Yr 4 teacher unsatisfactory

[Shiraznowplease]

So my ds has been placed in a yr 4 class with the teacher no one wanted. She appears not to like children and has been the subject over more than 20 complaint for substandard teaching. Several parents (my very reasonable sil included) have complained about lack of progress and the need to hire tutors. My ds is very capable (has previously had exceptional SAT results) but is laid back to the extent of almost horizontal, how do I ensure that the teacher keeps him (and his classmates engaged) and progressing. What should I been checking for? Will the headmistress be monitoring this teacher due to problems this year?

I have no idea if the school is aware of the what's app group but I cannot begin to believe that a group of parents in the class sharing spellings and party invitations and reminders that it's no uniform today tomorrow and could someone drop little johnny home on Friday should be of any interest to them whatsoever - there are no discussions about teaching staff or teaching.

Toledo,

But in this case, the WhatsApp group is being used to share what may be confidential data, in breach of data protection, and very possibly to comment on it. I'm not saying that every school should monitor every Whatsapp group - but they should have the right to see them if they choose and if they believe that defamation ond braches of data security are occurring on them.

We had some dealings with Twitter / Facebook regarding defamation of a teacher on a private account some years ago - that was interesting, and led to quite significant consequences for some individuals.

I have also been involved in an incident in which a posting on a Facebook account put a vulnerable child at high risk of significant harm. Luckily, in that case, other school parents reacted en masse, and very quickly, to make the school aware, get the offending post removed and make the person aware, in no uncertain terms, that it was unacceptable.

I would really like to know who is sharing confidential results data and where they got it from. Raw results data is absolutely useless unless you have the starting point and the context for the children- which is why Ofsted inspections involve quite a lot time getting the school to put its data in context. It is about progress not just the end point. I got roundly praised last year for all of my year elevens meeting their progress target but some of those results were D grades. See what I mean?

"The what's app group shows photographic evidence that the children's results were inconsistent (actually written out by an independent body!) " exactly which independent body wrote out results?

Before DD1 started at junior school, the gossip about 2 teachers there was spot on. There had been a failure by the Head to improve the quality of teaching and after an inspection both teachers went and so did the head. Regrettably all three were incompetent. One would expect better management by the Head these days and much earlier intervention to help the teachers. In these days of evidence led annual performance, there is a lot more scope for sorting out problems early. Parental complaints are a blunt tool and are generally ignored regarding competence.

BubblesBuddy

The problem is that you still don't know the truth and never will.

This is interesting. My DC are grown up now but throughout their schools it was common knowledge who the pòorer teachers were. Providing children are happy I think one duff year in seven is manageable. The problem arises when in the year befor a teacher goes on mat leave and the supply is iffy or there end up being two supplies and then the year after the teacher goes on sick leave for two three months and there is a further interruption.

There were instances of teachers who were poor and about whom nothing was done or it took too long to deal with. That was unacceptable.

From my own experience I have found that issues in private schools have been dealt with much more quickly. In our dd's state primary there were lots of instances of teachers with shocking grammar "last year there was ten less girls" springs to mind. This sort of poor grip on the basics was absent in their private schools.

Too often the poor basic standards really shocked me and I found it difficult to believe these sorts of issues weren't picked up at the teacher training colleges.

It's interesting that you should say it was common knowledge who the poor teachers were. In my teaching career I've worked with two poor teachers and both were adored by the majority of parents.

I would agree, mrz, that there is commonly a gap between the teachers loved by parents and 'reputed to be good', and those who are genuinely great teachers who really push for that extra inch of progress from every child.

In the two cases I can think of of extremely poor teachers, both were exceptionally popular with parents. interestingly, in the most recent case I have since been approached by one of those parents, who said that they had come to realise, years later, that there were serious issues with that particular teacher once their child had moved on to less 'popular', but very highly competent, teachers who had to fill in the gaps.

