Moan about teacher - and I am one ...

[shimmy21]

so no slagging off teachers in general please. We are human!

Just wanted to moan about a particular old bag who teaches ds1. He's a bright enough lad and always does well in literacy tests etc (for what that's worth) but she has completely undermined his confidence entirely by concentrating solely on his handwriting (which is rubbish we admit. ) He's worked really hard to improve it but she doesn't seem to acknowledge that. Last night we had a parents meeting and looking at his books every single piece of work she had marked criticised his presentation with not a single positive comment on the content or ideas throughout. He now feels he is rubbish at everything he does and seeing his books last night made me understand why.

I asked dragon teacher in as positive and smiley way as I could to praise the good bits a bit more and to her credit she said point taken but I'm still seething.

Being on the other side of the table at parents meetings is harder than I thought...

I had that with DS1. We moved schools (because the one that we originally wanted had a sudden vacancy). It took til the end of Y3 to restore his confidence. She kept telling us that he didn't understand the concept of the Biff and Chip stories and the fact that he could read them wasn't relevent. After trying to talk to her and getting nowhere I went to the head teacher. She was fantastic and arranged for him to have work geared towards his abilities. Unfortunately his teacher didn't change what she was doing (personally I think that she was p**d off that the Head had become involved. Sadly she was a lazy teacher and didn't want to make the effort). His teachers from Y1 through Y3 didn't make an issue of his handwriting at all. I'd spoken to them about his previous teacher (minus the lazy bit) and how she'd undermined his confidence. They told me not to give him any handwriting excercises but to praise him when a piece of work was particularly neat. I'm so glad that we moved, but only because had she moved up class as he moved I would've lamped her! Anyway, if the dragon doesn't change anything then speak to the Head. She needs to change her attitude when it comes to praise. Crushing a child is detrimental to all aspects of his school career. hth. Seething on your behalf

btw how old is he? DS1 was in Reception. (Now doing very well in senior school with gorgeous writing).

poor ds shimmy . It's horrid when something like this happens. We have a policy of giving a positive comment followed by a target- thought that was the norm now- obviously not

good for you M2mml - I've never had the nerve to do the head route because I'd prefer to keep things friendly if at all poss but if things don't change I'll definitely do it.

he's 8 now (yr3)

Then you need to get on top of this quickly. This is the age that boys tend to get "lost". If the teacher improves then fine, but no change then get the HT in as soon as poss. Don't fuss his handwriting etc. It will come. hth

you're right - i don't want my lovely funny harum-scarum scatty ds to get lost

cheered him up by telling him that as he goes on up to secondary school, uni etc he'll be able to do nearly all his work on computer anyway and nobody will give a toffee about his handwriting. his eyes nearly popped because at the moment he really thinks good work = neat handwriting.

Have also told him that some teachers tell you what you are doing right and some (more old-fashioned) teachers only tell you what you are doing wrong. He's accepted that Mrs Dragon is just one of that sort and that he has to live with it. What a pity though.

That's sad to hear, shimmy. But I'm impressed with how well you both are handling it! He sounds like he's really taking to heart the praise from you and is able to dismiss the constant criticism from his teacher.