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Secondary education

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Original poster

New recruit teacher is inadequate

459 replies

BoboChic · 15/09/2015 06:41

This, basically. DD in Y7 started secondary school 2 weeks ago. One - and only one - of her teachers is totally inadequate. He is a new recruit. Parents and pupils have noticed pretty quickly that he doesn't have the first inkling of the subject he is supposed to be teaching. One approach has already been made to the school to alert them. What are the best words to use to describe this situation? Inadequate? Lacking subject knowledge?

OP posts:
SuburbanRhonda · 17/09/2015 10:31

I've done it before - it's hard work, largely because one has to get inside the heads of people very different from oneself and persuade them to change their underlying thinking - but interesting and rewarding too.

OP, I bow to your superior amazingness.

Original poster
BoboChic · 17/09/2015 10:36

pickledsiblings - I'm not sure where you got the idea that I was unaware of the problem beforehand. I was aware there was a problem and had a meeting with the MD about it in May (at his request, after a comment I made in a presentation at school). However, unravelling the issue took more research than that. It is hard to get right into people's heads in a school until your DC is a pupil and you have a legitimate reason to request a meeting.

OP posts:
BitOutOfPractice · 17/09/2015 10:56

I have read the thread. And I am none the wiser.

And your analogy has only muddied the waters for me.

Has the teacher got the heave ho or not?

BitOutOfPractice · 17/09/2015 10:57

So if this bigger problem was the problem all along, why did you post about the teacher. Is this some kind of elaborate hoax I'm not in on? Does everyone else understand?

MumTryingHerBest · 17/09/2015 11:02

BoboChic Short of sending the teacher back to university I'm not sure what support can be given

The teacher doesn't need to go to university to learn how to spell the names of colours correctly. Much of the the work at that level can be obtained from the internet.

Would it be possible for you to work with the teacher to support what they are doing with the children? You were able to spot the mistakes in the homework, perhaps if you went through the lesson content with the teacher ahead of time you could ensure the children are being taught correctly.

Whilst I appreciate it will need time for underlying issues to be corrected (new curriculum written, approved, rolled out and new person recruited), in the mean time your DC is loosing out on valuable quality teaching. Will they realistically be able to make up for this potentially large knowledge gap later on?

Given the situation, by all means continue to help the school. However, in the mean time I would suggest you move your DC to another school that can better meet their educational needs.

Original poster
BoboChic · 17/09/2015 11:07

Why would the teacher have got the heave ho? My objective regarding the teacher at this stage is to get the issues with the teacher acknowledged, nothing else.

OP posts:
BlowOnMySackbutt · 17/09/2015 11:07

Nope, I was about to post what you have BitOutOfPractice

If it's the curriculum that's outdated, as has now been revealed, then the teacher may not necessarily be wrong in the context of that curriculum (if I'm getting the cake analogy right). In which case he's not an incompetent moron after all.Hmm

Original poster
BoboChic · 17/09/2015 11:08

Mum - the spelling of names of colours was an analogy.

OP posts:
pickledsiblings · 17/09/2015 11:08

I think the teacher has been employed to teach English, albeit in a rather old fashioned way, but in accordance with the school's current curriculum.

Presumably the teacher has also familiarised themselves with the syllabus and scheme of work in order to conduct themselves professionally in the classroom.

However, despite being aware of the problem before sending her DD to the school, the OP is shocked at just how old-fashioned this particular teacher's grasp is of the language that he has been employed to teach.

Or not???

Original poster
BoboChic · 17/09/2015 11:09

The teacher is wrong in the context of the current curriculum. It would be impossible to recruit someone today with the requisite skills to teach it.

OP posts:
pickledsiblings · 17/09/2015 11:10

BlowOn, you and I seem to be coming to the same conclusion.

Original poster
BoboChic · 17/09/2015 11:10

Not English, but a subject taught in English.

OP posts:
pickledsiblings · 17/09/2015 11:12

The teacher is wrong in the context of the current curriculum. It would be impossible to recruit someone today with the requisite skills to teach it.

The current flawed curriculum?

pickledsiblings · 17/09/2015 11:13

Ah, I wondered about that Bobo. What subject?

pickledsiblings · 17/09/2015 11:15

Would anyone other than a native English speaker be up for the job? I'm not sure how it works in bilingual schools.

Shutthatdoor · 17/09/2015 11:15

The teacher is wrong in the context of the current curriculum. It would be impossible to recruit someone today with the requisite skills to teach it.

Confused so there is no one in France who can teach this!?

This thread is getting stranger by the minute.

BlowOnMySackbutt · 17/09/2015 11:18

So, if the current curriculum is wrong then how have previous cohorts managed any success in it.
Something isn't computing in my tiny brain about this. Must be missing something.

Original poster
BoboChic · 17/09/2015 11:33

Blow - they haven't done very well I knew this all along. Now I know why. The school considered they were doing very well - wrong benchmark!

OP posts:
BlowOnMySackbutt · 17/09/2015 11:40

This wasn't ever picked up via the inspection framework?

guineapigpie · 17/09/2015 11:42

By failing to specify the subject and giving really weird analogies, you are making only very limited sense, BoboChic... And why were you going on earlier about French employment law and having to act quickly or you'd be stuck with this fellow if you didn't originally intend to have him booted out??...

SilverBirchWithout · 17/09/2015 11:46

Am I the only one with no idea what this is about and why the OP is unable to tell us what subject and specific issues there are about the curriculum?

There is enough identifiable info to identify the school if you were the HT or another parent so that cannot be the reason.

Shutthatdoor · 17/09/2015 11:58

And why were you going on earlier about French employment law and having to act quickly or you'd be stuck with this fellow if you didn't originally intend to have him booted out??...

^ What they said .

Things don't add up plus there are big bits of info missing Confused

ThenLaterWhenItGotDark · 17/09/2015 12:04

The only thing I am 100% prime time sure of is that the OP will be discussed at very great length during staff breaks.
And there will be tears of mirth and much Gallic thigh slapping.

BitOutOfPractice · 17/09/2015 12:33

Hold on, so what you said much earlier on about them doing well under the previous teacher

"teachers who you and we all loved and supported for the past 8 years and got you to a very high standard"

Was wrong?

And what you said about the new teacher being incompetent and inadequate and knowing nothing about this subject, do yit needed to get him removed, was also wrong

And you've known for MONTHS that the curriculum was wrong but only decided to discuss it with the HT when you went to discuss the incompetent teacher, so that wasn't mentioned in the op either. Even though you've known about that since May

i really AM confused now.

Are yit sure this isn't the plot of a Kafka story and you're kidding us along?

BitOutOfPractice · 17/09/2015 12:33

Yit = you Blush

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