Head.T, Governers,...............Bad teacher?

[BlueElephant90]

What can be done about a bad teacher in a state school?

There will be an internal disciplinary procedure but it could be quite drawn out unless it is a case of serious misconduct. The complaints procedure should be on the school website or prospectus detailing to whom a concern should be raised and a timeframe for response.

It depends what you mean by bad? Do you mean bad at teaching, and if yes, is this reflected in the results/levels of the children that he/she teaches.

A teacher who is performing inadequately will be subject to capability proceedings - ie support measures will be put in place to help them to improve their performance over a defined timescale. They can be dismissed if they fail to improve.
What do you mean be 'bad' teacher though? What 'can be done' depends on what the issue is. In the first instance, you should complain to the HT if there are specific issues that concern you. But you need to accept that you have no right to be told exactly 'what' is being done and not make the assumption that nothing is being done because you haven't been told.

It is not about one specific teacher. The problem is that many parents are aware and many time the HTs and many teachers are aware as well of bad practice but nothing can be done about it or so I was told.

so I am confused (i am not from the UK). In all jobs there are consequences so why not in the school system? I just want to know the truth behind it.

YOu need to clarify what you mean by bad.

aggression towards children and towards parents for example.

Blue Elephant there are most certainly consequences for teachers as there are for anyone else. If you want advice about a specific situation and how it can be handled you need to provide much more detailed information however. Generally speaking, however, if the HT has refused to act on specific complaints that parents have made the next port of call is the chair of governors and/or the local authority.

You 'd need to differentiate between a specific complaint or a general "bad" attitude. If the issue is with the head's perhaps lack of control of staff then usually you'd go to chair of governors, if one or more teachers then Head in the first instance. Failing that LA or Ofsted. Bear in mind that the attitude of others towards you may change and you may find yourselves looking for another school, rightly or wrongly. Just because others "notice" doesn't mean they will back you up.

Absolutely there are consequences for sustained complaints of aggression for example. It may be though that you as a parent will not be privy to the outcome if involves discipline while still being employed. Clearly would be obvious if resulted in suspension or sacking. As he/she wouldn't be there.

You don't necessarily know (rightly so IMO) what us going on behind the scenes.

my ds is not directly subjected to these things but I know for sure that it's happening. LIZS you are very right with your comments. I am used to speaking up if I see something wrong but I have witnessed mothers in tears but are unable to speak up or complain. This kind of feeling helpless I imagine to find in countries with no democracy but in the UK I never thought to see it
:(

and rules that apply in the UK do not necessarily apply in other countries or indeed in independent schools.

If the person your talking about can't get any joy from the school then they need to speak to either the LA or Ofsted.

[and rules that apply in the UK do not necessarily apply in other countries or indeed in independent schools.] What does it mean? In the UK there is freedom of speech? There is no justice?

It means that teachers working in state schools can have very different terms of employment to teachers working in independent schools. It also means I misread your post and thought you were saying your child was in a school in another country rather than that you were originally from another country, (and staff in a British school abroad would again come under a different employment contract) ...my apologies for misreading.

Possibly that the process around discipline / retraining / eventual ending of the contract of a state school teacher in the UK is subject to stringent rules and has lots of safeguards in it, and these may not be the case everywhere.

The process for addressing the issue of poor teachers in England is protracted precisely because it has to safeguard against unfounded or malicious allegations by children, witch-hunts by parents or malpractice by the senior management team (for example seeking to get rid of an older more expensive teacher) while still weeding out those who are irredeemably poor. Obviously where gross malpractice by the teacher has occurred then the porcess is much quicker (and I would place [I presume verbal and physical?] aggression towards children and parents, with witnesses around to corroborate the victims' statements, in this category.... though one person's 'telling off' might be another person's 'aggression' - what do independent adult observers of the behaviour say?]. However in other cases of 'poor teaching' there is a fairly arduous process of warnings, frequent observations, scrutiny of progress data, additional training and mentoring to be gone through before a teacher can be asked to leave.

While it may seem that the process takes too long, you have to remember that teachers are very vulnerable to unfounded allegations of 'being poor teachers' because the vast majority of teachers teach alone, with no audience to judge them other than a class full of children. Therefore in order to reach a fair judgement, there needs to be a fairly painstaking approach to obtaining evidence from observations, book trawls etc and time for the teacher to show improvement before the final verdict is reached.

Valid point Pooka. Schools cannot and should not discuss staff disciplinary. The only information that will ever come out into the public domain usually comes after a GTC / GTCW hearing which may be held in public and follows dismissal. Even this may only be part of the story. GTC will soon cease to exist but GTCW will remain.

and the GTC England no longer exists

What do you mean by aggression? Physical? Verbal?

Unfortunately both. The people concerned feel helpless :(

Have you reported the physical assaults?
If so who to

I am a governor for a state school and the school has recently got rid of a teacher. I don't know the details of why I am not on the personnel committee but I think it was probably capability issues.

yes to the HT. Nothing was done about it!! I give up really

The head must record it and investigate they can't do nothing.
physical assault is a police matter

It is a straightforward process that all schools follow.

1. Report it to the head teacher in writing.

They have a set time to respond. If you arenot happy with the response...

1. Report it to the head of the board of governors in writing.

They have a set time to respond. If you arenot happy with the response...

1. Report it to the local education authority. You can find their details on the website and they will have this process laid out in the Education section.

They have a set time to respond. If you arenot happy with the response... 4 Report it to Ofsted They have a set time to respond.

You need to be factual, record what happened and who witnessed.

Have you done any of these steps?