TEACHERS - do teachers talk to each other abotu pupils?

[nailpolish]

dd1 (5) didnt get on well with her P1 teacher
she was a good teacher, dd1 behaved in class, but they didnt really 'gel'
i dotn knw if youd call it a 'clash of personalities' but ykwim?

i am hoping dd1 gets on better with her P2 teacher - but will her P1 teacher have gone over all the pupils in the class and thereofre possibly tainted her view of dd1 before she has even met her/

(im sure she has already met her but not all day every day)

well yes, I assume most teachers wouldn't get away with spending a good proportion of the school day fixing their cars two streets away while the pupils got on with things

it is an extreme example BUT I worry that not all teachers are fair to pupils, especially those who have had bad reports from their previous class

The teachers I know would take any negative talk about a pupil who was about to go into their class as a challenge to get on with the pupil and make them do well and be happier! And if teachers didn't discuss their pupils with each other they would be, IMO, a bit rubbish at their job!

(oh and this would have been in the 50s rather than the 80s so completely different sit. Plus independent school. Plus v v v eccentric family)

But it would be such a waste of time if you couldn#t talk about kids.

Last year I taught quite a norty young man.

I discovered, almost by chance, that if I semi ignored his porvoctive behaviour in the first 5 minutes of the lesson he would get on with his work.

Naturally when I discovered this I passed on the info to his other science teacher. Should I have kept quiet to be 'fair' to the child?

If a teacher knows that if X sits next to Z they mess about why waste time and not tell next year's teacher?

Yes, we do talk to one another - throughout the year, not just at handover. We are very aware of clashes of personalities, though, and eager for any child to have a fresh start with their new teachers.

As a teacher I can say that we don't all have the same view of children. I very often get on really well with children that other teachers find difficult and vice versa. It is very much a personality thing.

and sometimes it is down to the subject as well. I find that kids that I teah sometimes don't want to be with me but they have to study science. Some sometimes they can be quite arsy about it.

Talking to a teacher from an optional subjct can be helpful as the kids may well behave better in those classes.

oh i agree with you all about professionalism

my fellow nurses and i regularly have a right old moan about difficult patients. be that medically wise or personality wise. sometimes we moan about the relatives too. but it doesnt affect the care we give. if it does you dont deserve to be a nurse...

i find it happens mroe with professions that are mainly female

anyway, i know what you are all saying, and i find it reassuring, thanks. its just hard to see straight when its your child

Teaching is a stupidly stressful job. Its important and essential that teachers have someone to discuss problem children with.

You can not discuss what happens at school with your family so if something really horrible happens then who can you discuss it with?

Teachers discussing really awful kids is about getting peer support. Its not as if they are discussing behaviour problems with the postman, a parent helper or their boyfriend.