Historically, in my own childhood, scrutiny of teachers was much less robust (and unions much stronger), so it was much rarer for poor teachers -those who taught the wrong syllabus, those who threw things at pupils, those who simply sat at the desk and gave out exercises without bothering to actually teach anything - to be picked up or removed. Data, and Ofsted, have eliminated the most egregious examples now.

The problem with data is that these teachers often inflate data leaving the next poor teacher the job of explaining why the child's suddenly "gone backwards" . One teacher I worked with had amazing books but later boasted without a trace of understanding that they had actually done all the work so the books looked good for parents and others. I can't imagine the stress they put them self under writing 30 pieces of writing in every subject every week so the children could trace it in their books! Data looked good books looked good yet kids spent a year tracing!

Hahaha! I was thinking more of the teacher my brother had who didn't bother teaching the O-level syllabus once it diverged from the CSE ... the data showed very clearly that all his GCSE pupils failed spectacularly! Somewhat hard to fake that!

I was thinking more of the teacher my brother had who didn't bother teaching the O-level syllabus once it diverged from the CSE ... the data showed very clearly that all his GCSE pupils failed spectacularly! Somewhat hard to fake that!

It is interesting how something that happened over 30 years ago forms an opinion of how the teachers of today are,

Good grief - poor teacher!
When I was first married and moved to Spain, I taught in an international school. It was tiny with few staff and one day I had to teach the nursery children as well as all the infants for the afternoon. The teacher who was out had left no plans so I decided to have an art afternoon. We had a great time, everyone was happy, really involved, no issues. The next day a parent complained to the HT that an afternoon of art was unacceptable, as well as a complete load of made up rubbish about me - but of course he didn't listen to gossip! Bearing in mind, I had been married for a month (parents knew this) apparently I was supposed to be groping with male members of staff in the bushes!!! It was so bonkers and absurd that I've never worried about or listened to anything that comes my way from the playground gossip machine.

I can give a similar much more recent example of the Y6 who moved to KS1 and used his Y6 lesson plans which they obviously couldn't access. He lasted a term and I had to pick up the pieces!

Boney, no, that's what my 'historically' paragraph was about - which pointed out that modern data would have dealt with him much more quickly (he continued to teach for many years after my brother).

The two 'genuinely poor' teachers I have encountered professionally are within the last 4-5 years.

BoneyBackJefferson. Oh yes I did know! My job involved knowing!

BubblesBuddy

Do tell

A senior management position at the LA. I hasten to add, my DD was not at the school at the time. However the chat was correct.

I understood op was saying individuals were sharing their own children's results which they are entitled to do even if they are also teachers. Just like I shared the results of a formal complaint I made against school with other parents (it was upheld). I did not owe anyone a duty of confidentiality.

There are obviously going to be poor teachers. It takes time to gather evidence and more time to try retraining etc before they go, during which children will suffer. It takes even longer if there is ineffective management - of which there is also much. It is silly to pretend otherwise. The question OP wanted answered is what can you do to support your child in this situation?

"also the whole class SATS RESULTS are considerably down from last year and the other year 4 class are uneffected so it was not the paper. We have a what's app group and people were saying (and I have seen several of the reports myself) that the results are saying not consistent with last years results" firstly there aren't any SATs in Y4 to be down secondly it very much sounds as if the group are gossiping rather than sharing their own child's results. Thirdly why would you assume results should be consistent year on year or class by class? There are so many variables ...

Fourth: it's unaffected

https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/predicting-progress-its-very-height-ridiculousness

mrz op said she was in Wales and that that they do have y4 tests there.

In wales they sit national test every year from year 2 onwards - and a report with several a bar chart graphs for result showing progress is sent to parents.

Your supposed to look at which box not the exact location in each box which is expected to vary between years.

I do have one that dropped a box. My plan is to do more at home - these test are looking at reading, maths and maths problem solving - and welsh if there go to a welsh medium school - it's not covering everything.

I image several parents have shared their child's bar charts - and they've shown some kind of drop - though only a drop to another box is supposed to be signifcant.

Though I image if there is an entire yr4 class who done really badly the school would be looking into it.