Petty parents

[BilboTheAlmighty]

We have all experienced them, haven't we... Complaining about petty things, times and times again. Never letting go... Demanding/expecting severe punishment over things so trivial...

I like my school but there is a culture of complaining over the most insignificant of things. And SLT, instead of shielding classroom teachers from such occurrences, are more than willing to let you receive the brunt of it all.

The complaints aren't even about the content of the lesson! No, it's about what one child allegedly said to their DS or DD, and woe betide the teacher if she/he doesn't line up with the punishment they EXPECT (without proof, might I add).

The parent has been vile to several members of staff that way, speaking to them in ways they'd never tolerate if they were at the receiving end. And the apple never falling far from the tree, the child is vile too!

Ahhhh I feel better now that I've vented Surely I'm not the only one with such parents to deal with?

Your SLT need to deal with it more efficiently than they are doing. But what's new with a weak SLT?

A parent I heard of came to parents evening with individual excel sheets on each child with graphs to show where they thought that the child should be in terms of levels and where they had been assessed for their last report in red.

It isn't petty when it is your child and when the teacher is ineffectual they do need a suggestion as to what should be done.

LaBelle was each child as in belonging to the parent or each child in the class?

Bilbo, I'm entirely with you. In fact, I think we may work in the same school. The CHEEK of some (please note the some) parents is gobsmacking.
Feeling a little sensitive about this as a teacher friend this week had to attend an interview under caution regarding an allegation that predictably turned out to be utter bollocks.

No comeback for the parents made such a ludicrous complaint.

Oh and bloody hell, woe betide if you don't enter their child into the Level 6 tests...

Hope I have never worked in a school where parents call in over such trivial matters. The things that I hear from my colleagues are just astounding.

As it happens, the glass of water incident didn't happen when I was on duty, but my poor colleague is now hounded down by this parent over a glass of water . It's almost like it's a personal vendetta. And SLT just barricade themselves in their office...

In the case I am referring to, it IS petty Itsfab Especially when the pupil in question is 15 and knew full well that what happened was not intentional. I would even go as far as saying that the parent in question is doing their child a huge disservice by complaining all the time over such trivial matters. They now in fact are dragging this reputation across several schools... And no, we cannot punish another pupil, however much some parents would like it, if we have no proof and no one willing to come forward as a witness. Not when it is only about knocking over a glass of water in the canteen...

LaBelle I had one parent who one day demanded I gave their child a level 7. It took my head teacher to explain to them that this is not how it worked and that it was impossible for a pupil to reach a level 7 in year 8! Not for a subject their started in Year 7!

CatKisser I feel for your colleague. What a horrible experience that must have been. That's not petty parents anymore. It's awful

The pettiest complaint we have ever dealt with was the parent who complained that their dc had maths on Friday afternoon. They would not accept that timetabling in a large secondary is a huge job and yes there are some classes who have to learn academic subjects on Friday afternoons even though they are tired. The child in question had 3 other maths lessons a week, all of which were in the morning. I'm not quite sure how that was resolved because I think every member of slt was involved in dealing with it in some way. I do know that we weren't all issued with new timetables like the parents wanted.

Dragonlette I have seen that happen too. I can understand parents being worried over something like that but unfortunately, if it's not their child's class, it'd have to be another.

I think the most ridiculous one I have heard was last year, about the same parent as posted above, who hounded down a poor parent helper out of the school for something utterly ludicrous. Parent helpers are as rare as hen's teeth in secondary school, and do such a fantastic job. I can't believe the school just turned a blind eye...

ItsFab, luckily (and no doubt totally reasonably ) it was only all her children ... but she did have quite a few ...