Being unfairly judged on a class that everyone finds difficult

[Laura2121]

Hello all

I joined my current school last September as a Chemistry teacher. This is my probationary year, and things are generally going well. However one of the classes that I teach is a very difficult class. All teachers find it very tricky to teach, and complain about it over lunch. It is a bottom set Year 9 class that has a lot of SEN students in it too.

A couple of the students in this class need a TA in with them for Maths, English and Sciences where they need 1:1 support- they disrupt and consume the lesson without it.

Unfortunately, due to timetabling issues, mine was the only subject where a TA could not be present despite being required. That combined with me not having much experience of teaching SEN students was not a great combination.

I asked the school for support on this, and that led to me coming under the spotlight myself unfortunately. Weekly lesson observations of me were arranged for this class throughout last term, despite the necessary TA not being there, and I have been unfairly judged on it. At my end of term review meeting last term, I was even threatened with my probation being failed over it.

Since then, my weekends and evenings have been spent on trying to make things work with this class. Luckily, this term a TA is able to be in the lessons, which helps but only to an extent. I have been exhausting myself with delving deep into SEN material and strategies and factoring this into planning lessons for this class.

But it is still not working.

And all teachers find this notoriously difficult class very hard to teach, except they are not being observed and judged on it in the same way that I am. And from what I hear, nobody else puts as much effort into factoring in SEN strategies for this class as I have been doing.

As a side note, my other lessons are great, happy students, parents, good results.

I find it very unfair that I have essentially been threatened with being asked to leave the school if things don’t become great with this class, especially with everything else going so well. I am wondering if I should get my Union to write to the school?

Thank you for your advice

Yes.Get union advice NOW.

I was a teacher and lecturer.

At my end of term review meeting last term, I was even threatened with my probation being failed over it

What support has been put in place for you?

Yes, speak to your union rep about the situation ASAP.

You mention probation- are you in Scotland? Or do you mean a year long probation on your contract?

Thank you everyone for your replies so far. I’ve now made contact with my union. It is not pleasant being in the notion that I might be sacked anytime because of slow progress with this class, especially when everyone else is having the same problem but under the radar. Asking for help got me into this situation and that’s the irony of it all.

You are being trained to never ask for help again

You could suggest that you observe the class with other teachers - it’s a perfectly reasonable thing to do in the circumstances . Ask them to suggest someone who really has a good handle on them. If the class are behaving poorly across the board then it’s going be hard for them to explain why they are targeting you.

I am just about to fail my probation under similar circumstances. My line manager has preferred the two younger temps she hired after she contracted me and she is making out that I can't do my job. I'm more expensive than the temps and older. I have realised you can fail probation without failing the teaching standards. It sucks. I'm wondering if resigning and negotiating a reference is better in the long run,

Always the teachers fault. Never the fault of rude, badly behaved children. Let's just keep hounding out good teachers because leaders find it easier to blame the teacher rather than face the parents of disgustingly behaved kids.

Agree with Cathpot and would request to see the same students being taught in another difficult core academic subject where the content is hard and opportunities for individual expression are limited.
I would also point out in your next meeting that you have asked for help and instead of stratergies all you have received is criticism. This and judging probation on 1 class could be viewed as bullying by named individuals of SLT and grounds for constructive dismissal in an industrial tribunal against the school.
Surprised your union rep hasnt suggested the above language. There are some choice phrases in there which make SLT very uncomfortable - but it only works if you are telling the full story and the rest of your professional performance is good.

So, just in case you're interested in comparing notes, what happened to me was that my union met with tht Headteacher on Zoom and told them they had treated me unfoarly, but couldn't stop them failing me as people have few rights on probation. So I was given a choice, an extension to probation (which they would have made sure I failed) or resign with effect from August 31st and get paid over the summer and look for a new job. So I tool the resignation option as that was the only real option. An adviser from a teacher's association told me off the record that they probably wanted to do this all along so they can keep their qualifying ECT and get another ECT.

😮‍💨 doing the right thing is so hard!