French Teacher

[lottysmum]

Just looking for a little bit of advice please....

My dd had her French Oral exam today (Yr10), in previous years she has done great - last year was 100%. The presentation element of the Oral went well - but a couple of sections of the questions werent great - one probably down to DD being TOO laid back because she felt secure in this area so probably didnt revise and another section was weak because they havent fully covered this topic - so dd struggled to improvise ....

However the main issue DD and the other girls are finding is that their French teacher is not very personable and rather than give them encouragement - "slags them off" - including pulling faces during the Oral showing annoyance - when the girls have not answered a question well, so allot of the girls are really lacking in confidence and demoralised (she's not very well liked and has a habit of saying derogatory/inappropriate comments This term she stated in front of all the class that she thought my daughter must be on illegal drugs because she was so lively in class (my DD is a chatterbox).

This morning I did try and say to my DD to try and not look at the teacher during the oral because having met the teacher I know she is very animated - therefore I felt that if DD went wrong in her oral at the start she would know this from the teachers face and just fall apart (other teachers have done the oral in the past). A number of the girls came out the oral demoralised and in tears because the teacher had said in very harsh words they had not done very well - not in an encouraging manner....

My big concern is that I think DD is OK overall with her French oral - learnt a few lessons from this morning BUT DD did state that the same teacher will take them for the GCSE Oral - I personally think she is unsuitable to do Oral Exams because of her negative traits ...

I dont think she's a bad teacher - just lacks interpersonal skills ...Have I justification to ask for her not to do the Oral exams with this class next year?

By that argument last Thursday's GCSE Maths requires a government enquiry... maybe it does? My point is that this is all reported by a single pupil who was too"laid back" to prepare. But hey ho she must be 100% accurate because mummy says so! You cannot blame students or teacher until investigated so I would advise the OP to contact the school, without including personal judgements on whether someone is personable or not.

Or 100% inaccurate because teacher says so. It's all conjecture until properly investigated.

But the red flags in this thread are the teacher putting some people off the subject with her approach and OPs Dd being not the only one to have a problem.

It would lead to me following it up and overcome any inhibition bevause thst person is in authority.

It is well documented that children and parents get it wrong but it can happen the other way round too. A teacher was fired at my niece's school for being incompetent -
And no parents or children liked her. I'm not saying it's the case here but- it definitely does happen

gandalf456
But the red flags in this thread are the teacher putting some people off the subject with her approach and OPs Dd being not the only one to have a problem.

According to the OP. but then according to the OP her DD hasn't revised and wants to do the oral exam on the fly giving answers that are made up on the spot.

the teacher being "moody" could well be that she is becoming increasingly annoyed with the OP's DD refusing to accept that the teacher knows what the marking criteria is.

This morning, I head DD and DS having a conversation about invigilators. DD was saying that those who were supervising her group for her AS exams were sooooo much nicer than those who did when she was doing GCSEs. DS said that it was nice when you had a nice one because it put you at ease before the exam, and DD said that indeed, it was nice as it relaxed you, but that's just a bonus. Made me think of this thread!

The bottom line is that is all walks of life, you will find some situation easier because you deal with nicer people. That is life. Just about everyone will recall how one job interview was much easier because the interviewee was pleasant rather than very formal or even sadistic, but ultimately, there is no law yet that says that you can demand a nice interviewer. I expect there is also no statistics that will say that someone was more likely to get the job because the interviewer was nice because regardless, one person will be offered it and the others will be rejected.

School is not just about getting the knowledge and the grades, it's more and foremost about preparing to adulthood, and that's a big part of the learning. Better to face that reality at 16 than when you are faced with desperately needing a job.

So you don't want to accept that maybe your daughter isn't perfect and could perhaps need to look,at her own approach to learning and revising, but can't accept that a teacher has a number of perhaps less than perfect personality traits. In fact, you believe that teacher should change to suit your child, rather than your child look at making the necessary changes to achieve the progress she wants.

This is one of the reasons so many people are leaving teaching. An expectation that by hook or by crook, we drag children through exams and we do everything parents tell us, rather than what we consider to work from a pedagogical point of view. If you can do better, do give it a try. But for god's sake, don't walk into school complaining, fundamentally, that a teacher doesn't smile enough.

Oh, and the new GCSE in MFL is massively removed fro the old one. If your daughter wants to pass, she will need to pull her finger out. The teacher is probably bogged down with the reality of it.

The new GCSE is so different from anything recent that if a student in y10 were getting 100% they'd need to be fluent! We recently did a mock & even the best students didn't do as well as they'd hoped... and yes there were tears, but these students are taught by excellent dedicated teachers, so it can happen!

I'm with you, OP. I teach languages. You have to be at your absolute kindest and most encouraging in a speaking exam because the kids are utterly terrified. It's already pretty nerve-wracking for some to talk 1:1 with a teacher. Add to that in another language. Add to that in test conditions and add to that in a public exam and any slightly negative reaction can totally throw them.

I think you should raise with the head of department that your daughter found the teacher to be a bit sharp in the exam and ask if he/she could talk to the teacher about being a little more obviously encouraging in this situation.

Absolutely agree.

But in a mock, if someone clearly hasn't revised as you had requested, is this not a good time to show them that they need to work harder?

Not in the actual exam, no. It does no good whatsoever.

You speak to them after it's all over and point out a few areas for them to improve and something that went well. If it was a disaster I would always give them the option of having another go the following week.