Parents evening, should I complain about this teacher

[namechanged221]

At parents evening I had some quite important questions about DS's results and options but the teacher seemed to spend a lot of the short 5 minute appointment talking about her own children and how one of them is doing maths at Bristol and the others are doing x,y and a GCSE's and A levels and what that meant in terms of their Uni entry.

When I was driving home I suddenly felt quite angry that I came away from the appointment knowing more about the teacher's kids than I had found out about my DS's progress.

I'm I right to be thinking this is actually quite inappropriate? I don't want to hear about the teacher's own kids, it felt like she was bragging about it. It is also irrelevant.

Should I email the head of year?

I think you’re being a bit over the top to be so intent on wanting to complain about this. Ok; so maybe you weren’t overly happy with the responses you got. Do you really think the teacher was purposely trying to piss you off? Have you ever considered you might have a face of thunder or a horrible attitude and she felt nervous and was genuinely just trying to be friendly and connect on some level to try appear like she’s down to earth and understands? I highly doubt she was trying to upset you. I think you’d look like a complete Pratt if you make a complaint over this. Just email and ask the questions about your son- but there’s a high chance you still won’t get the answer you were hoping for. I get the feeling you just didn’t hear what you wanted to hear- so it’s time to try take the teacher down. I can assure you; whoever you complain to- will laugh at your email behind closed doors if you take the nasty/bitter route.

Why didnt you say something at the time?

I mean don't be so unpleasant. Maybe she was sharing to help in some way. Time is short. Ask to check in with her again.
DONT put it on an email !!

Why don't you just email the teacher with your questions?

What exactly do you want to happen by complaining? Do you want the teacher to get told off? Put on capabilities? Just email the school office FAO teacher’s name with your questions, then complain if you don’t get sufficient answers.

I’m not sure why the HOY needs to be involved. Respectfully, as a HOY, mediating a disgruntled parent who didn’t get all the answers in a meeting wouldn’t be high on my to do list. It’s hard to judge whether the teacher was being unprofessional or not by not providing the questions OP.

As others have said, this really isn't the HoY's area. Unless you're just suggesting you should email the HoY because you know their email address?

It's very likely they will just go to the teacher, and say "can you answer this question?" and the teacher will either answer it or continue with their non-answer as before.

The HoD is much more likely to be able to give you an answer and decide if there are any concerns with the teacher's answer- but I would just add parents evenings can be very tricky, and without knowing what the question was, I do wonder if it's something it was awkward for the teacher to answer, hence deflecting and talking about their own children?

I know I've said silly things to parents in the past when asked a question I didn't feel comfortable answering for all sorts of reasons (although in some cases, they probably read between the lines of what I was saying).