three top tips to really help your child succeed and not just make you feel better

[tameteacher]

Hi, I'm a happy mother of two and a top-notch primary school teacher/manager.

If you really want to help your child- and not just want to 'kick the cat' ie, take any frustrations, bad hair days, relationship problems out on the nearest person who can't kick back (ie your child's teacher) you need to be grown up and selfless (in other words a caring parent) and think about the following:

1. Whatever you think about the school/headteacher/teacher/homework policy/father of your child, your child wants to hear that everything is under control. If you have a problem with any of the above, sort it out adult-to-adult without dragging your child into the fray. If you slag your child's teacher off in front of them, at best you will be diminishing the effect that teacher can have on improving your child's performance and at worst you are turning the world into a place that your child sees as out-of-control. Save us all from parents who use the above to scare their child into loving them, and only them. I've seen too many in my time; unforgivable.

2. Help your child to grow up seeing their place in the world in relation to others. Some parents treat their children, and expect others to treat them, as little princes/princesses. Not only does this make them unpopular with their peers, it makes them unhappy when the real world smacks up against their self-image. Just remember that EVERYONE thinks that their child is special- that's what being a parent is about. And it means that everyone should teach their children that everyone else is as special as them. Share. Get your kid off that swing and let the next kid have a go. Talk to other children and show your child that you think they are important too.

3. Read. Read every day. Let your child see you read. Listen to your child read. Don't tell your child's teacher that you don't have time to read with your child; you're talking to someone who starts work at 8.00am and stops marking/preparing at 9.00pm.

Finally, remember that your child's teacher is human, just like you. Most teachers like most of their children's parents. Even if they don't, they are too professional to take it out on a child- they wouldn't be doing the job if they didn't love helping children to be the best they can be. True, there are a few duff teachers out there but at least teachers have to qualify to teach. If only some parents had to qualify to be parents...

Tameteacher x

Hi, I'm a happy mother of two and a top-notch primary school teacher/manager.

I think we all cringed.

I don't disagree with the 'tips' per se. I do feel that making a positive contribution to my dd's education can't really be reduced to a list of 3 things, though.

I find the underlying point of op's posts is to attack the working class. I would recommend the op have a think about the effect that snobbery / class discrimination has on families. It could be argued that it has a much more limiting effect than not reading every day.

This effect may well be inter generational, meaning that the parents had poor experiences in education. It is part of your job to break this cycle, op. I believe that reaching out to the hard to reach and becoming more inclusive is an indicator of a strong school.

Actually the more I think about what you wrote, op, the more nauseated I feel.

Some of the things sound as if you have copied them from your school policy or an advice leaflet. I certainly haven't heard that stuff for the first time.

If my DC tells me his teacher is horrible then I want details from DS and then I discuss with the teacher to get to the root of the problem. Just before Easter my DS (almost 8, in Y3) was accused to get his HW done by someone else and was threatened with the HT if it happened again. DS was very upset and told me that new teacher was horrible. DS doesn't bother about HW, I have to force him, every day, so I thought it would be very unlikely that he bothers to get someone else to do it . I spoke to the teacher, the writing was different that's why she assumed someone else did it. She sent me the sheets and I could confirm that DS did it, he did it on different days, may have been in a different mood, therefore the handwriting looked different.

I was very annoyed, DS was so upset. The teacher could have handled that better, e.g. talked to DS's class teacher or us instead of showing the work to the HT, who doesn't really know DS that well.

So its worth listening to parents sometimes and not just assuming and advising OP. Not all parents are completely stupid and uneducated as you seem to assume.

My first ever delete.......

The ops post..... an attitude that speaks volumes about the teaching profession.

I suggest, as others have done, that you,

1. Concentrate on improving your teaching

1. Leave parenting to parents

and

1. I thank God you not my child's teacher.

Please don't label all teachers because of the OP

The ops post..... an attitude that speaks volumes about the teaching profession.

Fgs, here we have an OP who is clearly smugness personified, and every single other poster, including a raft of teachers, has disagreed vehemently. But you, tutpup, have decided that of course it must speak for the whole of the profession.

Way to over-generalise. Mustn't miss an opportunity, however microscopic, to turn it into a teacher bashing thread, must we?

Congratulations - you have managed to make yourself look nearly as daft as the OP, and that is quite a feat on this one.

Actually Feenie I am basing my opinion on the op, the teachers who were speaking at the NUT conference earlier and my own experience of teachers. Luckily my children have some very dedicated and exceptional teachers and there are lots of them. However, I think that there is a huge problem with teaching and professional attitude at the moment. Of course, I do not think all teachers are like the op but many are.

For what it is worth, I am a teacher myself.

'The ops post..... an attitude that speaks volumes about the teaching profession. '

wtf?

I am a BIG critic of our education system and have some anger about how some teachers defend it to the detriment of their pupils, particularly focussing on anti-parent behaviour, but thank god I know that most teachers aren't anything like the OP.

TBH I am not surprised that the more insecure teachers like to big themselves up and against parents. Parents are pretty much the only people that they are allowed to consider themselves more qualified than. The Gov, media, ofsted, health, prison service, well pretty much everyone else blames them for all of the ills of society and subjects them to assessment after assessment and criticism after criticism of their performace and results which are often quite meaningless and nothing to do with the attainment of their children.

