Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Other subjects

what do we do about a miserable classroom assistant?

7 replies

marialuisa · 14/06/2004 09:59

DD goes to "early care" as well as nursery at school. The 3 staff who are there when we drop her off are all part of the Early Years Team. 2 of the staff are fantastic, friendly and welcoming but without being "Cbeebies presenters" IYSWIM. The third is completely different. She doesn't say good morning to either parents/kids when they are dropped off and just sits there looking malevolent. The only time we have heard her speak is when she completely "lost it" with the kids because they weren't tidying up fast enough.

DH is increasingly wound up about this woman (we've been assuming that she has some awful home problems) and wants to "mention" her behaviour to the head (it's a relatively small private school). Part of the problem is that her attitude is so strikingly different to that of the other staff who are polite,approachable and who we can't praise enough.

As I've found out by writing this post it's very difficult to describe exactly what is wrong with this woman except bad attitude-shouldn't be around kids, so how on earth do we approach this? At the moment I'm trying to stop DH making some sort of official complaint based on the fact that she wears bizarre make-up (actually listed as an indicator of many psychiatric disorders)but agree that some sort of comment should be made (oh and it's not just us that thinks she needs a quiet word).

OP posts:
jampot · 14/06/2004 10:05

do you have a parents evening where you could discuss it with your child's link worker. I'm sure if enough parents mentioned it, it would seem less like an accusation but more of a highlighted problem. Are you able to give an instance where her behaviour is odd - (or you could contact the Style Police

Tessiebear · 14/06/2004 10:11

Had exactly the same problem with DS1's nursery teacher a few years ago. DS goes to a small private school as well, and as we had only just started i didnt like to complain. She always had a very negative attitude towards my son and never had a good thing to say about him (He was very shy then and a bit tearful and found it difficult settling in) She started every conversation we had with a sigh. All DS needed was a smile and some positive encouragement. I used to go home in tears some nights. It turned out she was going through a divorce at the time, but that really wasnt my problem and i consider her very unproffesional. I REALLY REALLY wish i had complained at the time because i KNOW it would have been taken seriously. Having moved on in the school i have realised everyone else complains to the Headmaster about the smallest of things and it is always taken seriously.
My DS2 is due to go into her class in September. I hear she is a lot better, but if i get any trouble i am going to go straight to the Head... at the end of the day we are paying their wages! (Sorry for the rant - havnt talked about that for ages!)

marialuisa · 14/06/2004 10:16

Schol has "open door" policy rather than parents' evenings for nursery kids (DD is only 3y3m) similarly no "link worker2 as it's not a day nursery.

TBH we find her behaviour odd every morning. In 6 months of DD going into early care she has never said "hello" once (even if you speak first). The time we saw her lose it was pretty unprofessional. This is the problem, she's not screamed in a child's face or anything she is just sullen. if the other staff were remotely like her nobody would send their kids there.

Suspect that this can't really be explained/suggestions made by someone who hasn't seen the woman!

OP posts:
marialuisa · 14/06/2004 10:19

TessieBear, thansk for that post. she's not said anything negative, she doesn't speak! This am was really tempted to do a "don't you go giving me evils" in a Little Britain stylee.

OP posts:
mummytosteven · 14/06/2004 10:23

Maria Luisa, what do the kids think of her? Is it possible she could be the type that relates a lot better to kids than adults? Or is she just plain sullen?

Tissy · 14/06/2004 10:26

how is your relationship with the other staff? Could you say one morning (out of earshot of course), "X doesn't seem very comfortable with these young children....." and see what transpires? Surely the other staff will have noticed, and may already have mentioned it to the head. If it gets back that parents are commenting, then the head may feel more able to do something?

Tissy · 15/06/2004 11:15

Any news, marialuisa?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread