Supply teacher nightmare! What to do?

[Thedreamer28]

So my daughter has started secondary school albeit not our 1st choice school but we had no choice so she is there now. She is doing great in all her classes. Now they have for the past term had a supply teacher covering some of the lessons and she is abit over zealous with handing out sanctions. My daughter comes home and tells me that the teacher handed out a sanction to a boy when he coughed, another child pulled his chair under the table and recd a sanction. One child has asthma and the teacher would not let her get her inhaler until another teacher happened to walk in the classroom so she had to ask her instead. This supply teacher hands out sanctions for the most ridiculous reasons.

so for the last few weeks my daughter has been getting sanctions too. N she has been coming home really upset about it. She has explained it to me and she has received the sanctions for putting her hand up to ask a questions about a power point slide that she didn't understand. She asked the teacher to explain a word she didn't understand. N was told "no just copy it!" So now my daughter still has no clue what the word meant and doesn't understand the science work.
she has received another today as there was a heater in the class and the teacher accused my daughter of moving it and disrupting the class and my daughter swears she never said anything or moved it or touched it in anyway. Before I told my daughter to keep quiet in class and just get on with her work as this teacher seems to really be strict with the kids. N my daughter says she doesn't even speak in class and just gets on with her work.

it's getting her really down and affecting her mental health coz she feels anxious going into the class. My daughter is a hard worker and loves to learn and so if she doesn't understand something she will always put up her hand to ask for help. N it's like this supply teacher is going nuts handing out sanctions.

I asked my daughter if there are lots of disruptive students in class and she says sometimes but not anything major. It seems this teacher is trying to make an example out of this class when they haven't done anything wrong.

im wondering if I should complain to the school. N what can I say to them?

any advice would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.

This sounds as if the teacher is being too strict but I would also say that being a supply teacher is not easy and it is difficult to establish one’s self and discipline in the class. Is she coming back after Xmas? Maybe it was a one term appointment? If not, speak to the HoY.

@Rocknrollstar thanks for your response. It looks like it could be a long term appointment. This is the first time us dealing with our child in secondary school and I am trying to understand how the system works and I understand that tweens have hormones all over the place and it can be hard asserting discipline but my daughter is quiet and just gets on with it and would be mortified if she did anything wrong. She has come home quite shocked at what has happened on occasion. Another example of when the teacher asked a question and my daughter thought she was asking her so she answered the question but the teacher was actually asking the student directly behind my child and when my child realised she said "sorry I thought you were asking me" n she received a sanction for that too!
N my daughter isn't happy with the quality of teaching either. She is saying the teacher doesn't explain anything and most of the time is spent copying off a power point slides. It is science too so it's not easy! She comes home and says she has no clue what half it means as nothing has been explained.

so it is abit worrying.

It sounds worryingly like it's a cover supervisor or a non-science teacher, if they're not explaining the powerpoints (which may have been supplied to them by the regular staff). I think I would be raising the fact that she's not understanding and the teacher is not explaining when she asks. Unfortunately there is a real shortage of science teachers, so they may be unable to get a science specialist, but they need to know if the person they've got is not able even to help at year 7 level.

I would be having a conversation to clarify what is going on. Always best to have both sides of any situation before considering any complaint.

It's ok to bring this to the schools attention

If the teacher is working in one area then email the Head of Department, if they are supplying in various areas email the community/year head and they'll get it to the right person.
Give some examples, explain how it is impacting DD and how out of character it is for DD to receive sanctions. Say that the teacher/cover supervisor isn't explaining the work. It's highly likely the HoD knows but they'll be able to go over the behaviour policy with the supply again or request the supply isn't used in their area again (if there's actually a choice).

If she's doing AQA Sean from Free science lessons on YouTube is fantastic for science info so she can recap on there, students find him bland to start with but he always ends up with an almost cult like following. If she's KS3 then BBc bitesize is a good shout.

Thank you all for your responses. My DD is nearly in tears and has had to text me. Today it is the teacher asking my DD what a ribosome and pathogen and antibodies is and engulf pathogens. But the problem is they haven't been taught that. It's constant copying and writing stuff down and not explaining anything to them.

All my DD wants to do is learn bless her and it's really affecting her. I don't want my DD to be affected like this as she is such a good student. I can't believe this is happening.

I will definitely check out YouTube and we already look at BBC bitesize too which is good.

Sounds an absolute nightmare although I'm unsuprised whilst there are some fantastic supply teachers there are even more who do supply because they can't teach or hack it in a classroom permanently.

When she gets in tonight get her to look at the Cell Biology and Infection and response section Ribosomes are involved in protein synthesis (making proteins) and are in the cell shell have learnt this when doing types of cells. Pathogens and antibodies are to do with immune response.

Do get onto the school though it sounds like long term cover which is never great, you can ask her to be switched groups although she may not want to do this.

This sounds like Oak lessons from the copying from PowerPoints, but not the ones for Y7! Cells and organelles are in KS3 but I wouldn't teach pathogens until later.

Second the recommendations to email HoD and for KS3 BBC bitesize.

There is a nationwide shortage of teachers (especially science teachers) affecting almost all schools. Youngers years lose out as qualified teachers are used for exam classes. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to change soon, so useful to get in the habit of using bitesize etc.

I forgot she was only year 7( having recently replied to a similar thread about a year 9 student)

We would only have taught Ribosomes to top set in KS3 everyone else it was introduced during GCSE work. We did run a unit on microbes which touched on antibodies etc but that wasn't until right at the end of the school year, after they had a thorough understanding of the cell and its organisation and adaptations in animals and plants.

Thank you for all your responses and helpful links and advice. I have had a word with DD and she was explaining that she is worried as they have an exam in January where the kids might be put into different sets and she obv doesn't want to be put into a lower set. She is in the top set and wants to stay there. She says it's so frustrating not being able to ask questions and learn. Some learning can be done by copying off a power point but even she is saying it's science and it really needs explaining. But she is happy to go and look up on Bitesize to recap on topics. She even says the teacher doesn't even give them chance to write things down before she moves onto something else! It's like she is just trying not to get a sanction at this point as Friday she comes home n says she dropped her pen on the floor and it exploded and the teacher was contemplating on whether to give her a sanction for dropping her pen!! But then the teacher decided not to. Its crazy!

Hi,

I wonder if you could possibly read my thread on https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/secondary/4965031-working-with-school-to-accommodate-ebsa?page=2&reply=131525013?

My son was where your DD was in year 7, and he has gone bang in year 9 and dropped out. I very much wish that I had removed him from the school to the private sector while he was still well enough to make the move.

I'm sorry to hear your DD is dealing with this.