So slagging off parents is probably their version of therapy1?

I am a very insecure teacher, starlight and I don't slag parents off. No one in my staff room slags off parents.

I'm a bit tired off being told I'm lazy, I slag off parents, I'm only on it for the holidays, I should be grateful for whatever little free time I mange to claw back to myself because there are other people out there who work harder than me.

I find the attitude of some people towards teachers quite upsetting. I have yet to come across teachers who don't genuinely want the best for the children they encounter. I certainly do.

I'm no hero, I'm aware that there are perks to my job, but it's a job I trained hard for and it's a job I continue to work hard in, I don't understand why people feel it's ok to talk about teachers as if they are the lowest of the low.

And OPs like this one should be ashamed that she is feeding the all too big fire that people seem to want to throw us on these days.

What a lot of anger here for the OP! So she presented herself as top notch and posted a few tips... some of these over the top reactions to the OP are totally bizarre in their ferocity and disdain. It is wierd to get so wound up about it.

There are lots of posts on MN talking about how teachers would have a much easier life without parents. I and my friends with children with disabilities have reams and reams of Freedom of Information requests showing teachers slagging us off. Pretty much my whole family are teachers and they are constantly whinging about parents.

True that it isn't a proper scientific study, but I have had a LOT of experience of teachers whinging about parents, particularly parent demands.

Though I do agree that teachers are treated pretty badly in general in this country.

Everyone went to school so they think they know what it must be like to work in a school, and have strong opinions about how it should be done, including government quangos who set policy but have absolutely no experience of having worked in a school.

Yes, I take your point Starlight. There are good teachers/bad teachers/good parents/bad parents.

I just don't see it as reasonable for some posters to take their personal frustrations out on the OP. I know MN is a salt of the earth nest of vipers blah blah blah but I am constantly surprised at how unjustifiably furious and nasty some posters are in response to some really quite tame OPs like this one. Where is the self control? It's wierd. Passion is one thing, but the fury is wierd.

As the OP clearly has a vision of what constitutes good parenting, I think it would be reasonable to have her 3 top tips for achieving top-notch status as a teacher too? And who decided the criteria for top-notchness?

Nicely put, Jellykitten1.

I don't think the OP put her point at all well, but I can see (some of) what she is saying. I once passed a parent going into DS' school telling his child 'Don't worry about it - all the teachers are shit anyway'.

I think there is a small minority in society (from all ages and classes) who make everyone's life a misery with their selfish attitudes.

One example is the father who takes his children to the local playground and, despite numerous 'no dogs on the park' signs, allows his vile mutt to run around with no lead, yapping at the children's heels. When my DD (3), who comes screaming over to me, he complains that 'it's only being friendly'.

Another example is the rude (old) woman at the bus stop who tutted loudly behind me and virtually pushed me over because I was, outrageously, letting the people in the bus queue get on before me rather than barging on. Her reply to me was 'I'm cold'.

It's the 'Im alright, fuck everyone else' attitude that make many people's jobs - whether they are teahers, nurses, shop assistants/managers, flight attendants, hotel receptionists etc - just that little bit more difficult than they need to be.

It may be good fun to vent at the OP for her unfortunate way of putting things, but I can see how frustrating some people could make her job.

Luckily, I have only come across one truly vile parent - they happened to be a deputy head at another school.

I have no idea why my post was deleted. Out of order and slightly grating.

LOL @ number of deleted messages

I have no idea why I was deleted! I don't think I was even that rude! I think I was mainly pointing out that there are quite a few teachers here who manage to give advice without being patronising.

I'm sure there are but I am yet to meet one in real life

"1) Whatever you think about the school/headteacher/teacher/homework policy/father of your child, your child wants to hear that everything is under control. If you have a problem with any of the above, sort it out adult-to-adult without dragging your child into the fray. If you slag your child's teacher off in front of them, at best you will be diminishing the effect that teacher can have on improving your child's performance and at worst you are turning the world into a place that your child sees as out-of-control. Save us all from parents who use the above to scare their child into loving them, and only them. I've seen too many in my time; unforgivable."

This doesn't always work. There are times when you have to tell your child that the teacher is wrong, because it is important for the child's future to know that certain types of behaviour is not ok.

When dd's school discriminated against her disability and tried to punish her and exclude her because she was physically unable to do things, it was obviously vital to work with the adults to have the situation changed.

But it was also vital to tell dd what her teachers did and said to her was wrong because otherwise dd would grow up thinking that it is ok to treat weaker or disabled people badly, and that it is ok to stand by and see it done because you are afraid of speaking out against your boss.

Dd has to live with her disability all her life. If she had grown up thinking "this is the best you can ever ask for", that would be a good deal more disastrous than if she lost faith in any one individual teacher.

And if she grew up thinking it's ok to stand by and say "I know this is hurting you, but I daren't query it, because I'm afraid of getting into trouble"- then I'd think that was possible even more disastrous.

I am in charge of dd's moral education. It is my job to say: "Yes I know this happened and I have heard what the adults in charge had to say, but I want you to know that it is Wrong and that you must Never behave like this towards anyone."