Maths teacher is sulking and won't give UCAS references

[livingontheedgeee]

DD is in 2nd year of A levels and hoping to go on to university next year.

She needs AAA in Chemistry, Physics and Maths to get onto her chosen course and seems to be doing okay in the two sciences but Maths is a different story.

Last year, it became increasingly clear that the teacher wasn't up to the job and by his own admission felt like much of the content was over his head. The quality of teaching, learning and test results deteriorated until the students and their parents had to step in and demand action.

Despite continued questions and concern from parents/kids, the head of dept seemed oblivious and, to cut a long story short, ultimately blamed the kids when the teacher was removed from the class and she had to make alternative arrangements.

A new teacher has been put in place and although there's a lingering resentment about the whole situation (towards the kids), things are improving and a plan of action was implemented to bring the class up to speed.

The timing couldn't have been worse as now the kids need references for their UCAS applications. The new teacher won't give them as she says she doesn't know them well enough. The old teacher won't give them as he says, and I quote "it's not my problem anymore".

Now I can understand him being pissed off - even though the problem is entirely of his own making but that doesn't help the kids and now they're all going into panic mode once again.

The head of sixth seems to think that everything is fine, the kids are scared to raise it as a problem because they were made to feel very guilty and ashamed of outing the previous teacher and as a parent, I don't want to rush in there again all guns blazing without giving everyone closer to the problem a chance to resolve it.

Not sure really what to do. Help!

Why does the reference have to come from the maths teacher? I may be somewhat out of the loop here...

We have s set of comments for every subject which is what we use for UCAS references. It’s just a matter of inputting the comments.

This is entirely doable by old or new teacher. I’ve done comments on kids l hardly knew. The school needs to take responsibility here. If the new teacher has been in place since September, than they have absolutely enough knowledge to do a report.

This just wouldn’t happen in my school, it wouldn’t even be discussed. Someone has to write the reports and the Head of Maths needs to direct whoever should do it.

I think the kids need to go to head of vi and ask for references since neither of their teachers will. Make it the schools problem. The kids dont have the authority to sort this out so take it to someone who does.

Or they can write their own and ask the teachers to sign them.

If it’s a predicted grade the school should have the data. Schools live and die by data.
If it’s a subject ref for the academic ref the form tutor should be able to do it. I did when I was a sixth form tutor.
The school sounds pretty poor in this respect.

At my school subject teachers write references regarding their individual subject and these get amalgamated into one reference from the school.

The maths teacher who has them this year has to suck it up and write the reference. If the previous teacher had left the school they’d have to do it, even though they don’t know the kids, so they just need to blag something.

borntobequiet

Unfortunately, predictions were useless. Every student except one got a U in the mocks. Even those doing ok in their Further Maths course.

I wanted to get a private tutor but finding a reputable one who understands the new format exam is impossible. We are going to approach the teacher who left two years ago to see if he'd be willing to do some Skype tuition as he's now based abroad but is brilliant.

noblegiraffe

Same process here but everyone involved is digging their heels in. I think they're using it as a form of punishment towards the kids which is abhorrent but it's the situation we're in.

I reckon they are just at sixes and sevens. It's fine for parents to step in. Raise it with the head of maths - don't go into details, don't speculate about motioves or punishment, just say that your DC(s) need their UCAS references asap and how does the school plan to provide them, then escalate up via head teacher and governors if you don't get help.

If the whole class got Us then references could be based on previous performance or performance in further maths, and if the mocks have to mentioned at all they can add some kind of anodyne mention of "problems which caused underperformance in mocks across the year which are now being addressed so the mock result doesn't reflect our expectations for this fine student".

You didn't specify if the new teacher was placed in there last year or this year.

If I was the new teacher and was placed in this class recently, I would find it difficult to write something for students I have only been teaching for a few weeks unless they have done a few tests since the beginning of the year with me. If pushed into doing it, at best the students will have is a few generic comments that serve no purpose. Is that what you want? Especially in this situation where every student except one got U in their mock. By the way, is this mock in the summer of year 12? If this is the case, you can negotiate with the school to postpone the completion of the reference, have a new deadline, agree for the students to do tests, mock etc so the new teacher has test results to base their prediction and comments on. It also give the teacher some time to get to know the class.

If the new teacher came in at the end of last year or since September this year then it is possible to write a reasonable reference at this point. However, the teacher should be cut some slack e.g. if a couple of homework do not get marked since it is extra work for them.

I had had to do a couple of this kind of rescue mission in the part and it wasn't easy. It needs an experienced teacher that can gel with a new class instantly or the class must learn to work with the new teacher no matter what. In my own experience, the class learnt to do everything my way instantly since they knew if I couldn't fix it, it would be very difficult to change the timetable, move teachers around to accommodate a class. My school also took me off the cover rota one year or gave me some days off in the summer to compensate.

If everything you said is true then it is entirely the Head of Maths, the school and now the Head of 6th Form's fault as well. It is a new A Level course and the best teachers should be timetabled. I am quite surprised that there was only one teacher was mentioned teaching this class. It is normal practice to have two teachers for an A level class which can help to lessen the impact in this scenario.

If everything you said is true

Yes there are two teachers. The second one (Stats and Mech) is also new after the previous one left at the end of last year before he was pushed I assume. However, the new one feels he has enough information to provide a reference which is great on his part.

The pure Maths teacher was put in place in September. She is apparently a great teacher in terms of her subject knowledge but very unapproachable and downright refused to give any references. However, the Head of 6th has now finally intervened and extra classes will be held over the half term to bring the kids up to speed. After that, there will be a another mock to ensure they are progressing.

It's all a bit discouraging because it's taken soooo long for the penny to drop with the SLT that this could really damage not only the kids' futures but the reputation of the school.

Parents evening on Thursday so I hope to walk away with confidence that everything is being done to rectify the situation.

How did parents evening go? Are references sorted?