process because there is nothing to appeal.

There is no way you can “appeal” anything in relation to this. What is your actual issue with this anyway?

Why do you think you can do a better job of running the school than the headteacher? Are you an experienced head?

Why would you care? Teachers are professionals.

My mum taught me maths in year 9. If was the first time years she’d had a top set so didn’t want to give it up. Was it awkward? Yes.

why would you as another parent complain?

What are your specific concerns?

You won’t get anywhere just not agreeing, unless you have very specific concerns there’s likely not to even be much of a discussion.

The SLT will have allocated the teacher that class for a reason, even if it’s not obvious to you.

Yes, although in my experience they tried to avoid it. It happened in my primary school ( admittedly a long time ago) as there were only two classes and the teacher had a child in each. I didn’t notice any favouritism. In fact it somehow took the rest of us most the term to realise despite them having the same name.

For “other parents not to agree” would imply they had been asked. Otherwise, there is nothing to agree to! The head has made the decision, presumably has reasons for that decision. It’s not up to parents ( or indeed, anyone else) to agree or not.
Now, if something specific happens to the detriment of YOUR child, you can raise it as a concern but not just ‘ I don’t like it’

It was very common in our primary school often 2 or 3 teachers had children in the school and sometimes in their class , possibly because it was considered the best school locally too .

You are a parent of a different child in this teacher’s new class? You won’t be able to appeal anything.

I/we would always choose not to but I have had to teach my DD briefly in the past when a colleague was seriously ill and due to the constraints of cover in school, I sometimes cover classes for DS in other subjects when we are very short staffed. It happens. I'm a professional and quite capable of operating fairly.

What is your actual concern?

God I feel for this teacher if they’ve got multiple parents frothing at the mouth just at the thought!

it’s got nothing to do with you.

if, and only if, there are problems caused by it impacting your child next year, then you could complain. Otherwise butt out!

If you don’t agree maybe put your child in a different school .

Do let us know how you get on.

They can - in practice most will try to avoid where possible but in a smaller school or subject the head will make decisions based on the best fit for a whole cohort of students and avoiding this will be less important than many other considerations to which parents will not, and should not, be privy.

As you have now explained you are another parent rather than the teacher - it’s got absolutely nothing to do with you and you have zero ground for ‘appeal’ based on anything you’ve shared.

Appeal against what? I can't imagine the teacher being too thrilled about having their own child either, but what does it have to do with you?

It's busybody behaviour.

There’ll be a nasty little class WhatsApp won’t there? Well @Hattie07 if the teacher promises- her child will never, ever be star of the week or get a role in the navigator, will you all put the Pitchforks down?

as a professional the teacher will know how to navigate this

pretty unpleasant behaviour by the parents though

i feel for the teacher with this group of parents

How will this affect your child?

There is no mechanism to appeal this or any other decision made by headteachers about how they choose to staff and run their schools.

Your options are to complain to the head who will do nothing except mark you down as a difficult parent or to move to a different school.

I think this is hardest on the teacher's dc. What do other people have to complain about?

What is your actual problem with this? It’s primary school - are you scared your child won’t get star of the week because the teacher will give it to her kid every single week? Just grow up.

Your life must be very small if you are actually giving this more than a cursory thought.

I was in my mum’s class 30 odd years who (one-form entry) and it was really hard for both of us.

We have members of staff at school whose children also attend our school and actively try our best to keep them separate. There’s no real benefit to it for either party.

Oh god that poor kid! No matter how hard they work, if they ever get rewarded, the other parents are going to scream favouritism.

The y1/2 teacher at my kids school has a Y5, a Y3 and a Y1, so she's had one of her kids in her class for the last 5 years. It's been absolutely fine, I'm sure at a bigger school it would be avoided but no idea what else you'd do in a small school really.