Soooooooo cross!

[Ella1980]

Long story short, I'm an experienced teacher in an Alternative Provision, working with seriously high-level violent primary children (currently Year 6) that have been permanently excluded from mainstream education. I work with two superb TA's. Since September our class have been particularly challenging for many reasons and everyday is a battle although we all work incredibly hard.
Why I am fuming is that because yesterday we had a new member of staff start. Even she is not really sure of her role, but from what I understand she is at the moment a 'floating' TA, supporting classes as necessary if a child is having a particularly difficult day etc.
Well today she spent the morning in my classroom. She struggled to engage with the children but this is not abnormal as to be fair she is brand new and vulnerable children are of course naturally wary.
However, at the end of the day she came back into my classroom, telling me and my TA's what she felt I needed to do to 'improve the situation'. I felt myself getting really cross-we deal with these children day in, day out and have tried literally everything and given it our all. She has been on our site less than a day, is not a teacher, and she has the nerve to come out with all of this as if we don't know what we are doing.
Am I right to feel p'd off? What to do next? Amy advice hugely appreciated ☺ x

Talk to the head and find out why she is there. Maybe she was doing what she thought she was there for? Either way you both need clarity

She sounds like the classic person who doesn't know what she doesn't know IYSWIM.
There are a lot of them about unfortunately.
I guess much depends on her job description, training and your role in her management.
Who is responsible for managing her?

She's not senior management. I don't see how she can have met the kids for literally a matter of hours and have only been in her job a day and yet feel qualified to tell us all what to do!!!!

Yanbu to feel p'd off.

Sounds like the real-life equivalent of the posters on here who will bomb into a thread where a really complex problem is described and the op says she has tried all the obvious solutions and nothing works, and some poster swans in and says that obviously they need to just simply do xyz. ie someone too wrapped up in their own self-image as saviour of all things dire and grim that they are unable to take time to fully understand any situation they purport to help resolve.

YANBU to be pissed off, however try and calm down and think about what she has said. A pair of greasy outside eyes can sometimes (annoyingly!) be worth looking through. Fair enough if once you've calmly taken on board the feedback you think it's still shite, but don't dismiss it out of anger. I'm sure you all want the same end goal. And to be fair to them, we've all worked in places where we can see room for improvement but the people who have been there ages don't see that change is needed. All I'm saying is, I understand why you're pissed off, they may not have given their feedback in the best way, but don't just dismiss it.

I can't even remember what I was supposed to write but it definitely wasn't 'greasy' eyes!!!  bloody autocorrect again!

I liked greasy eyes cheesy
If you hadn't said it was a typo I'd have assumed it was a saying I hadn't heard of. I shall now refer to anyone who doesn't really know what's going on but is determined they know best anyway as a pair of greasy eyes!

I see what you're saying and a fresh perspective can certainly help but it just grates that she has been with us for one day and yet seems to believe she has all of the answers for everything. The children we work with every week day 8-2.30 with literally no break are highly complex, extremely violent and have extreme social and emotional mental health needs. If only it was as easy as giving them a bit of colouring as saying 'well done' as she recommended!!

I know the sort of kids you work with, it’s very specialised. The kids learn to respect the teachers and are often in contact with them for many years after they finish school.

She needs sorting out before she says the wrong thing to one of the kids.

I always think it's best when you're new, to do more observing and listening than talking. The new person made the mistake of trying to "add value" by doing what they probably thought was a new insightful perspective, but failed to recognise how it would piss off the subject matter experts.

I'd give it time, and don't take it personally. See if they are genuinely well intentioned albeit naive, and might have a point, or whether they are the PITA you think they are.

Difficult. But don't find yourself becoming too dogmatic as a response.

A few things you could do are point her in the direction of the pupil's behaviour management plans, ask her what previous roles she's been in, ask about previous experience, talk to the head about your concern, point her in the direction of your policies, procedures and discuss with her the ethos, strategies and techniques or theory that underpin how you work. You could also suggest that she should be shadowing on induction. Also check what if any deescalation and restraint training she's undertaken. Ultimately if she isn't trained in the same techniques under the same system (wave, team teach, price) then you need to ask why she's the person being sent in when the children are really struggling.

I'm experiencing something similar from a different perspective. I've gone in to a home with lac that is in the transition from the behavioural approach to the therapeutic. I'm experienced and trained in therapeutic care. I find the behavioural approach not just lacking in success but anathama. I have great support from my manager but the existing staff are very entrenched in the idea that 'its their way or no way' debrief is now interesting, because the same dismissive attitude used with the children is now levelled at me if I offer a different perspective.

So, be mindful, ask questions, be kind. However if her words and actions threaten to seriously disrupt and creat anxiety you need to find a way of managing her away from situations.

She might have valuable experience and worked in similar environments seeing what works and what doesn't so it might be worth listening to her however, her approach to share her views was totally unprofessional and unpersonal.

You are trained to deal with difficult and challenging people though so you must know that getting cross and defensive is not the way to deal with it. Your the teacher so how about arranging a meeting with her to ask how she thought her week went, and then mentioned you heard that she thought we could do things different and that you and the rest of them team would very much welcome her feedback but that it would be more helpful to do in a structure way in a joint meeting for instance then by going to individuals in a way that makes them feel they are not good enough.

Get her on board rather than making her the enemy. Listen to her to show her that she needs to listen to all of you too.

I understand why you're annoyed, I think most people would be. The know it all who floats in and tells you how to do it after a few hours annoys everyone.

But do keep your powder dry, ask her her experience, thank her for her perspective, look at it as a cold eyes, even let her do some of her suggestions if they are appropriate.