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

This thread is bonkers, what on earth has it got to do with you? Please don't contact school about this it would be embarrassing!

A friend did and it worked well . Some discussion over how the child would refer to the teacher, the child said not calling the teacher mum would feel odd and it was agreed. It was actually a school where teachers were referred to by their first names so child ended up using both mum and her first name when referring to her in the third person and it was fine. The sky did not fall in.

A friend of mine once taught on one of the remoter of the Scottish Isles. At one point she had her own 3 children plus the other 3 primary aged children on the island at that time all in her class.

My mum had taught at the school for years and so I was taught by my mother (who called me by the wrong name once!), my godmother, various other people who remembered me in nappies... Honestly, there was no favouritism. If anything it was probably harder for her as she was annoyed my me as a parent as well as as a teacher!

I moved mine from catchment rural school. As it would have been mine and teachers child only.

She Had been asked to be moved to that class, and that concerned me.

normally, here, in rural schools, teachers try to avoid it if at all possible.

Yes it happened to my MiL. Small village school so no option that she'd teach her own kids at some point.

However when I was in P4 the teacher taught her own son and in P5 my auntie was my teacher. Absolutely no need in a 3 form entry school.

I was just commenting on PP who said they didn't understand why that would be a problem in primary.

I was in my mum's class, and dd's teacher has her child in her class. They seem to be coping better than I did- I did not enjoy being taught by my mum at all!

ETA: there was no favouritism, the opposite as mum didn't want any suggestion of favouritism. And she knew exactly what homework I had to do. It was more like living with my teacher than having my mum at school.

My DC's former school fairly recently. Why?

You weren't there. That's your dc's perception.

Yeah right. I wonder why other parents did complain 🤷‍♀️

DD teaches her son, year 1 , it hasn’t been any issue

Completely normal in rural infants schools which are usually single form entry, and often have mixed year classes.

It would appear that @Hattie07 is one of those parents.

How strange. It’s none of your business who the other children are in this class and who they may be related to.

@Hattie07, the school do not need your agreement on how teachers are allocated within the school.

You are not the headteacher. You are the parent of a child in the school.

Omg how ridiculous, what do you thinks going to happen, favouritism?

Happens at my DCs schools, both primary and high school, also happened when I was at school. There are currently 2 teachers with children at my DCs primary, one has her own child in the class the other is on maternity leave and will have her child next year. There are also 2 TAs who have children in the school, one is a TA in her DSs class. There have been other teachers in the past who have taught their DCs too. I know 1 highschool teacher who has taught all 4 of her children at one point or another and according to my DCs there are at least 3/4 other kids in the school whose parents are teachers that they know of.

I can’t believe you are even asking this. What reason do you have to think that the teacher won’t behave professionally?

As happens regularly with primary school teachers. Otherwise they risk de-skilling.

I see paranoia and lack of intelligence is alive and well why is it automatically assume there will be favourtism and if you have issues with your own child address them, I am not sure this is a parent or a female thing but it seems ever increasing this adding back stories to people when all a person has is their oen insecurities to go off and no actual proof just whatever they have made up in their head, if it is not teacher's it is 'school mums' (hate the term) amongst others

I’ve taught 2 of my own children in secondary, no issues at all. One of mine didn't want to be taught by me and changed class.

I’ve given my own child detention for no HW too 🤣 the rest of class thought that was harsh

They can, it's something they try to avoid. For unavoidable reasons, I taught one of mine for a year and it was fine. I did request it be changed but it couldn't be altered due to timetabling issues.

I was very conscious about it though and it wasn't bad as I knew the class well as they had grown up together as friends. In many ways, they were all on an equal footing because of that.

In the ideal world no parent would want to be their child’s teacher / it does cause issues

whether they are too tough or too lientant / or appear to be

the child def wouldn’t want it

if I was a teacher I wouldn’t be working at my local school and would travel a few miles ideally - if I knew I wanted kids /school age

my friend is a ta and tends to not work in her dd class but sometimes had to , to cover

I realise this will sound sassy over text and I genuinely don't mean it to but: what business is it of yours who a teacher has in their class?

If you're concerned about favouritism: if anything, speaking as a teacher who has taught their own child, I was more firm with boundaries, especially with my child as I was hypersensitive to the fact I needed to be balanced and fair to all.

Teachers are professionals and we have a duty of care to all students. If the head has allowed the teacher to teach their own child, I am sure there would be a good reason for it.