Teacher muttered "fuck off" to yr7 pupil

[Cornishbelle]

So my son age 12 had a supply teacher today for one of his classes. Ds went to the loo and when he got back noticed his rucksack was open and someone had nicked his water bottle.

Realising it was his mate on the row behind, he was trying to get it back, supply teacher noticed him talking and was warned if he saw ds talking again he would get a detention

End of class ds approached teacher and asked if he had a detention (he's very worried about this as not had one yet) - teacher waved his hand and muttered "just fuck off "

What do I do if anything? Maybe his patience was tested but seems very bizarre.

This made me smile! Its a win though- no detention!!

You don’t do anything. Teacher sounds great.

The teacher being online friends with a student is a massive issue. Definitely report that immediately. If it's an innocent relationship, i.e. they are family members, it will quickly be established but there are very, very few circumstances where that would be okay.
The swearing I'd let slide but if it happens again I'd report. The lack of contrition worries me. I think most of us have probably said something we've regretted and apologised for it (we're all human and year 7 can grind you down) but if it's repeated it's very different.

I mean...no you shouldn't swear at a pupil.

But also, I can't help but imagine the teacher is Greg Davies.

I can only assume that the supply teacher was having a hell of a day and lost control of his senses for a moment! Unprofessional but given the stressful nature of the job, perhaps understandable? I would just tell your son it was unprofessional of the teacher to speak to him like that but we all make mistakes so probably best to just put it behind him this time.

Sorry that's hilarious

@crumbpet maybe it's as simple as firing him in this case but as a whole, I'd say the industry needs him more than he needs it. Very few people in the UK want to be a teacher and I believe it's seen as something of a minimum wage job with a charitable element.

Coming from East Asia where teaching is a highly well paid, prestigious profession which requires a high level of education (top uni grads), the teaching industry in the UK is quite shocking. Even relief teaching (supply teaching) in Asia is competitive and hard to get into. So I don't really blame this guy, he's more an indicator of the industry's issues

When I was at school (about 14) a permanent teacher used the f word at one of the kids. No damage done. We just thought it was hilarious as we knew it wasn't the done thing.

Not something a teacher should do but they're human.

This about sums it up.

Frankly if this is the most you have worry about with your kids high school you don't know much about the real world.

Neither of my two DC would even mention this to me. I don't think it would happen at their big state comp but seriously could. They don't share much re mundane school stuff at all.
At this point in the year especially

Wow what a judgmental and ridiculous post.

I'd report it and I think pp justifying and downplaying it sound a bit weird.

Toughen up both - he's going to hear a lot worse.

I'd be willing to bet a lot of money that 'trying to get water bottle back' was not done in a sensible way. Supply lessons are an absolute joke. Don't report

Not saying its the teachers fault. But if you know how shit the job is then it's up to you to carry on or not

Of course that's a safeguarding issue

Report the online friends thing to the DSL today. That is the sort of thing that should be assumed to be dodgy and not at all given the benefit of the doubt!

It doesn't matter why they did it- it is entirely unacceptable and should be investigated formally. If there are extenuating cirumstances that would be reflected in the 'consequence' . Teachers and other professionals, like Drs, nurses, dentists, should never treat the people they serve unprofessionally. It's about standards and setting examples and engendering respect. How can a teacher ever expect to be treated with respect by children if they swear at them? Or teach children about manners, respect, appropriate behaviours?

Sounds like he slipped up and misjudged the level of formality required by the situation.
The teacher was avoiding escalating to a detention even though your son was disruptive in class. And yes, I know his mate nicked his water bottle but from teacher’s point of view the whole thing was unnecessary disruptive nonsense that needed shutting down quick before it took up more time or escalated into a fight.
So he was giving your son a break. There’s a difference between screaming at someone to fuck off and giving someone a pass and then saying ´fuck off now’ in a calm tone with no malice. He should have said ´just go’ or, probably better in keeping with situation without totally crossing over into banned language ´just get out’.
There’s something important communicatively about the abruptness and slightly transgressive language used in this situation. If the teacher said something overly polite like ´could you please leave now’ then the whole dynamic of a teacher giving a kid a break when they would be justified in giving a detention would be wrecked. The brusqueness was important. ‘Fuck off now’ is not ideal vocab but the tone was right.

🤣

He should not have used the word ´fuck’.
But there is such a thing as being too polite. You don’t get respect from teenage school boys by treating them let adult patients or customers. It does depend a bit of the linguistic norms of the kids in the school but a lot of politeness in English works by giving the other person the possibility to disagree with you and by being less direct. All the ´could you please’ and ´if you like’ and turning statements into question is not always a good strategy when you need to show a group of teens that you’re in charge.
Here the message needed to be ´I’m giving you a break this once, but your behavior was poor so don’t think I won’t give you detention if he happens again’. In either the words or the delivery, there needed to be an undertone communicating the unacceptable nature of the behavior during class.

Well, OP can hardly LTB can she?

Umm why??? I'd you do not think these things ate disruptive, you have no clue!

They shouldn't be FB friends normally, no.But they may be a relative

Supply Teacher here. Yes, seriously thinking of leaving the profession and taking steps to do so….(Permanent 10+ years, then full- time caring, voluntary education roles, further study for a few years…supply over 10 years now)

If the teacher muttered F off rather than looking student in the eye and saying it loudly, I would suggest it’s slightly different.

I’m not excusing it (I agree unprofessional) but we don’t know what sort of day the teacher had, or indeed how bad that particular lesson was. It is possible your son was unfairly clocked. We’re human and make mistakes - when 8-10 kids are determined to be disruptive it can be hard to pin down who’s being good and who isn’t. By the way, most Supply Teachers are briefed in no uncertain terms on arrival not to let anyone go to the toilet so your son was probably lucky…

Supply teaching - prepare, mark lessons, be paid at beginners scale if you’re lucky, get dumped when 12 week agency workers rights kick in….

Have the overwhelming majority of pupils decide there’s no way they are going to have anything other than a no work lesson when they see it’s someone different.

More often than you might expect, hear your permanent colleagues make speeches about how useless Supply Teachers are…about 1 in 5 chance this will be in front of pupils…

There has to be a better way of combining caring responsibilities with earning a living.

Seriously, there is a big exodus of qualified experienced teachers planning to leave Supply Teaching. Won’t affect occasional day much, but many absences are long-term. Schools need to start planning how they cope when there is no-one.

Maybe children will have to be sent home…