Question about confidentiality

[insanityscatching]

I've been contacted tonight by a friend of a friend who is attending a level four teaching assistant course at our local college.
Apparently there is a TA from dd's school on the course who has been discussing both dd and myself in a derogatory manner.
The friend of a friend was concerned enough to contact me so that I might raise this with the school.
From the description it isn't dd's assigned TA but she seems to know a great deal about dd and my dealings with school with some embellishments for effect I might add.
At no point have I given permission for dd's needs to be discussed outside of school and to be frank the Learning Support department have made one cock up after another and so I wouldn't agree to dd being observed or a case study either where I have in the past when asked directly by the TA and a different school.
I will contact the HT tomorrow but wanted opinions about this. Am I justified in being pretty angry at this ? Isn't there some sort of confidentiality requirement to protect vulnerable children from this? What can I expect from the school?

I don't know about the legalities but I would be hopping mad. It seems so unprofessional! I would definitely be contacting the school, I do not think you are overreacting.

It is so unprofessional, I'm fuming tbh particularly as she implied that dd gets support she doesn't need because of me being an "over involved parent"

Were you mentioned by name? If not, it is hard to prove anything.

As part of training, we will discuss situations we have been in and how we could have done better. This does mean discussing individual children. They should never be named though.

Oh yes we were named. The friend of a friend knew nothing about my dealings with the school it was only when we were named that she realised it was dd and myself being discussed.Pretty sure calling a parent a vindictive bitch isn't necessary when discussing situations that occur though don't you?

Should add that friend of a friend isn't a truthful description of the relationship but wanted to anonymise the source. She actually contacted me during the break in class because she was shocked by what was being said.

When I was doing teacher training I had to make comments about pupils anonymous, so there was no chance of anyone recognising who I was referring to. An if I'd suggested someone was "a vindictive bitch" I'd have been disciplined.

So I'd also send a written complaint to the college.

It is totally unacceptable.

Vindictive bitch refers to me having a TA removed for lying and documenting lies and attributing them to me. It obviously wasn't her because she's a current TA at the school. Dd only has one TA and I know it isn't her so I'm not sure how she can have the information she is sharing with embellishments of course.
I had to be referred to by name because the link between me and the student who alerted me is so tenuous she wouldn't even know dd was at that school tbh.

What do you hope to achieve by reporting her?

(Genuinely meant - you need to think about what you want before reporting her.)

I want to know that dd's right to privacy is respected by all staff in the school. I also don't want to be discussed inside or outside of school by a TA touting for more gossip about me as that was the motivation by naming dd.
I also think that seeing as the school have only just escaped me making a formal complaint because of a spectacular safeguarding fail then they should be more wary of annoying me further.
Frankly the learning support department seems to be a law unto itself staffed by a bunch of halfwits and led by an ineffectual SENCo when the teaching staff and Headteacher appear to be decent and committed.
The HT is already overseeing dd's support directly as a result of the safeguarding fail but the TA shooting her mouth of last night shouldn't be in anyway involved with dd and shouldn't have cause to be discussing either her or myself inside or outside of school.

This is tricky as there is more than one area of confidentiality here.

I've worked in a number of jobs where workers had access to personal and sensitive information and it was made clear that this could not be discussed outside work. However, work related training would normally be classed as work.

In most cases talking about children you support would be essential to participating. Normally, whoever's running the training would ask everyone not to name names and some will also say that if anyone thinks they recognise someone's details they should not acknowledge it. All the courses I've been on have stated at the beginning of the course that anything said on the course has to be kept confidential. So your friend has probably breached confidentiality by telling you. If it's likely to become obvious who told you, then reporting it could leave them in more trouble than the TA who was sounding off.

I would expect trainers to stop people on the course from naming names and certainly the "vindictive bitch" comment shouldn't have been left to stand unchallenged. Unless this was said during a coffee break or a smaller group discussion when the trainer(s) would not have been listening.

Clearly, you have every right to be angry but I'm not sure what the most effective way forward is. Presumably, the TA sounding off has had all her information from the person you had the original problem with and may have only heard her side of the story, which is likely to paint her in a good light and you not at all. If either of them were speaking about you in this way at the school gate, down the pub or in the local shops I think you would expect the head to intervene and stop it and take disciplinary action. I'm not sure you can stop someone sounding off on a training course. Yes you could complain about being named provided you are sure your name was given out. But you might get your friend into trouble too.

I won't be naming who alerted me and it really is no friend (it was so as to anonymise the source) and the link is so tenuous that it couldn't be traced. Besides which there were TA's from dd's Primary school there who would be considered a far more likely source than the person who did disclose.
The HT emailed at 7.30am promising swift and appropriate action and apologising for any offence caused or concerns raised. No doubt he will be almost as annoyed as I am seeing as the TA was painting the school support system as farcical and the HT a joke in her attempt to gossip about me.