How bad is this and should I complain?

[Brokenbiscuit]

First of all, let it be said that I am not a habitual teacher-basher. I know that the vast majority of teachers work extremely hard and that many go way beyond the call of duty in order to support and develop their pupils. I never once had cause to complain about teachers when dd was at primary school, and I am very happy with the vast majority of her teachers now she is at secondary school - most seem highly committed, professional and sincere people.

However, there is one teacher who I'm concerned about. Obviously, I only have dd's perceptions of what's going on, but she is generally respectful towards her teachers and a good judge of character. She has no grudges to bear against him either - he hasn't told her off, has graded her highly and given her a good report.

The problem is, he just doesn't seem to teach them anything. He is very good at clowning around and making them laugh - dd thought he was the bee's knees at the start of the year - but there is no balance. Most of the time, he tells them what topic they're doing and leaves them to find it in the textbook and read up on it. The kids then try to explain it to each other. Now, I'm all for independent learning, but I do think that the teacher should have some input as well? He doesn't really support them in their research either - dd says that he sits at the front texting, or sometimes he is on Facebook. Recently, he appeared to be researching holidays. There is no written feedback in dd's book since the start of the year - just a few ticks.

I know that teaching is stressful and perhaps this guy has other issues in his life. I really don't want to get anyone into trouble without good cause, but I feel that this guy is taking the piss. It's also really unfair on all of the brilliant teachers who do work really hard. Should I complain to the school on the evidence of a (fairly mature and reliable but quite judgemental) 11yo? Or should I leave it now, given that the year is already over?

Do you think this teacher behaves differently with exam classes? If his GCSE / A Level classes are getting good grades, this could be how he has slipped under the radar.

I don't actually know about the grades tbh, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was the case as he has repeatedly told dd's class that he doesn't like teaching year 7, that he isn't interested in younger year groups and won't bother learning their names until they're older. Perhaps he is very different when teaching the older pupils, and maybe he does get good results. As you say, that might be how he has slipped under the radar to date.

I do understand that teachers are human and that they may have preferences about teaching different age groups/ability levels etc. That's fine, but I wouldn't expect them to share those preferences with the students, or slack off when teaching the less preferred groups. I'm sure that some of dd's other teachers have preferences too, but they all seem to get on with their jobs without dd being any the wiser!

I would think the acid test is if your DD is learning.

You sound ultra reasonable but it does sound like there is cause for concern.

Hmm. I don't think it would be fair to claim that dd has learnt nothing, but it is certainly her perception that she is learning less than she does in other subjects. She would also say, rightly or wrongly, that what she has learnt has been self-taught.

I think what is missing at the moment, above all, is any kind of input on how she can improve her work, and more generally, what is expected of pupils in this subject, or what "good" looks like (other than "neat"!). So DD actually has no idea of what, if anything, is expected of her or what she is aiming to do. This is very different from most of her other subjects, where the teachers have given clear guidance on next steps, skills that the children need to develop and so on.

School budgets are being squeezed and jobs cut. No one deserves to draw a teacher's salary for just being a warm body sat at the front of the class while the kids try and teach themselves.

has repeatedly told dd's class that he doesn't like teaching year 7,

I've met quite a few people like that over time. If you're y7-9 then you're just filling space and the only classes worth focusing on is y10-13. Some went as far as to say that they didn't want ks3 on their timetables. People like that annoyed me because the knowledge issues from shite y7-9 teaching cause problems at gcse.

Absolutely speak to the head of department. You sound concerned but supportive and would raise it in a polite and tactful way.

I'm a HOD, please complain. I'd want to know. In fact I would likely already be aware on some level but a formal parental complaint would allow me to act. Teachers like this are rare but a total pain in the arse.

What about getting together with a group of other parents, and arrange to all complain (by email/phone) in the same week, or arrange to meet with the HoD all together? The complaint might have more force to it then. Also, tell the HoD that you don't want the teacher knowing which child(ren) have complained.

I'm a really hard working teacher, and teachers like this drive me mad. He's a lazy arse, he's basically doing no planning or marking, which is where the bulk of a teacher's workload is. And being on his phone/facebook etc is totally unacceptable - he needs to be pulled up on this alone.

From my experience of schools it seems really difficult for management to get the balance right between bullying staff and being too lax. I've worked in one school where the management were so heavy handed and so picky about everything, that very good, hard-working teachers were bullied out, but then other schools never seem to do anything about under-performing teachers.

I'm a HoD and I'd want to know, although like others have said, I would already know this member of my dept was winging it and would have stepped in before now. I'm a little surprised that he has got away with this all year, tbh. We have a fairly relaxed marking policy - but there does need to be specific and targetted feedback at regular points in pupils' books. A few ticks wouldn't cut it - and like a pp we do book trawls to check. In addition there should (presumably) be some assessments on the system so HoD can check whether pupils are making expected progress and are on target.

OP I would be contacting HoD after half term to ask for a meeting and take DDs book in - explain that you are concerned that she does not know where she is, what is expected of her or how she can improve. Ask the HoD how often you should expect work to be marked and whether there will be some clear feedback that you can go over with DD. I would mention in the meeting that you understand he is frequently on his phone during lessons and are concerned that he is not focused on the lesson he should be teaching.

I have responsibility for a key stage, & firstly I'd already know about this teacher, & secondly, I'd be very keen to have the parental feedback to support me in kicking his arse.

Email Head of Dept. They will need this sort of feedback to tackle the issue.

The UK is increasingly down to acceptable warm bodies, education is in appalling mess. There quite likely isn't anyone out there who would be better.

But flag it up. Flag flag flag.

Things aren't going to get better until parents start realising how bad it is.

personally being this close to end of year and if your child is not doing this subject next year then I'd leave it and move on. The reason i am saying this is because this could happen again in another subject where you need to act and if you complain twice you look like you are the problem so cut your losses at this late stage of the year and move on. The damage is already done and cannot be rectified.

probably just a supply teacher, or an agency teacher filling in, or maybe not teacher at all, very few schools are fully staffed right now.

the guy was sacked for basically fucking around on the internet all day and not teaching at all.

he wouldn't get sacked for that, again was probably just a short term stop gap, who was filling in to help hold things together temporarily.

'' much as I loathe to admit it, with 240 kids to see every week, there was always one child whose name would escape me. I know how bad that sounds and maybe no one else will admit to it....if he did not refer to your DD by name or asked you to confirm your surname or tried to eyeball your appointment sheet then yes, he probably doesn't know her very well at all''

Yep teachers are not machines-in secondary schools namely where they can teacher over 200 pupils, they will not know every student in great detail simply because class sizes these days are 30 students at a time[i've even seen classes of over 35]-that is not possible and yes there will be them few students that you struggle at remembering their name even after a year of teaching them.

This is so gutting. When I taught, i worked my arse off in a core subject. I was constantly scrutinised, picked on and judged, despite getting excellent grades out of the kids (all names and personalities known too). I had a nice relaxing stint in indie, but a state school letting a teacher get away with this is very unusual indeed. Please flag it up to the school leadership team because he is already turning students off his subject at Year 7 and he is letting the side down for the hard working teachers.

If her book hasn't been properly marked since the beginning of the year, that's bad.

I doubt DD has seen he's on the TES website and mistaken it for Facebook,somehow.

He sounds crap!