Complaining about a teacher

Justask

flatbackfour wrote: »

Just trying to tease the issue out. Good luck with the lynch mob.

As I have said in the OP" I DO NOT WANT FOR IT TO LOOK LIKE WE ARE GANGING UP ON HER" There will be no lynch mob....

Myrddin

flatbackfour wrote: »

All reasonable enough but I am wondering why the teacher in question refuses to talk with the OP.

I dont know

It seems odd to me?

I agree, its very odd. As I said though, if she's nothing to hide & has done her job properly, there's no need to avoid a meeting. It realyl doesn't add up, but I don't see why your psuedo-attacking the OP, she is trying to resolve the issue at least. What would you have her do?

Justask

EnterNow wrote: »

I think the OP has every right to want to discuss her sons behavior with the teacher, regardless of who is at fault. For all you know, the teacher might give the OP a different side to it & the OP will reassess the situation with her son.

The fact that she can't have a civil, adult conversation, due to the teacher ignoring any & all attempts, is not only extremely unprofessional, but seriously frustrating I would imagine.

If the teacher is doing her job correctly, she has no reason to avoid a meeting.

Extrapolate what you want from that, but those are the facts. One person wants to talk, the other clearly doesn't.

And trust me if it is his fault there will be war :mad: Im not the only one who hasnt had returned calls.

HeyThereDeliah

Justask wrote: »

We have done this but to enter into any form of complaint you have to meet with the teacher first. Ive said she wont return my calls or request, so the messages have been passed on (heard this before)

This is not acceptable and you are well within your rights to go to the school and insist the principle arrange a meeting with this teacher.
I would not interest myself with what other parents are doing your responsibility is to your son and his school work.
We can all agree kids will sometimes hold back with all the facts until they are rumbled, not saying he is telling fibs btw but the teacher might well have a different take on it.

evolving_doors

Ask the principal if the teacher is fully qualified...

Definitely, if enough parents kick up a fuss something will be done...even if it was a behavioural issue in the part of your son, the teacher should be only too happy to talk to you..

This is not acceptable, where i teach if a parent rings its in your best interests to deal with the issue ASAP rather than leave it to the parents council/principal...

Parent power is the only way... if enough of parents threaten to withdraw their kids from the school, the principal will start to sit up and take notice...

Whatever about people taking sides about what youre son did our did not do in the class is irrelevant to the disregard the teacher has shown you.

although when did you put in the request for a call back?schools only open a couple of weeks

Justask

Think I've found the book thanks to a boards member....

shane9689

look i just graduated from school in 2011 and i know from first hand experience over my 5 years there that yes, kids love to mess with teachers but only with weak teachers, ones that arent up to the task of being a person in respective authority...just like not everyones born to lead, not everyones born to be a teacher. trust me, students can tell instantly whos a good teacher and whose not and thats it. this case does sound odd because the calls arent being returned

shane9689

maybe shes not qualified to teach... haha i had a teacher like that before..he got into education through some weird loop holes and couldnt teach at all...he was suppose to be a history substitute but we used to make up our own history and tell it to him and he would take it as fact and start teaching it to us...this was in j.c...good old school days

byhookorbycrook

Follow procedure. Request a meeting in writing with the teacher in question. If you are not granted a meeting,take the matter to the principal.What other parents say/do is not your concern. Your priority is your own child.Phonecalls are not a good way of communicating, face-to-face is better.

shane9689

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Follow procedure. Request a meeting in writing with the teacher in question. If you are not granted a meeting,take the matter to the principal.What other parents say/do is not your concern. Your priority is your own child.Phonecalls are not a good way of communicating, face-to-face is better.

read op and other comments..shes tried that!

byhookorbycrook

Did I miss where Op has contacted principal?

shane9689

yup

byhookorbycrook

Ok, meeting with principal and teacher refused, so the next step is to make a formal complaint to the Bord of Management .

Orion

flatbackfour wrote: »

Just trying to tease the issue out. Good luck with the lynch mob.

That's quite enough of these 'lynch mob' remarks. You can assist in this without belittling the issue and being, frankly, offensive. The next comment like this will be deleted and infracted.

Orion

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Ok, meeting with principal and teacher refused, so the next step is to make a formal complaint to the Bord of Management .

The school must have a complaint policy. While the above is the general policy you do want to get a copy of the school's published policy and make sure that you follow it - otherwise you will go back to stage 1.

Orion

flatbackfour wrote: »

All reasonable enough but I am wondering why the teacher in question refuses to talk with the OP.

I dont know

It seems odd to me?

