Would you choose your child's teacher if you could?

[BonsoirAnna]

If your child were at a large school with several parallel classes, would you (school permitting) make a request for a particular teacher for your child, or would you leave it up to the school?

If it's standard practice then I would put in my request.

There is no official procedure, no DD's teacher "invited" parents to write down a list of children with whom DD would be happy to be in class with and "any other relevant information". It's common knowledge that you can ask but not formalised.

I think that is the issue then

Perhaps teachers should be able to pick and choose the children they would like to teach

Well it can't hurt to ask. I wouldn't (like grandmother previously referred to) make myself a special case but in the circs you describe I'd do as you have personally

BonsoirAnna, I'd be interested to know whereabouts in the UK you are.
I've never taught in a school that would accept parental preference swaying which teacher a child got, and I've never come across a school that has done it purely on the grounds of what a parent wanted.
Children have been moved or swapped according to the child's particular needs, but it has always been an in-school decision, with parents' views listened to but not always acted on.
My son has AS, so in Y8 the SENCO acted with staff to ensure that he got experienced staff who were able to cope with him.

I'm in France!

she in forrin Land

primarymum - I think that some of that goes on too! There are children who are "notorious" and who no teachers want, and they get divvied up among the classes at the end!

"Perhaps teachers should be able to pick and choose the children they would like to teach"

What makes you think we don't, wherever possible? Some colleagues can be quite sneaky!
Trade you two slugs for a PFB? and a bottle of gin?
Done!

I teach in a single form entry small village school, so I have my children for two or three years, there are a few I would happily swap, but no-one to swap with!
( actually I love them all to bits, even the nightmare ones )

primarymum - yes I quite understand that your situation is very different to ours, with three parallel classes in pre-school and five parallel classes in primary!

I would have done. But now I have been the parent of school children for 8 years I wouldn't. In one year ds got a teacher that I really rated, and who dd had loved - and who didn't suit him - and twice dd got the supposed teacher from hell - and thrived.

You don't really know what teachers are like - you only have anecdote and social observation to go on and both can be very misleading.

Next year ds gets the first teacher that I have been involved with appointing - I am really scared!

seeker - I think perhaps that the teachers are more highly differentiated from one another in a school like DD's than in a typical English school (where there is probably a school ethos, a headteacher that leads the teacher body, and teachers can be fired!).

The English teachers at DD's school are more a muchness than the French teachers - because they are employed directly by the school.

No. I think it is a valuable lesson for children to learn to get on with all different types of people and that includes teachers.

"There is no official procedure, no DD's teacher "invited" parents to write down a list of children with whom DD would be happy to be in class with and "any other relevant information"

Sounds like a bloody nightmare for the teachers to deal with. Imagine getting a "list" from every single child in the class and trying to accomodate everyones wishes!!!!

CoV - to put things in context, much less attention is paid during the course of the year to a child's individual needs than in the UK. So perhaps this is where the "invidual needs" come in in our system?

Actually Anna the whole thing about who a child would be "happy to be in a class with" sounds rather self absorbed tbh.

And I think it is a failure of the system to be relying on this as a means to placing a child rather than observation of the child throughout the year.

I think that you are looking at this through an English cultural prism, CoV, when you say "a failure of the system". The system is very different to the UK system. It has its own (overall) strengths and weaknesses.

Well, as with all teachers I suspect, I know that there are parents who are delighted that I will be teaching their child and others who are a lot less pleased. And who will waste time at the playground gate hissing and gossiping and complaining.
Grin and bear it, that's what I do.

In my DC's school the children write down the names of three children they would like to be with next year. They will be with at least one of those, in all but exceptional circumstances. Parents are strongly discouraged from giving an opinion...

We do that too FM, it's a secret ballot at school to avoid distress, or parental influence and we keep the evidence.
So that if parents challenge it and say 'But Tarquin has never been friend with Beavis or Butthead' we can show them that they are mistaken, that the voice and wishes of the child have been listened to. Wheter the parent likes their child's choice or not. Ensuring the child gets at least one of the two friends they choose means there's a bit of wiggleroom.

My dcs primary school had this mixing classes each year. The children listed 5 friends they'd like to be with (no guarantees but they almost always worked it so that each child was with 2 or 3 of the 5). Parents were not encouraged to make a teacher choice, but quite a few did by writing a request to the head. I never did as initially I didn't realise you could and didn't have any knowledge of the different teachers in any case and later didn't want to rock the boat, as it really wasn't encouraged. I did however once let a teacher know verbally that my child was really hoping to be in their class (I knew her quite well by then as my eldest had been through the system) and that request was honoured.

A couple of years, one or other of my children didn't get the teacher I would have chosen for them, but both times there would have been downsides if they had (it in fact backfired slightly on the children whose parents had requested those particular teachers, as the school put teacher preference over friend preference, so they ended up not with their friends & with some more challenging children).

I told the necessary people which teacher I wanted for my son, and I got them.