Teachers calling your DC by nicknames - yay or nay?

[LovingTheRain]

What are your views on teachers calling your DCs by nicknames? ( Not necessarily ones you use at home or they have heard you use)

We have to fill in a form and specify what the child is to be called in class.Then they are always called that.On one occasion we had 2 Marthas in the same class and one of them said they would like to be called Martha Mary (mary is middle name) i think that ounds much nicer than using their surmane
It's a good job there is noone with the same name as DD2 because she has told the teachers her middle name is Twinkletoes !

As long as my DC was happy with it, I'd think that was a nice personal relatinship tbh.

I hate all this crap that teachers have to be professional at all times. With kids, they should be allowed to have some freedom to be human with them. Our kids are going to form relationships separate from us all their lives - maybe their teenage friends, lovers, husbands, wives, will call them something unexpected that we wouldn't have thought of. We don't really own their monikers imo.

Obviously if the nickname was something like Fuckface then I'd be agin.

I don't think they should call your child a name or nickname that you and they have not agreed to, however ' harmless ' or ' affectionate ' it might be.

Your name is very personal to you and your child and their identity, its not up to someone who barely knows your child to choose a different name. - and yes they should be professional at all times, they are teachers.

I thought that like other posters have said, you fill in a form and the 'likes to be called ' or 'known as' name is written in the register.

My DD when she was not yet 5, would rush into school every day and hug her teacher.

What's the professional response to that?

ime when your child starts school what often happens is that there is a divergence between what is personal to them and what is personal to you

my dd very quickly lost the nickname I had given her and acquired another one which I don't actually like- but dd has admitted that she prefers this to the form I thought was lovely and thought she would always want to be known by

"likes to be called" can so easily become "mummy would like her to be called"

which is no longer as relevant once they start out in life on their own

"I hate the whole having to use a surname initial after a name. A nn or shortening always seems so much friendly. Name plus initial, to me, sounds cold and impersonal."

I asked them, and that's what they wanted. If you were in my class, I'd ask you what you wished to be known as too, and if you said a shortened version that would be fine. Hulababy would be a no.

dd often is especially by sports staff , and it isn't an abbreviation we use at home so can throw me ! She doesn't object though.

am at "dictionary"

goblinchild and others - those weren't the actual nicknames actually (don't want to ID myself).

Just my rather poor (or sterotypical ) versions.

The kids seemed to prefer it to being Matthew J or James D endlessly tho.

A pal of mine at secondary school was really known as dictionary by the French teacher tho, because she always knew the answer.

(we never teased her as far as I know)

HerBeatitude

My DD was still giving her teacher a hug every morning in YR6. I did ask if it was okay and her teacher said it would a very sad world if she wasn't allowed to do it.

Most of the time you can just call the child by their name, in the same way that you can have long conversations with people and not use their name at all. You only need to clarify which Jessica you are talking about in certain situations, and that's when you use whatever refinement of the name you both find acceptable.
Back to mrz on the second post. Does the child object? If not, what's the problem?
I taught in a school that had mostly Muslim pupils. We has half a dozen Shazad Sharifs, a dozen Hasna Begums, multiple Muhammed Alis...
Now that was tricky on occasion.

My dd has a best friend who is 10 months older than her, they both have the same name, and we have known each other as families since they were a year and 2 months old respectively. From that age the other children around them called them 'Big X' and 'Little X'.

They started the same nursery last year and referred to themselves as Big X and Little X. The school tried to discourage it, but it has stuck with the girls and the other children around them.

They have now gone into reception in a two form entry in seperate classes and still refer to themselves as Big X and Little X. They are both the same size now so I'm sure the teachers think they are nuts , but this is what the girls are happy with and what they would like to be called to differentiate them from each other.

What can you do?

I am a teacher btw and call my children by the names which they prefer. Their mums aren't in the classroom every day so their wants are secondary to the children's.

TeeBee, my children would not challenge the teacher either if the did not like it, they would tell me though and I would let the teacher know.

What about when children shorten their teachers' names because they are too hard to pronounce??

It's all about forming a great relationship between child/teacher/parent. It's obvious to me what's appropriate/not appropriate. Children are not extensions of their parents they are their own people and they do, from a very young age, have their own opinions!
I don't get offended when my class call me Mrs 'T', it's great!

I always ask the children in my class which version of their name they wish to be known by, the long or the short and abide by their wishes. In a class of 20 I have 2 Jessicas ( one Jess and one Jessica) and 2 Jordans ( both Jordan ) If I have to differentiate between the last two I use their full names. When my son was in Yr 6, out of 5 boys in his class (small school!) he was one of 3 Roberts, they were known as Robert H, RobertY and RobertGW and were all quite happy with this!