New recruit teacher is inadequate

[BoboChic]

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?

But, Bubbles, OP is presumably referring to teachers in the primary school. OP and the other parents are hardly likely to be resenting the secondary teacher for displacing them.

Sorry OP I will bow out of the discussion as clearly you are not talking about what happens in France (seeing that you are also NOT constrained by French laws and customs)

Kevin - if your DC are learning a home language in a MFL context they do of course have to put up with being more knowledgeable than the teacher. But this is not the situation I am describing.

I'm quite calm.

It really doesn't bother me. It's your issue. I just raised it because it seems to me it's relevant. If you feel happy with your grammar, then there is no problem.

But, biting the heads of people when you've asked for help is probably not going to make you look great.

Kevin - you do realise that not all French private sous contrat schools are bound by the same contrat?

Jeanne - I'm not biting anyone's head off. I have got exactly what I wanted from the thread: an example of how incredibly sensitive teachers' egos are, how they frequently jump to defend the indefensible and some useful words and phrases to think about using in order to try to put the point across without finger pointing.

You sound utterly charming OP.
What was your aim exactly, in starting this thread? Because you are being very rude to anyone seemingly not in possession of a crystal ball, and therefore trying their hardest to work out what exactly it is that has got you so agitated.
If English is your own mother tongue, (which surprised me too, tbh) and this new teacher is an English teacher, then why is it even a problem for you? Don't your children speak English perfectly because of you?
I shan't apologise if that isn't the case, because you haven't made yourself at all clear.

I feel so sorry for teachers who have to handle this type of parent. It seems to becoming normal, to undermine and devalue someone's teaching ability based upon such flimsy evidence. Never in my life, have I heard of Year 7 parents getting together and making a complaint 2 weeks into term, after a maximum of two lessons. I imagine your child will be happy boasting to their classmates that Mummy sorted everything out, but there will come a time in your childs life when you are unable to change something, how will you and your child cope ?

Why one and a half weeks, Longtime? Most French schools went back on 1st September.

And if OP and the other parents were misunderstanding how marking works at secondary level, they wouldn't just be concerned about one teacher, would they?

I really don't understand why you object to a number of parents who have the same concerns raising them jointly with the school. Apart from anything else, it saves the head's time. You seem unwilling to acknowledge the fact that it could just be possible that all their concerns are fully justified and that their children's education is being damaged whilst this issue is left unaddressed. Or indeed that it might help the teacher to be picked up on where he is going wrong.

Schools that are 'sous contrat' still refer to the 'academie' for recruiting as the teachers are paid by the state, even if they are 'une ecole privee'.

The only schools that don't are fully private which is where I said 'unless they are fully private schools' (eg some international school that may or may not follow the French curriculum etc...). In that case, go to the HT and take your case up.

This is a lot more baroque!

I love a bit of harpsichord continuo, I do.

Um ... you came into this thread asking for 'jargon'.

Some people told you it was a bit bizarre and premature.

I don't see how you're seeing that teachers' egos are sensitive. And god knows, if you mean me, I couldn't give the tiniest flying toss about what someone thinks of their school kids' teacher.

I just posted because I thought it was likely you'd make yourself look a bit of an idiot charging into school on the warpath, if it turned out you'd misunderstood some basics.

There wasn't really a need to throw a strop over it.

It's tricky.
There are some teachers who are drafted in to teach subjects in which they are not experts.

Often this won't be a problem providing they stay one step ahead. However, it can become problematic if the pupils are very advanced in that subject, or where the teacher quite simply doesn't know enough and/or is out of date.

If for example this were a teacher of MFL teaching, say, endings of the imperfect tense and marking correct endings as wrong because he didn't know the endings, then that would be pretty indefensible.

However, if this were a teacher of MFL marking conditional tense as correct where actually it should be subjunctive, because it's better not to get into that murky water just yet (particularly in a mixed ability class), then that's more understandable.

Bobo why are you assuming that all the people answering are teachers and overly sensitive ones too ? .

An analogy to help clarify my point about the comparison with the previous 8 years of teachers: the children learned to write "black", "white" and "green". All through primary school the teachers taught them this and parents and reading confirmed those were the correct spellings.

Secondary teacher says that the correct spellings are "blak", "wite" and "grean".

Parents are not giving their DC a good example if they support the secondary teacher...

What surprises me are all the massive assumptions people on the teacher side of the fence are making without evidence. For example, mumofthemonsters, where do you get the proposition that there has been a maximum of two lessons? How do you know the evidence is flimsy as you haven't seen it?

Kevin - no, there are other arrangements (hybrids between sous contrat and independent)

I'm starting to quite enjoy this thread in a wtf kind of way.

Are you in the UK? What subject are you talking about?

Jeeves, unless you are the OP, how do you know the evidence isn't flimsy? Have you seen it?

I'm not biting anyone's head off. I have got exactly what I wanted from the thread: an example of how incredibly sensitive teachers' egos are, how they frequently jump to defend the indefensible and some useful words and phrases to think about using in order to try to put the point across without finger pointing.

A number of posters have said they aren't teachers. I'm not

You seem rather defensive

Think she is in France, but we've got to guess the subject...

Jeeves, unless you are the OP, how do you know the evidence isn't flimsy? Have you seen it?

I agree, BTW I'm not a teacher

I don't know why posters are even bothering to discuss the evidence which is not up for questioning. My issue (which some posters have been helpful with) is choosing the right words to describe someone who is clearly not up to the job in the least offensive way possible, and in terms teachers use and understand and aren't offended by.

Oh FFS, if you want people to help you be clear about the problem. This helps those people who have taken time out of their day to offer you advice to actually ensure you have the information you want. If you have a problem with the teacher just go and speak to the Head don't try to sound like some sort of authority on education.