Good question and yes it does. I would have serious reservations about a teacher who refused to meet me and would have no hesitation in pursuing it further. Based on the OPs posts that time has arrived.

Daisy M

Orion wrote: »

Good question and yes it does. I would have serious reservations about a teacher who refused to meet me and would have no hesitation in pursuing it further. Based on the OPs posts that time has arrived.

I agree and I would also wonder why the principal will not get involved, it doesn't make sense. This "speak with the teacher before I can get involved" clause sounds like an excuse, the principal knows his/hers staff and probably knows it is a waste of time trying to do anything with this teacher.

Orion

Daisy M wrote: »

I agree and I would also wonder why the principal will not get involved, it doesn't make sense. This "speak with the teacher before I can get involved" clause sounds like an excuse, the principal knows his/hers staff and probably knows it is a waste of time trying to do anything with this teacher.

tbh the Principal may be trying to help here. He/she is constrained by the regulations as well. If a complaint gets to the board and the formal procedure hasn't been followed the complaint is rejected. But normally a compaints procedure allows for going straight to the principal for serious issues - a teacher refusing to speak to a parent would be covered by that in my opinion.

Piliger

Justask wrote: »

We have done this but to enter into any form of complaint you have to meet with the teacher first. Ive said she wont return my calls or request, so the messages have been passed on (heard this before)

Sorry but that is just NOT good enough. Her refusal to meet is the end of that line and you as a parent must demand action from this principal.

Go straight to the Principal and demand to meet. Don't take no for an answer. Don't go with the other parents. All of them should demand to see him individually.

And in my experience OP ... and I know I am assuming the worst for the moment ... don't let this continue too long. I have experience of this (my son is 20) and this experience could really damage your son's self esteem and his confidence and his whole progress toward the LC. If there is no progress within a month or so then look at moving school, for his sake.

up for anything

flatbackfour wrote: »

So our son lost his book,

he is also disturbing the class,

that information was not in your original post.

You said initially he got a note for putting his pencil case in his bag. He actually did not.

He got a note for disturbing the class.

So he is spinning information to you that suits the excuse why he is failing

And he has other kids backing him up.

Other kids probably also running a muck and blaming it all on the teacher

You are reading an awful lot into the OP's posts and defeating your object of giving an insight of sorts into the teacher's angle of the story by being so defensive and eager to blame it on the kids and their parent's having the wool pulled over their eyes.

We've all been to school and I'm sure just about everybody reading this has had that one teacher who not only can't teach but who doesn't like children very much. They should either be drummed out of the school or sidelined into administration where they can't do so much damage.

OP, I hope you manage to get some satisfaction and answers if not from the maths teacher, then the principal.

Shapey Fiend

Justask wrote: »

Yea we are in the market for a grinds teacher

Said that as a last resort. Better to take the hit now so he doesn't fall behind not going to get any better in leaving cert.

My father helped me out with maths and science. The mother helped with french. Big commitment but often that's the only thing you can do. Trying to get through to a teacher is a losing battle the school system is set up to protect lazy messers. Not going to get any joy. Unless you can switch the kid up or down a grade often the teachers doing the 1st honours class are worse than the ones down a level or two. If the school is big it shouldn't be impossible to switch there were 4 maths teachers in my year as I remember (long time ago).

Trying to influence the system is hard work. Just got to try and work around it.

Justask

flatbackfour wrote: »

up for anything wrote: »

You are reading an awful lot into the OP's posts and defeating your object of giving an insight of sorts into the teacher's angle of the story by being so defensive and eager to blame it on the kids and their parent's having the wool pulled over their eyes.

We've all been to school and I'm sure just about everybody reading this has had that one teacher who not only can't teach but who doesn't like children very much. They should either be drummed out of the school or sidelined into administration where they can't do so much damage.

OP, I hope you manage to get some satisfaction and answers if not from the maths teacher, then the principal.

When you do look at the facts from both sides I think a different story emerges then that the crap teacher vs innocent hard working student cliche that some people want to jump on.

For example

Last year i requested a meeting with this teacher many times but told she was busy. Requested she phone me many times and never phoned.

I do not understand why a principal would not arrange this meeting at this stage. Principals understand that this is a bad idea in the long term. There probably is a good reason why the principal is reluctant to arrange such a meeting. And can back up this reasoning to the Board of management.
The principal cannot simply say at a BOM meeting the teacher refused to meet the parent.

Now new year and its got worse. My son has said that loads of the kids are failling and parents are not happy.

Okay then if the child said it it must be true

Every single day i've recieved a note home re a book she knows I cant get.

