Upset about dd's Parents' Night - Maths

[Dancergirl]

Dd is in Year 9 at a girls' grammar. Last night was Parents' Night. Pretty much all her teachers gave her glowing reports, she is doing well, participates well in lessons, has a good attitude to learning and is a pleasure to have in class.

With the exception of Maths. The teacher hardly had a good word for her, dd's test score was below the average but the focus of the 5 min appointment was on dd's poor attitude.

For background - dd has had this same Maths teacher since the start of Year 7. In Year 7 dd's confidence took a bit of a knock, some of the girls are real Maths whizzes. Dd can keep up in lessons ok but she is more English/Humanities. Nothing wrong with that. However dd said this teacher has her favourites, she quickly identified dd as being weak at Maths, constantly picked on her and dd's confidence plummeted further.

Year 8 there was some improvement and dd made good progress in Maths. She was gutted to get this teacher again in Year 9. Apart from the obvious personality clash, dd says her teaching is poor and she doesn't explain the work well. This teacher also talks about students behind their backs, she regularly says 'I shouldn't say this but.....' She also seems to spend an awful lot of time talking about her own family, dd knows so much about her oldest daughter and her 11+ exams for different schools.

We did have a quick word about the issue last night and she said she would talk to the teacher and see what her take on it is.

Dd (and me and dh) are upset because she obviously doesn't know dd at all.

I know sometimes at school you don't always get on with every teacher and I did point out to dd that sometimes you have work with people you might not like or get on with. But I am worried about dd's Maths and her confidence and things are not going to improve after such an appalling parents' night.

I had the same, I was stuck with the same Maths teacher for the first 3 years of secondary and we didn't get along at all. We were in sets from what is now year 8. Eventually it was agreed that I could not move up a set as they were doing their O level Maths a year early, so I went down a set and was very happy with the teacher.

They later changed the sets again so there were 5 instead of 4, but I managed to stay with the same teacher who I got on well with and ended up with a decent enough GCSE.

Even if they are in teaching groups, it should not be beyond the wit of the school to move your dd to a group with a different teacher unless it really is impossible with the timetable.

Yes, definitely speak with HoY.

As a point of reference, our local 'not thought to be as crap as it used to be, but still definitely some way off being seen as a desirable' comprehensive moves children around classes if there are friendship issues, problems with the teacher, disruptive behaviour very frequently. They're really responsive to parents' concerns about their children's well-being and progress.

Is there a practical reason eg time tabling that your dd can't be moved classes, or is it a more 'we don't do that' attitude?

Is there a practical reason eg time tabling that your dd can't be moved classes, or is it a more 'we don't do that' attitude?

The school do generally seem quite nurturing and supportive. But they do Maths in their teaching groups and each teaching group has a different timetable so the whole year group isn't doing Maths (or any other subject) at the same time. I suppose the only option is for dd to move teaching groups but she doesn't want to as she's with her friends. I think she will have to put up with this teacher until the end of the year.