A book that by the OPS admission the child LOST. He is coming into school every day without it, the OP cannot get the book, yet a junior cert maths book is probably the EASiEST book to get. Maybe he counld take some responsibility and borrow a book off another student??? Maybe? It might have cut down on some agro from him and his mum.

Again a child without a book can be very disruptive.......... and low and behold he got a note in his journal for what? you guessed it BEING DISRUPTIVE

He got a note home over putting his pencil case in his bag

Well actually no thats not exactly true. He got a note for being disruptive and he went home and told his mum he got it for putting his pencilcase away. Note the mothers blind indignation and questioninning smily face.

As far as what other kids are saying or what the child tells his mum other kids are saying I think it would be wise to treat that as somewhat bias, in all fairness.

So what else are we missing here?????

Missing nothing..... the book was lost and I was only saying I couldn't get the book cos I'm an awful difficult mother. Yea ur right he was not only disrupting the class but the whole school actually no in the entire county. Ur also right he I'd an awful liar and the worse child in the country. Oh and this teacher is the best teacher in the world. Yea the school won't met me and the lynch mob cos we are such a dreadful family..... ok what else mmmmm. I hope u and ur students never come across anything so awful in ur school. Reminder me never ever to come onto boards again looking for advice...... must try harder as a mother to bring up my awful lying disruptive son better. Good luck to u and ur students. (Issue has been sorted by the way) Thanks to all the good advice from other posters. Took them on board and it worked. Enjoy ur day Mr Flat !!!!!!

Piliger

Justask wrote: »

Missing nothing..... the book was lost and I was only saying I couldn't get the book cos I'm an awful difficult mother. Yea ur right he was not only disrupting the class but the whole school actually no in the entire county. Ur also right he I'd an awful liar and the worse child in the country. Oh and this teacher is the best teacher in the world. Yea the school won't met me and the lynch mob cos we are such a dreadful family..... ok what else mmmmm. I hope u and ur students never come across anything so awful in ur school. Reminder me never ever to come onto boards again looking for advice...... must try harder as a mother to bring up my awful lying disruptive son better. Good luck to u and ur students. (Issue has been sorted by the way) Thanks to all the good advice from other posters. Took them on board and it worked. Enjoy ur day Mr Flat !!!!!!

Well done OP. Best of luck.

evolving_doors

Justask wrote: »

Missing nothing..... the book was lost and I was only saying I couldn't get the book cos I'm an awful difficult mother. Yea ur right he was not only disrupting the class but the whole school actually no in the entire county. Ur also right he I'd an awful liar and the worse child in the country. Oh and this teacher is the best teacher in the world. Yea the school won't met me and the lynch mob cos we are such a dreadful family..... ok what else mmmmm. I hope u and ur students never come across anything so awful in ur school. Reminder me never ever to come onto boards again looking for advice...... must try harder as a mother to bring up my awful lying disruptive son better. Good luck to u and ur students. (Issue has been sorted by the way) Thanks to all the good advice from other posters. Took them on board and it worked. Enjoy ur day Mr Flat !!!!!!

After all that, and we get a small post script that it's 'all sorted by the way'. So what was the upshot?

pwurple

Glad it is sorted OP, no doubt the book helped. I can imagine trying to do the homework, and pay attention in class is made difficult without the book.

I wouldn't be so taking what flat said personally, they were just giving the teachers perspective. Seemed valid enough to me. Two sides to every story especially when it comes to kids.

Gumbi

Flatbackflour seemed convey to have reasonable suggestions, albeit somewhat unsubtly.

I'm glad the issue is sorted, OP, but you should note that nobody is perfect and that is vital to look at a situation objectively, from both sides. The fact that you suddenly flip and act so defensively does not help your case.

SerialComplaint

flatbackfour wrote: »

Where you will be met by the secretary of the board of management as your first point of contact

(the principal)

Just for the record, while principal is indeed usually the Secretary of the Board, you can make sure that you don't get stonewalled by an obstinate principal by contacting the two parents nominees on the Board also. This way, you can make sure that your complaint to the Board actually reaches the Board.

irishbanger

flatbackfour wrote: »

So our son lost his book,

he is also disturbing the class,

that information was not in your original post.

You said initially he got a note for putting his pencil case in his bag. He actually did not.

He got a note for disturbing the class.

So he is spinning information to you that suits the excuse why he is failing

And he has other kids backing him up.

Other kids probably also running a muck and blaming it all on the teacher

Always the kids never the teachers are all kids liars then just like with the priests????????????????????

Orion

And on that note ...